In August of 2022, we described the establishment of the RIKEN RQC-FUJITSU Collaboration Center for joint development of quantum computers based upon superconducting technologies. Their eventual goal is to achieve a machine that supports 1,000 qubits. But for now, Fujitsu and Riken have just announced the launch of a 64 qubit hybrid computing stepping zone that combines a 64 qubits superconducting processor with a powerful quantum computing simulator developed by Fujitsu that can perform a classical simulation of up to 40 qubits. The platform can be accessed over the cloud through such serverless computing services like AWS Lambda. The qubit control software for this processor was developed by NTT.
Fujitsu and Riken, along with additional partners including Fujifilm Corporation, Tokyo Electron Limited, Mizuho DI Financial Technology Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Chemical Group Corporation have been researching developing of quantum algorithms using the simulator. Applications they have been looking at include quantum chemistry for materials and drug discovery and also quantum machine learning algorithms for finance. With the availability of this new machine, these researchers will have an opportunity to see how their algorithms perform on an actual quantum processor.
A press release announcing the successful development of this 64 qubit processor has been posted on the Fujitsu website and can be accessed here.
October 7, 2023