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Quantum Computing startup unveils design advances

Rob Roe — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 11:03:46 +0000

Credit: Yurchanka Siarhei/Shutterstock

French quantum computing startup Alice & Bob has announced the results of research that demonstrates design advances for its superconducting ‘cat qubit.’ The research as conducted in collaboration with its academic partners at Laboratoire de Physique de l’ENS, Mines Paris and Laboratoire de Physique de l’ENS de Lyon, demonstrating major design advances for its superconducting ‘cat qubit.’

Théau Peronnin, CEO and co-founder of Alice & Bob, comments: “These new designs can further enhance cat qubit performance beyond its already record-breaking error resistance. This research demonstrates our focus on design creativity as a key ingredient in building a fault-tolerant quantum computer based on superconducting circuits.”

The company published the following two preprints describing new design features:

Quantum control of a cat-qubit with bit-flip times exceeding ten seconds - In this project, a new way to access the cat qubit information is introduced called TIGRO. This approach removes the “transmon,” a key structure in most other superconducting processors, previously used for readout. TIGRO also reduces the bit-flip errors by four orders of magnitude compared to the state-of-the-art and decreases the qubit footprint by 50%. It also reduces the number of IO ports from 4 to 3 while maintaining quantum control over the qubit.

Autoparametric resonance extending the bit-flip time of a cat qubit up to 0.3 s In this research, the cat-qubit stabilisation mechanism is drastically simplified and stronger, a scheme the company calls AutoCat. Stabilisation strength, the performance metric which matters for error correction and gate speed, is improved by a factor of ten compared to the previous state of the art. The simplification makes the calibration faster and allows for reducing the number of control lines and ports, while energy consumption is reduced as the stabilisation mechanism requires one less signal.

According to the researchers, the new designs enable critical improvements towards building a useful quantum computer in several key areas: performance, with a large stabilisation rate compared to the qubit decay rate; error suppression, as single qubit bias-preserving gates are truly bias-preserving; and scalability, with a reduced number of lines per qubit and increased ease of operation in general.

The new designs are still in the prototype phase, further engineering and testing will be required before these improvements appear on the startup's quantum processors. The new readout approach, TIGRO, must improve to reach the fidelity of previous schemes. In the AutoCat chip, the presence of a transmon still limits the attainable bit-flips lifetime to 300ms. Researchers are confident they can resolve both issues.

Bit-flip protected by design, the promise of cat qubits is to make quantum error correction hardware efficient. Quantum error correction is critical to run algorithms requiring deep circuits and enabling the full impact of quantum computers. In this regard, Alice & Bob researchers previously demonstrated that using a quantum computer using cat qubits would need 60 times fewer qubits to run Shor’s algorithm.

To support this work, Alice & Bob is building a dedicated project management framework inspired by the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and modified to suit the constraints of deep-tech innovation and hardware R&D.

Today, the company is also releasing a description of this framework called “Deeptech Motion” which includes the current state of the framework and plans to move it forward.

Alice & Bob is a French start-up whose goal is to realise the first universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Founded in 2020, Alice & Bob has already raised 30M€ in VC capital, hired over 70 employees, and demonstrated experimental results surpassing those of technological giants developing superconducting quantum computers.

Modelling & Simulation

Quantum Computing

Arm expands open-source partnerships

Rob Roe — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 18:32:56 +0000

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In a recent post on the ARM website, Mark Hambleton, vice president of open-source software (OSS) at Arm, describes the company’s focus on open-source software.

A key tenet for Arm and our ecosystem is collaboration across the open-source community to create a strongly curated Arm architecture that is more stable for software to land on, enabling millions of developers worldwide to test and build their applications.

This is why Arm supports thousands of open-source projects in all segments, from the cloud to the edge and endpoint, with several recently expanded partnerships and commitments across the global open-source community. From our long-standing collaboration with Linaro, to our commitment to the continued development of an open-source GPU driver, we are dedicated to ensuring developers across all sectors have the capabilities and tools to write easier, simpler, faster and more secure software on Arm.

Expanded collaboration for open-source GPU drivers

With more than 9 billion Arm GPUs shipped to date across system-on-chips (SoCs) worldwide, the range of products that require dedicated graphics processing continues to grow. As a result, there is a need for an alternative open-source software stack to support the latest Arm GPUs, while servicing the needs of Linux developers and the wider open-source community.

Recognizing the importance of this work, Arm is today announcing its expanded partnership with Collabora, a leading open-source contributor and service provider, on its open-source Mali GPU driver. Our work with Collabora started in 2020 with support of the open-source Mali driver stack and expanded to Collabora’s Panfrost GPU driver, which incorporates a fully upstreamed Linux kernel driver and fully open-source Mesa user-space driver, for Arm’s newer generation of Mali GPUs.

Today’s announcement underpins Arm’s support for the further development of Collabora’s Panfrost GPU driver. This will ensure that the Panfrost open-source software supports the latest Mali GPUs and wider Arm software ecosystem, while continuing to improve the performance of the Linux kernel driver and Mesa user-space driver.

“Collabora's investment in Panfrost reflects our belief in and commitment to a healthy and competitive open-source ecosystem,” said Daniel Stone, graphics lead at Collabora. “We're delighted to continue our collaboration with Arm to ensure first-class support for Mali throughout the open-source world.”

Through the Arm and Collabora partnership, device manufacturers can confidently choose SoCs containing a Mali GPU regardless of the software operating system (OS) and graphics middleware. This is delivering a high-quality open-source Linux implementation which can be used in their products, alongside the direct technical support that Arm already provides. In effect, Panfrost is now the GPU driver for the Linux community.

More developer accessibility with Linaro

Ensuring the open-source developer community has access to the broadest range of tools is a key priority for Arm. We continue to work closely with Linaro on a variety of projects including a Windows working group to enable commonly used tools and packages for Windows on Arm, such as Python, Electron, Chromium Embedded Framework, LLVM, Qt, and Bazel.

At the start of 2023, we also launched the first SOAFEE Integration Lab, which allows members of the initiative to validate their own implementations of the SOAFEE architecture, an open standards-based architecture for the software-defined vehicle. The work with Linaro and the wider membership allows us to continue adding Arm-related software requirements into the open-source environment, making them more accessible to developers worldwide. This work is valuable to the open-source community, with Linaro listed in the top ten contributors to the Linux Kernel and 47,000 patches submitted across 40 Arm open-source projects in the past two years.

Open-source support for Python

Furthering our already deep commitment to the open-source developer community, this week at EuroPython 2023, Arm has been showcasing its latest work to support Python, one of the world’s most commonly used embedded languages. In his talk at the show, Arm’s Diego Russo demonstrated the latest opportunity to use Python across a broad range of Arm-based technologies, and all major operating systems, thanks to the ongoing work of the open-source community. This includes enabling top-performing Python applications in the cloud and for Windows on Arm laptop devices, where a number of new guides are now available to ease the journey for Python developers.

Embedded software runs on Arm

As developers face increasing software complexity, Arm is working with leaders of the modern software development era to accelerate workflows and make embedded devices more accessible. Arm is evolving its long-standing Common Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) with a new release of CMSIS into open-source. CMSIS, which supports more than 10,000 devices and over 450 development boards, defines how embedded software runs on Arm through consistent software, device, and board support that works across a wide range of development tools. The CMSIS 6 release provides a much cleaner and simpler structure for software developers, while adding new components (CMSIS-View and CMSIS-Stream) that help users to reduce development time across a wide range of embedded applications.

Arm RAN Acceleration Library moves to open-source code base

As part of Arm’s commitment to growing 5G deployments worldwide, we recently announced that our RAN Acceleration Library (RAL) is moving to an open-source code base. This means that software developers can use, modify and distribute RAL code without any restrictions, while also contributing to the development and expansion of the software library through adding new functionality. The move to open-source will also help to accelerate the development and deployment of 5G RAN solutions based on Arm Neoverse platforms. To date over 100 companies in the Arm 5G ecosystem have used Arm RAL in their 5G infrastructure solutions, including OEMs, ISVs, ODMs and system integrators.

Open-source software runs on Arm

Arm’s open-source work covers every corner of the global technology ecosystem, from 5G infrastructure and software-defined vehicles to mobile and embedded devices. Supporting the world’s open-source community is a vital part of ensuring that software “just works” on Arm. We continue to invest significant engineering hours to support open-source projects and are expanding open-source partnerships to deliver greater access and more performance to the world’s software developers. This is delivering an open-source environment that is built and run on Arm.

ARM

Open source

Software tools

Canadian Department of National Defence awards contract to accelerate digital transformation

Rob Roe — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 18:12:51 +0000

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Akkodis, a global digital engineering company and the tech business of the Adecco Group, has announced that its Canadian subsiduary has been awarded a contract by the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) to deliver professional support services to modernise and transform software systems. The company has received this award as part of a joint venture with two leading industry partners, Thales Canada and KWESST Micro Systems.

Tao Qiu, Country President for Akkodis in Canada, said, "Akkodis is honoured to support the Canadian Government in fulfilling its commitment to strengthening the resiliency of processes, systems, facilities, technologies, and services – essential to the health, safety, security, and economic well-being of Canadians and people around the world." He continued, "With our consulting and software engineering expertise, combined with the complementary strengths of Thales and KWESST, our JV partners, we will equip the DND with the agility and flexibility needed in a constantly evolving world. We will enable the DND to keep pace with the rapid evolution of technology and accelerate in their digitalisation journey. We are proud to be Engineering a Smarter Future Together with the DND and our partners."

Valued at $136 million CAD, the software systems engineering contract will support the DND's Directorate Land Command Systems Program Management Software Engineering Facility (DSEF), which was created to provide in-house software engineering and management capability to the Army, to accelerate its digitalisation journey toward modernised and integrated software systems. The initial term of the contract is five years (through April 2028) with five additional one-year extension options.

Akkodis will provide consulting and software engineering expertise that incorporates game-changing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, as well as specialised project delivery. The company will partner with Thales Canada, a trusted innovator and collaborator for the digital transformation of Canada's armed forces, and KWESST Micro Systems, which brings unique expertise as a land tactical digitisation development and integration house.

Together, the three joint venture partners will collaborate to develop, support, and sustain specialised command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) software and integration services required to uphold the safety of Canadians.

Ian Krepps, Vice-President, Business Development & Growth, Thales Canada, said, "The opportunity to further enable the Army's digital transformation in close collaboration with Akkodis and KWESST as our partners is one Thales welcomes. It's also an opportunity for us to further leverage Thales' expertise in Land command and control, as well as in collaborative systems. Together, we can innovate and sustain C4ISR solutions that the Army can trust, both in its response to a changing world and in pursuit of Canada's defence policy."

Work is expected to commence before the end of 2023, primarily based in the National Capital Region, with support provided across Canada at various DND locations.

Modelling & Simulation

Akkodis

Digital Transformation

Engineering

Software Engineering

Atos to modernise NHS communications infrastructure

Rob Roe — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 23:00:00 +0000

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Atos has been awarded a five-year contract by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust to modernise its communications infrastructure by installing new hybrid cloud-based technologies from the Atos Unify range of remote and distributed work offerings and solutions, supporting the hospital’s role as a world-leading innovator in cancer research, diagnosis and treatment.

Atos will provide the Trust, which delivers care to nearly 60,000 NHS and private patients every year, with an end-to-end hybrid communications solution including cloud paging, Teams integration and unified communications for static and mobile workers, helping staff communicate and collaborate with ease in an age of flexible working.

As part of the contract, Atos will deliver upgrades to The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust’s old legacy systems, as well as providing new platforms and technologies to support the transformation to newer, more advanced systems.

The deployment of Atos Unify unified communications applications and state-of-the-art contact centre solutions will help the Trust maintain a high-quality experience.

The new solutions will be deployed at the hospital’s state-of-the-art Oak Cancer Centre, a new research and treatment facility funded by The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity that will help accelerate the development of new cancer treatments, diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage and enhance the treatment experience for patients.

David Newey, Interim Chief Information Officer at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:“Unified communications services are critical to supporting both staff and patients, particularly in an age of hybrid working. By modernising our legacy technology across our patient and research facilities, Atos will help to drive significant functionality improvements, while ensuring that we continue our role as a leading innovator in cancer care and treatment within the UK and beyond.”

Samantha Jones, Senior Vice President, Atos UK, said: “This new partnership with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a significant milestone in the work by Atos to drive innovation in healthcare. Providing a communications ecosystem with staff and researchers having access to fully integrated tools to communicate and collaborate with ease, means freeing up patient-centred resources.”

The work delivered under the new contract will help define the future digital ecosystem for NHS organisations and lead the way for technology innovation, including new working delivery practices for other NHS Trusts.

The deal underlines Atos healthcare sector expertise and builds on its successful track record working with healthcare organisations to accelerate and secure their digital journeys, including its work as digital transformation partner to a significant number of Trusts throughout the UK.

Laboratory Informatics

Quantinuum creates a quantum simulation of a chemical molecule

Rob Roe — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 11:56:40 +0000

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Quantinuum has become the first to simulate a chemical molecule by implementing a fault tolerant algorithm on a quantum processor using logical qubits.

This essential step towards using quantum computers to speed up molecular discovery, with better modeling of chemical systems, reduces the time to generate commercial and economic value.

Quantinuum scientists, led from Japan, used three logical qubits on Quantinuum’s H1 quantum computer to calculate the ground state energy of the hydrogen molecule (H2) using an algorithm for early fault tolerant devices called stochastic quantum phase estimation.

It is already known that many algorithms that can be used on today’s “NISQ” era quantum computers will not scale to larger problems. The phase estimation technique used in this experiment with logical qubits has better potential to scale but is challenging to implement on today’s quantum computers because it requires very complex circuits, which are prone to failing due to noise.

Dr Raj Hazra, CEO of Quantinuum, said: “Today’s announcement turns a page for quantum chemistry on quantum computers, moving us towards the era of early fault tolerance. This achievement is testament to the dedication of the hardware and software teams at Quantinuum, who consistently demonstrate their ability to achieve world-class results. It was made possible thanks to the H1 quantum computer which brings together high-fidelity gate operations, all-to-all connectivity and conditional logic, with the truly world-leading algorithms, methods and error handling techniques offered by our InQuanto chemistry platform.”

In a scientific preprint paper, “Demonstrating Bayesian Quantum Phase Estimation with Quantum Error Detection”, the team of scientists led by Dr Kentaro Yamamoto report they have overcome this challenge by creating and using logical qubits achieved with a newly developed error detection code designed for the H-series quantum hardware. The code saved quantum resources by immediately discarding a calculation if it detected qubits that had produced errors during the computation process.

When combined with the low noise of the H-Series hardware and the capabilities of the Quantinuum Software InQuanto™, researchers were able to run these complex circuits for the first time, producing more accurate simulation results than those achieved without the error detection code. Creating and using logical qubits with error detection is a prerequisite for the more advanced error correction, which provides real-time protection for a quantum computer against various forms of “noise”.

Dr. Kentaro Yamamoto, Senior Researcher at Quantinuum, said: “Simulating the hydrogen molecule and getting such good results with an early fault tolerant algorithm on logical qubits is an excellent experimental result and reminds us how fast we continue to progress. This result may reflect the start of a new chapter for quantum computing professionals, where we can begin to adopt early fault tolerant algorithms on near-term devices, using all the techniques that will ultimately be required for future large-scale quantum computing.”

For scientific researchers and industrial enterprises in sectors such as healthcare, energy, automotive and manufacturing, who invest heavily in researching future molecules and materials, this demonstration implies that the time to useful quantum computing continues to get nearer.

This demonstration, which was run on Quantinuum’s System Model H1 quantum computer, Powered by Honeywell, will be integrated into future versions of its industry-leading quantum computational chemistry platform, InQuanto, allowing industrial companies and academic researchers to explore the use of early fault-tolerant algorithms run on quantum computers for material and molecular modeling.

Modelling & Simulation

Quantinuum

Quantum Computing

Partnership opens the way to fault-tolerant quantum computing

Rob Roe — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 23:00:00 +0000

redit: Yurchanka Siarhei/Shutterstock

Eviden and Alice & Bob have announced a partnership to make Alice & Bob patented cat qubit technology accessible to end users in QaptivaTM, Eviden’s quantum application development platform.

Cédric Bourrasset, Global Head of HPC-AI and Quantum Computing at Eviden, Atos Group: “The QaptivaTM platform enables our customers to explore the rich universe of quantum computing technologies, and today’s addition makes it richer than ever. Alice & Bob’s cat qubits are a fascinating building block for fault-tolerant quantum computers.”

Pioneered by Alice & Bob, cat qubits are an approach to solving quantum computing’s biggest problem: computation errors. Their innovative hardware-efficient design will reduce the hardware requirements for a fault-tolerant quantum computer by up to 60 times compared to other qubit technologies.

By featuring Alice & Bob’s cat qubits as an emulation target, Eviden takes its QaptivaTM application development platform on the way to fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Théau Peronnin, CEO at Alice & Bob: “We are very excited to partner with Eviden and bring our customers to the future of quantum computing: error correction and fault-tolerance. We are on a mission to escape decoherence, and QaptivaTM is the perfect platform to show how this can be achieved.”

Its users will now be able to learn how to use the biased noise of cat qubits to implement quantum error correction, a crucial mechanism to escape the noise plaguing all quantum computers.

The power of QaptivaTM enables one to experiment with cat qubits and emulate the behaviour of architectures creating several logical qubits, each made with several physical qubits. Cat qubits will also be supported as a compilation target to improve current quantum algorithms. Access to real quantum computers featuring cat qubits and optimised compilation will be available down the road.

This partnership highlights the vitality of the French quantum ecosystem, which features 5 major hardware manufacturers, major software and cloud players, strong governmental support and cutting-edge end-user companies.

HPC

Modelling & Simulation

Eviden

Atos

Quantum Computing