SC23: Nvidia showcases quantum work with BASF, Classiq, many more
The SC23 supercomputing conference is being held in Denver this week, and quantum computing already is making a big splash courtesy of Nvidia, which has been becoming increasingly involved in the quantum computing sector and made multiple quantum-related announcements at the event.
First off, Nvidia said that chemical industry giant BASF, a company that itself has announced several quantum computing efforts over the last year, is using Nvidia H100 Tensor Core GPUs and its CUDA Quantum programming platform running on Nvidia’s DGX cloud computing service in a quantum simulation to simulate the key attributes of NTA, a chemical compound with applications that include removing toxic metals like iron from a city’s wastewater.
Nvidia’s GPUs are simulating the equivalent of 24 qubits to carry out this project, but BASF also plans to run a 50-qubit simulation on Nvidia’s’s Eos H100 Supercomputer.
Also at the event, research groups from places like SUNY Stony Brook and Hewlett Packard Labs are talking this week about how they are using Nvidia technology on their own quantum chemistry projects.
“As quantum computers progress toward useful applications, high-performance classical simulations will be key for prototyping novel quantum algorithms,” said Kirk Bresniker, a chief architect at Hewlett Packard Labs. “Simulating and learning from quantum data are promising avenues toward tapping quantum computing’s potential.”
Meanwhile, quantum software firm Classiq, based in Israel, announced that it collaborated with Nvidia to open a new research center at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel’s largest teaching hospital, which will be dedicated to training experts in life sciences to write quantum applications that could someday help doctors diagnose diseases or accelerate the discovery of new drugs.
In addition, European quantum services company Terra Quantum is developing hybrid quantum applications for life sciences, energy, chemistry and finance that will run on CUDA Quantum, and Finland’s IQM is enabling its superconducting QPU to use CUDA Quantum, according to Nvidia. Numerous companies in the quantum sector also are set to deploy Nvidia’s new Grace Hopper Superchips, including Oxford Quantum Circuits and Quantum Machines, the latter of which will be the first deployment of Nvidia’s DGX Quantum. Grace Hopper, named for the groundbreaking computer scientist and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, also is being put to work by qBraid in Chicago to build a quantum cloud service and Fermioniq in Amsterdam to develop tensor-network algorithms.
Dan O’Shea has covered telecommunications and related topics including semiconductors, sensors, retail systems, digital payments and quantum computing/technology for over 25 years.
