(AnalyticsIndia) AnalyticsIndia’s Peter Mathew provides his analysis of Alphabet’s recent announcement of Floq–the API that allows developers to harness Total Processing Units (TPUs) to simulate quantum computing workloads. With the need for quantum computing increasing and the resources to build heavy machines getting scarcer, the necessity to create a program for faster computation has become paramount. To that end, Google has come up with Floq.
Interestingly, back in the early 2000s, Wired’s Kevin Kelly asked Google founders about the business model and how Google Search would bring revenue, they responded by simply saying: “Oh, we’re actually building an artificial intelligence company.”
Google has indeed stayed the course. Though the Floq was announced in February in a live streaming event, it didn’t attract a lot of media attention. But it’s clear that Floq has the potential to change the quantum computing game and give Alphabet an edge over the competitors. Though most of the details about Floq is kept under the wraps, the world is indeed looking forward to its future iterations and the big reveal.
Sandbox at Alphabet, Google’s secretive software development team, is the architect behind Floq. Floq allows developers to harness TPUs to simulate quantum computing workloads. Google provided Floq to 50 teams as part of the QHack Open Hackathon.
Floq, once released widely, will work hand-in-hand with Cirq, Google’s service that gives developers access to its quantum computing hardware. It will rival IBM’s Quantum Experience suite and simulators from Intel, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Like Russian President Vladimir Putin said, in the AI arms race, the country with the best tech will rule the world. The quantum computers are the major drivers of this AI race.
What The Floq: The Secret Mission Of Google
