Japan has unveiled a quantum-classical hybrid computing system that may be the most advanced system in the world.
The system is the brain child of a collaboration between IBM and Japan’s RIKEN. The two companies integrated IBM’s cutting-edge quantum system with one of Earth’s fastest supercomputers to create the IBM Quantum System Two.
The system features IBM’s 156-qubit Heron processor, considered the company’s best-performing quantum chip to date. It’s quality and speed is 10 times better than the previous generation 127-qubit IBM Quantum Eagle. The Heron processor is connected to RIKEN’s supercomputer Fugaku.
Dr. Mitsuhisa Sato, Division Director of the Quantum-HPC Hybrid Platform Division, RIKEN Center for Computational Science, commented, “By combining Fugaku and the IBM Quantum System Two, RIKEN aims to lead Japan into a new era of high-performance computing.”
The IBM Quantum System Two, located in Kobe, will be used by RIKEN researchers to develop quantum-classical hybrid algorithms, with an initial focus on chemistry and materials science.
The IBM Quantum System Two is the first system to be deployed outside of the United States. The effort is supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), an organization under the jurisdiction of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
One cannot help wondering whether such collaborations outside the United States are the future of global technology, given the increasing hostility to scientific research exhibited by the current administration.