To achieve utility scale quantum computing (USQC), where the benefits of running quantum computations outweigh the costs of doing so, the quantum community must face design trade-offs and development choices. However, obtaining the information required to strategically navigate these decisions is itself an intense R&D problem— one which 1QBit is tackling.

Today, HPE announced the USQC-forward vision that they are pursuing with 1QBit and other consortium partners. Our approach has been selected by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the initial stage of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) program. The alliance, led by HPE Quantum Team as a system integrator, has developed a roadmap based on the superconducting qubit technology of Qolab, a start-up led by John Martinis and Alan Ho. This roadmap builds off the expertise of each collaborator in the quantum supply chain:  Synopsys (simulation and electronic design tools), 1QBit (fault-tolerant QEC design, quantum algorithm compilation and automated quantum resource estimation), Quantum Machines (quantum control, real-time QEC), and University of Wisconsin (algorithms, benchmarks).

In support of the consortium roadmap, 1QBit is guiding our collaborators by conducting benchmarking studies to evaluate the impact of quantum hardware specifications, including noise characteristics and manufacturing imperfections, on metrics relevant to utility-scale quantum computers. Initial results of this work have been published in the joint paper “How to Build a Quantum Supercomputer: Scaling Challenges and Opportunities,” which was presented at the SC 24 supercomputing conference. Examples of 1QBit’s investigations include analysis of:

• The performance of various FTQC protocols for several specifications of superconducting quantum hardware;
• The sensitivity of FTQC performance to hardware improvements (e.g. gate control errors, SPAM errors, coherence enhancements);
• The impact of variation in qubit and gate quality on logical error rates;
• Distributed FTQC architectures involving a quantum network of QPUs with quantum interconnects;
• The concrete resource requirements of FTQC at utility scale, comparing current and improved qubit and gate qualities.

1QBit runs benchmarking experiments using our Topological Quantum Architecture Design (TopQAD) software suite. TopQAD is a comprehensive framework for the HPC-accelerated simulation of FTQC protocols, architecture-aware compilation of utility-scale quantum algorithms, and their efficient assembly on optimized quantum architectures.

“TopQAD is helping 1QBit to work efficiently with our consortium. Its automation allows us to easily analyze fault-tolerant quantum circuits and obtain detailed and concrete resource estimation,” says Pooya Ronagh, 1QBit’s CTO. “We want to help our collaborators get the answers they need to make the best engineering and strategic decisions for achieving USQC.”