Quantum Computing and High Performance Computing

Quantum computing (QC) and high performance computing (HPC) are two distinct but complementary fields of computing. Classical computing uses bits, either 0 or 1, to process information. In contrast, quantum computing utilizes quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in a superposition of states between 0 and 1 and can entangle with one another. While quantum computing and HPC are fundamentally different, they can be used in combination to solve some of the most complex computational problems. For example, quantum computing could be used to speed up certain parts of HPC simulations or to optimize the algorithms used in HPC simulations. HPC could also be used to help solve some of the technical challenges quantum computing is facing, such as the need for large amounts of data storage and processing power for circuit design and experimentation.

HPC users become increasingly interested in quantum computing because it offers the potential to significantly speed up certain types of computations. HPC systems are already powerful, yet there are still computational problems that are difficult to solve with classical computers. While quantum computers are still in the early stages of development and are not yet able to perform all types of computations faster than classical computers, they have demonstrated potentials for tackling some of the most challenging computational problems. For example, Shor’s algorithm, a quantum algorithm for factoring large numbers, can theoretically break many of the encryption systems used nowadays. Quantum computers are showing rapid progress in areas of optimization problems (stock portfolio optimization), machine learning algorithms (credit fraud detection), and simulations of quantum systems (drug molecule discovery).

For HPC users, this means that they could potentially use quantum computing to accelerate some parts of their simulations or to solve certain computational problems that are currently intractable using classical computing methods, such as using quantum annealers to solve Boolean satisfiability problems (SAT) that are widely seen in various industries for circuit verification, planning, logistics, etc. Overall, the relationship between quantum computing and HPC is one of collaboration and mutual benefit.

Quantum  Computing software solutions and professional services on AWS Marketplace

There has been a significant amount of quantum computing research and development in the software stack in recent years, yielding many innovative solutions. AWS Marketplace is a curated digital catalog of third-party software and professional service that run on the AWS Cloud, and becomes a natural choice for AWS partners to set up as a distribution channel to customers. AWS Marketplace provides customers easy access to solutions/professional services through a single portal. You can start with key word searching (e.g., quantum computing) to locate the needed solution, select the desired configuration for subscription, and launch the purchased solution into your existing AWS environment. AWS Marketplace offers a seamless and unified experience for the end-to-end quantum computing solution adoption, and protects customer data and operations by the reliability and security (under Shared Responsibility Model) of AWS services.

Plus, AWS Marketplace serves as a centralized platform to help AWS partners reach to a large and diverse group of AWS customers, promote their marketing visibilities, and reduce their overhead costs associated with marketing and customer support. AWS partners are now showing growing momentum to offer their quantum computing solutions and professional services on AWS Marketplace to support customers’ quantum journey at different stages, and a variety of quantum solutions/professional services are now readily accessible through AWS Marketplace covering the following three categories:

• One-stop shop turn key solutionthat helps users to design/develop quantum circuits and connect to quantum backends (simulator or QPU) for executions.

Good Chemistry (Tangelo): Tangelo is an open-source software development kit for end-to-end chemistry workflows on quantum computers. Its growing collection of algorithms and tools, including problem decomposition, allows chemists and researchers to easily prototype, customize and test new ideas on simulators or quantum devices. Moreover, Tangelo has been designed to work seamlessly with QEMIST Cloud to push the limits of quantum computers for chemistry by combining classical and quantum resources on the cloud.

• Simulators/QUBO solvers utilizing HPC resources (CPU/GPU) to support quantum computing circuit/algorithm design

QuEra (Bloqade, Bloqade CUDA): Bloqade is an emulator and software development kit (SDK) designed for operating quantum computers, with a specific focus on neutral atom technologies known for their scalability. Its main feature is efficiency. Written in Julia, packaged for user-friendly deployment, and optimized for GPU and multi-core CPU operations, Bloqade seamlessly threads in heterogeneous computing environments, allowing for emulation of large qubit registers and continuous or discrete time evolution.

Quantuloop (Quantuloop Simulator Suite): Through the powerful Quantuloop Simulator Suite for HPC on AWS cloud and on-premises quantum simulation platform solutions from AWS Marketplace, Quantuloop empowers enterprise programmers, researchers, and scientists to develop, test, and refine quantum algorithms and applications. This suite is equipped with highly optimized, high-performance GPU-based classical-quantum simulators, including the unique Quantuloop Sparce which is capable of simulating over 100 qubits. The quantum suite is designed to maintain the privacy and security of user data with no telemetry or third-party data sharing and exposure, utilizing AWS on-premises deployment capabilities to comply with strict security data regulations.

BEIT.TECH (QUBO): BEIT’s Qubo Solver is an exact solver for QUBO problem. You can check your solution on instances up to 1024 qubit in the Chimera topology using SDK fully-compatible with D-Wave’s dimod. Using the same SDK, you can also test a heuristic sampler for variable connectivity, up to a fully-connected graph.

TuringQ (QUBO): TuringQ QIH Solver is a quantum-inspired deep hybrid optimization solver, consisting of a combination of classical simulation algorithms inspired by quantum adiabatic optimization and multiple types of physics-inspired and evolutionary-inspired algorithms. QIH uses a trained machine learning model. Depending on the dataset used for testing, it can adaptively fit the parameters and types of algorithms, to the characteristics of the problems, and produce satisfying results in a short amount of time, especially for complex optimization problems.

• Professional services providing tailored experience to support customers prototyping their quantum solutions

QC Ware (ProServ): QC Ware is a quantum and classical computing software and services company focused on delivering enterprise value through cutting edge computational technology and ensuring enterprises are prepared for the emerging quantum computing disruption. QC Ware’s interdisciplinary team comprises experts in quantum computing, chemistry, materials, optimization, finance, and machine learning to provide you with unparalleled service and industry leading solutions. Using a client-centric approach, QC Ware can help clients identify where quantum computing has the most potential for their business and guide them through the process from proof-of-concept through full scale R&D projects.

JoS (ProServ): JoS QUANTUM is a leading quantum software and advisory company in Europe. The team is engaged in developing cutting-edge algorithms and prototypes for quantum computers. They provide professional and advisory services to companies and created an open-source software tool called “pygrnd“, which is readily accessible on Github and can be deployed easily on AWS cloud infrastructure.

Q-Ctrl (Black Opal): Quantum computing is poised to transform industries and governments. Upskill your organization in just minutes a day with Black Opal, the quantum edtech product from Q-CTRL. No PhDs required! Black Opal is built for your team with best-in-class product design, interactive educational content, and social integration. The product contains everything businesses need to build a strategic advantage with a quantum literate workforce, including vertically aligned modules, progress tracking with enterprise-level performance analytics, and shareable, co-branded, completion certificates.

Next steps

If you are interested in using AWS partner solutions and professional services for quantum computing through AWS Marketplace, here is a quick guide on how to create AWS account and choose software to configure and launch. AWS also provides AWS free usage tier with AWS Marketplace, allowing AWS Free Tier customers to use AWS Marketplace software for up to 750 hours of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) usage each month for one year. Additionally, you will find more use cases with AWS quantum technology Amazon Braket from the AWS Quantum Computing Blog Channel.

Reminder: You can learn a lot from AWS HPC engineers by subscribing to the HPC Tech Short YouTube channel, and following the AWS HPC Blog channel.