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In July 2016 Lockheed Martin increased the productivity of its Center for Quantum Computing (located at the Institute of Scientific Information, USA) at the expense of 1098 qubits. The company, engaged in the development of security systems and aerospace technologies, has been interested in the field of quantum computing for six and a half years already. It is not surprising. In the next 20 years, this technology promises to have a serious impact on almost everything, from research projects to virtual cybersecurity.
Quantum leap
Lockheed Martin proves that the advantages of quantum computing can be obtained right now, even though there are no real full-fledged quantum computers yet.
The first quantum system that Lockheed Martin bought from D-Wave Systems was the "Rainier" computer, based on 128 qubits and also known as the D-Wave One. Later, the system was replaced with a computer "Vesuvius" with 512 qubits on board, which, in turn, was recently replaced by an even more advanced D-Wave 2X system with support of already 1152 qubits.
"It's a commercially available computer. You really can buy yourself this, if you want. But in fact, it's more of an experimental system designed for research and development, "says Greg Tallant, head of the Center for Quantum Computing at Lockheed Martin.
"It is not a system ready for the mass market, but if you want, you can buy it and use it almost the same way you use ordinary computers."
A little later you will understand why the word "almost" here is of decisive importance.
Before the actual purchase, representatives of Lockheed Martin visited the headquarters of D-Wave several times in Vancouver. The system, according to experts, proved to be "promising", and therefore it was decided to purchase one computer. The next step was the signing of a cooperation agreement with the University of Southern California. One of the results of cooperation was the construction of the Center for Quantum Computing.
The signed agreement allows the University of Southern California to use the system for its research and conduct computer tests. Lockheed Martin, in turn, can use this information to study the issue of the perspective use of quantum computing technologies in various fields.
The main area of application of such a quantum system was initially considered testing and validating the performance of other ready-made software products. However, it was decided to increase the range of areas of interest. The most important new area in the list of interests is perhaps machine learning, but the system is also considered as a powerful tool for planning and forecasting.
"With the increase in the number of tasks necessary to solve the problems associated with an individual hypothetical growing problem, the number of opportunities that should be considered to solve this problem also increases," explains Tallant.
"An example of such a problem can be considered on the classical" traveling salesman problem "in the direction of combinatorial optimization."
The task of the traveling salesman is to find the most profitable route passing through these cities at least once and then returning to the original city. This task can be solved with the help of current computers, however, quantum hardware can potentially multiply the speed of computation, especially if the number of these cities in the task is constantly increasing.
Computer D-Wave
Tallante and his team have not yet demonstrated the advantages of their D-Wave system over classic computers in solving this problem, but a step forward has already been made. How is the bet on future technological achievements made with the help of the most powerful quantum computer with 1152 qubits on board, which the company acquired in July of this year.
The most powerful?
"There is some feature here," says Tallant.
"The current chip used in the system has 1152 qubits. However, when you collect similar systems, you need to perform a calibration process. As part of this process, some qubits may not be tested and, therefore, can not be used in computing processes in the future. "
In other words, you bought, say, a smartphone with 32 gigabytes of internal memory. Run it for the first time and discover that in fact, all the 32 gigabytes of memory promised to you are not available to you. Of course, they are in the device, but what is under the lid, and the amount of memory that is available to you in fact, are several different things.
"Our 1152-qubit processor after the calibration has 1098 available qubits," says Tallant.
"The importance of the number of available qubits is entirely related to the complexity of the subtasks that need to be solved to find the answer to the main question. For example, if you have only 512 qubits, then the complexity of the problem the system can handle is most effectively limited by the number of these qubits. In this particular case, we are talking about a task that can have 512 variables. In practice, this number will be an order of magnitude lower, about 200 variables. "
In May of this year, IBM proudly announced that it is going to open academicians and enthusiasts access to its quantum 5-kbit computer through the IBM Experience web platform. What's the fanfare of IBM, while D-Wave seems to be selling quantum computers with more qubits than the number of qubits in the IBM system? The answer is simple: the quantum computer Lockheed Martin (more precisely, D-Wave Systems) is not quite quantum.
Quantum quantum strife
The hearts of IBM and Lockheed Martin systems really are superconducting qubits, promising elementary quantum information carriers, on the basis of which researchers hope to once create a real universal quantum computer. The word "once" here is key, since such a computer has not yet been created.
The IBM system can not be viewed as a "universal" quantum computer, because the machine is not capable of performing the tasks that classical computers cope with. It is a feature to perform all tasks and will characterize a universal quantum computer.
The D-Wave system used by Lockheed Martin also does not fall within this definition. As a matter of fact, it is rather an installation of quantum annealing (normalization), rather than a full-fledged quantum computer. The system is able to cope with only a limited number of tasks.
D-Wave Processor
"The D-Wave system is not a general purpose computer. He is able to solve certain problems based on the algorithms of the Ising model, "says Tallant, describing this computer as a" system for optimized solutions "of such problems as, for example, calculating the most efficient use of resources (time and fuel, for example) in the presence of various problem scenarios .
"In this vein, we can only talk about quantum annealing. We are contributing tasks to the machine, the answers to which are known to us. After that, load the tasks into it, the answers to which will need to be found. Then we try to combine the information of both tasks. Ultimately, on the basis of candidate decisions, we will be able to get an answer to our problem. "
"In a sense, this method allows you to apply the method of solving a problem known to you, even if the original method of solving this problem is initially unknown to you. In other words, you get the answer to the problem, even if you do not know how to solve it. "
Works - and all right
At the moment, compared to other similar systems, D-Wave boasts the largest number of available qubits available for operation. Nevertheless, it is too early to rejoice, because we are not faced with a full-fledged universal quantum system, which has been dreamed for so long not only by people who are engaged in the creation of quantum computers, but also by scientists who really want to work on such computers.
"This is definitely not a universal quantum computer. This is the normalizer, "says Tallant.
"The D-Wave computer is not universal. While modern science does not yet allow to create all the necessary components for the construction of a universal quantum system. We ourselves would be glad to receive it at our disposal. "
The article is based on materials .
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