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by Amara Graps Health became a number one global issue during the height of the pandemic, with covid-19 becoming the most studied disease in human history (438,953 publications as of August 28, 2024). Human health was on everyone’s minds in the quantum technology field too, with quantum chemistry providing a valuable application focus for the quantum computing field. For the first-generation, quantum computing annealing architecture: D-Wave, optimization problems (see GQI’s Quantum Solvers Focus Report: Optimization) were, and are, the ‘low-hanging fruit’.  The quantum algorithms company: 1QBit,  after broadening its algorithms to work on gate-based computers, spun out in 2022, the company: [...]

Part 2: Australia’s Quantum Ecosystem by Amara Graps Australia’s Quantum Ecosystem To support the Australian quantum industry communication with the Australian government, let’s see GQI’s  Australian quantum ecosystem strengths via their Heat Map.  In GQI’s Quantum Ecosystem PESTEL Report, Environmental is Australia’s quantum strength compared to its American and UK partners.  Internationally, Australia’s quantum ecosystem is ranked #10, but in its Environmental dimension, it is ranked #1. With respect to Export Controls, those policies are included in the Legal dimension of the PESTEL analysis, where Australia is ranked in the top third of the listed 32 countries, but near the bottom [...]

Part 1: Export Control by Amara Graps It’s a significant milestone, in the development of any nascent technology, to be recognized by policy makers as important for national security. Australia is one of a group of countries across the world which have recently imposed export controls on quantum technology, while some of the field’s leaders, such as Michael Biercuk, founder and CEO of quantum startup: Q-CTRL, questions the need from a technical perspective.    Export Control: Double-Edged Sword Export Control is a double-edged sword, switching between the pros of: 1) national security protection, 2) meeting international obligations, 3) national economic interests, and [...]

Image Credit: The Center for Sales Strategy By Michael Baczyk By weaving together scenarios analysis, technological roadmapping, and quantitative market modeling, GQI empowers decision-makers to navigate the uncertainties inherent to quantum - yes, pun intended.Now, let me walk you through how GQI accomplishes this exactly. Scenarios analysis Figure 1 By developing a range of potential futures (Figure 1) - from optimistic to pessimistic, bull to bear - investors and stakeholders can better prepare for various outcomes and make more informed decisions.  GQI's scenario framework spans across quantum computing, communications, and sensing, recognizing the interconnected nature of these technologies. In quantum computing, [...]

Data Comparing Layout and Error Rate for Distance 3, 5, and 7 Error Correction Codes. Credit: Google The Google Quantum AI team and collaborators has posted a new paper on arXiv showing results of their latest error correction code efforts showing significant results with an improvement in the logical error rate versus the physical error rate by over a factor of two different surface code implementations on their superconducting quantum processors. This shows definite progress and meets the first of the three challenges that GQI has posed for achieving a truly useful fault tolerant computer, what we call a "Sputnik moment". [...]

Part 3: The primary algorithms VQA, VQE and QAOA QAOA Example Problem. Credit: Google Quantum AI Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQA) In the NISQ era, variational circuits serve as a bridge between the classical and the quantum world. The hybrid quantum-classical algorithms or Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQA) incorporate aspects from both the gate-based (i.e., logic gates) and annealing or adiabatic models (evolving after cooling to its lowest energy configuration).  VQAs variationally update the parameters of a parametrized quantum circuit. VQAs, like adiabatic models, rely on the knowledge that the end state of a quantum computation can be viewed as the ground state [...]

Part 2: Colocation, High Performance Computers, and Co-Design Conceptual Picture of an HPC/Quantum Data Center. Credit: QuEra by Amara Graps The hybrid classical-quantum computing environments present a bewildering variety of functionality. Here, we continue to show where and how you might see this activity. Colocation and High Performance Computers You may hear the term colocation, with Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS), as these qubits are joined with High Performance Computers (HPC), i.e., classical systems (bits), to provide an environment well-suited for hybrid classical-quantum computing. The joining of HPCs with quantum computers is a good fit, as seen in these two [...]

Part 1: Basics and Cloud Vendors Hybrid Classical/Quantum Computing Conceptual Diagram. Credit: DARPA by Amara Graps Hybrid Classical-Quantum Computing is one approach to meeting the end of Moore’s Law, the empirical relationship of the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) over time, which reached a plateau after the early-2010s. The hybrid concept, which, today, dominates quantum computing implementations, joins quantum approaches, based on qubits, with classical computers, based on bits, and delegates specific computations to components in the classical-quantum system to which it is best suited. As an upcoming QNALYSIS series will highlight hybrid classical-quantum computing Use Cases, and [...]

One activity that investors, governments, and quantum hardware companies call upon Global Quantum Intelligence (GQI) frequently to do is to perform a due diligence assessment of a quantum processor development roadmap. In order to ensure a complete and consistent approach, GQI has developed a few frameworks that we use on all these projects and we would like to share these frameworks in this article. Our first phase in these analyses is a technical assessment. One of the frameworks we use in the technical assessment is the GQI Hardware Stack which describes all the necessary pieces of technology that will be needed [...]

Diraq has achieved a significant milestone by demonstrating consistent and repeatable operation with above 99% fidelity of two-qubit gates in their SiMOS (silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor) quantum dot platform. This achievement is crucial for the reliability and consistency of multi-qubit systems and represents the first silicon-CMOS based platform to reach this milestone. The breakthrough paves the way for more reliable silicon-based quantum devices and highlights the advantages of solid-state qubits, such as compatibility with mass manufacturing techniques, scalability, and cost-efficiency. The technical breakthrough, detailed in a study published in Nature Physics, involved strategies for improving high-fidelity operations, error correction, and understanding noise sources. [...]