It’s double the fun when supercomputing meets quantum simulation
Europe is in the second quantum revolution, with quantum technologies widely accepted as the route towards realising developments previously thought of as impossible. The discovery of new drugs and materials, novel communication protocols with unprecedented levels of security, cryptography, medical imaging and atomic clocks are only some of the domains where quantum technology is changing our lives every day. The aim of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is to create a bridge between European countries and EU HPC stakeholders, coordinating supercomputing strategies and investments and raising the visibility of European technology. As part of these efforts, it has funded the HPCQS project to prepare Europe for the post-exascale computing era. HPCQS plans to “deploy an open European federated hybrid HPC–QS infrastructure that will provide non-commercial cloud access to public and private European users,” as stated on its website. This combination is set to accelerate the speed of classical supercomputers, leading to unique solutions in fields as diverse as personalised medicine, logistics and transport, materials development and quantum machine learning.
Synergy towards an EU quantum vision
In recent announcements regarding its selection of six quantum computing host sites, the EuroHPC JU notes that HPCQS will integrate two quantum simulators in two existing European Tier-0 supercomputers. These are “the supercomputer Joliot Curie of GENCI, the French national supercomputing organisation, located in France; [and] the JUWELS supercomputer of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, located in Germany.” Each of the simulators has exceeded the 100-qubit processor barrier, according to an article on ‘HPCwire’, paving the way for the world’s first HPC-quantum simulator (QS) hybrid. The article further notes: “Such infrastructure will be open for free and Open Research purposes to European researchers from academia and industry.”
Enhancing computing capacity
The six selected sites are IT4I in Czechia, LRZ in Germany, GENCI-CEA in France, CINECA in Italy, BSC-CNS in Spain and PSNC in Poland. Those led by Spain, France, Italy and Poland share the use of a common prefix: EuroQCS. According to the HPCwire article, this signifies “they will promote the principles expressed in the Quantum Flagship’s EuroQCS – European Quantum Computing & Simulation Infrastructure whitepaper.” The whitepaper also makes reference to the HPCQS “twin pilot system” covering Joliot Curie (through the Very Large Computing Center, or TGCC, at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) and JUWELS (at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany). The HPCQS project “develops the connection between the classical supercomputer and the quantum simulator,” the publication states, “by deep integration into a modular supercomputing architecture and will in addition provide cloud access and middleware for programming and execution of applications on the quantum simulator through the QLM” (European Atos Quantum Learning Machine). HPCQS (High Performance Computer and Quantum Simulator hybrid) envisages strengthening Europe’s competitiveness in quantum computing, simulation and data infrastructure, increasing its attractiveness to businesses in these fields. Integrating quantum computing into HPC applications will open new windows to significant innovation in science, R&D and industry. For more information, please see: project website
Keywords
HPCQS, EuroHPC JU, EuroQCS, quantum computing, quantum simulator, supercomputer, Joliot Curie, JUWELS
