New technology features that address obstacles encountered during the joint development of a quantum computing architecture could help improve error correction in gate-based systems.
Fujitsu and Osaka University have developed new technologies that they said will accelerate the move to practical quantum computing, the next-generation computing paradigm for workloads that increasingly demand more processing power than classical computing can provide.
The hardware company and the Japanese university’s Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology have co-developed a quantum circuit generator that features two new technologies: one that improves phase angle accuracy during phase rotation, and another that automatically generates efficient qubit operation procedures. Taken together, the technologies demonstrate the ability for quantum computers to run practical quantum algorithms faster than current classical computers, with fewer qubits, the organizations said in a joint press release.
The advancements show that it is theoretically possible for a quantum computer to perform a calculation that would take a classical computer five years in only 10 hours, demonstrating what is known as quantum advantage, they said. This achievement sets the technology on a course to reach its projected early fault-tolerant phase, which is expected to arrive around 2030.
Quantum computing is an emerging technology that long has been seen as the evolution of supercomputer processing, but has lost some of its momentum now that the industry has shifted focus to other emerging technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence (AI), which, ironically, stands to benefit from the development of quantum systems.
Hardware advancements that can reduce the impact of errors and boost the scale of quantum computing are seen as the way forward for commercialization and enterprise use of the technology. Error correction in particular ensures the accuracy and reliability of quantum computations, which is important in real-world applications.
However, as many hardware vendors scurry to scale the technology for on-premises deployments, current quantum computers are and will continue to be deployed primarily in the cloud for the foreseeable future, noted Heather West, research manager of the Quantum Computing Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technology Group at IDC.
While there are some quantum hardware vendors that offer on-premises installations, “most organizations prefer to access quantum computing systems via private quantum cloud offerings from quantum hardware vendors or public quantum cloud offerings from quantum cloud service providers,” she said.
Streamlining the quantum system
The system, developed jointly by Fujitsu and Osaka, introduces a streamlined process for converting logic gates, the fundamental operations of quantum computing, into physical gates which operate the qubits. It also has acceleration technology that minimizes computing time by dynamically changing the operational procedures of the qubits. The features represent improvements added to address issues discovered in a joint quantum computing architecture they introduced in March of last year.
Quantum computers rely on the quantum mechanics of qubits, however, qubits are fragile and susceptible to environmental noise. This has created a scenario in which “gate-based quantum computing hardware vendors have been challenged in their ability stabilize and scale to the number of qubits that is thought to be needed for these computations,” which is estimated to be around 1 million, West explained.
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Part of the reason for this is that physical qubits are used for two functions during the computation sequence: gate operations and error correction. For error correction, a cluster of physical, or logical, qubits must be dedicated to error correction only, she explained. This reduces the number of qubits available for quantum computation, and hence the ability to use the systems to solve complex problems.
Potential to improve error correction
As suggested by the new technology, the development of a quantum circuit generator could ease the process of converting logical qubits that are being used for error correction to physical qubits used for computations, West observed.
“So, instead of having dedicated qubits for each task, some of the qubits used for error correction can be quickly repurposed for quantum computations,” she explained. “Being able to reuse qubits could reduce the number of qubits that are needed in a QPU [quantum processing unit] to provide utility.”
While the new technology can serve a purpose to help reduce error correction in gate-based systems, it is too soon to tell what impact, if any, it will ultimately have on quantum computing deployment, West said.
“At this point, all quantum hardware developers are experimenting with different means for reducing error,” one of the key technological challenges that need to be solved for gate-based quantum computers to deliver value, she noted. However, “it is too early to comment about whether one approach is more or less advantageous than another.”
