D-Wave takes the Leap for Quantum App Developers

4 responses to “D-Wave takes the Leap for Quantum App Developers”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Nov 11, 2018 at 10:28 pm

   and looking out the window, a peek into Future Ventures’ future outpost in SF, atop SFT still choking with the smoke from the devastating Camp Fire

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2. 

   seoul_scurry

   Nov 12, 2018 at 6:04 pm

   Always been a fan of D-Wave. My very close friend Chris Hipp once worked there and he would rave about the tech *and* the possibilities that would one day be unlocked by D-Wave. Happy to see D-Wave still on mission.

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3. 

   jurvetson

   Nov 29, 2018 at 4:17 pm

   Yes! and now a more detailed analysis in Communications of the ACM:

   "D-Wave has developed more than 100 quantum applications, for purposes including airline scheduling, election modeling, quantum chemistry simulation, automotive design, preventative healthcare, and logistics.

   One thing’s for sure: both D-Wave’s and IBM’s solutions will be much faster than classical computers solving the same problems.

   "There is a night and day difference between IBM and D-Wave as an application development platform. It’s really really hard to program an IBM Q, whereas D-Wave has APIs that are easy to use, plus libraries of reusable code. Its latest tools use open source resources that make the quantum physics completely transparent to the programmer. You can use your own variables that match your existing application, form conventional graphs, then write your problem in graph theory or logic expressions in C++. Plus, you can use virtual networks, virtual abstractions, and constrain satisfaction without worrying about the underlying quantum physics. You can swap out the simulator or do an exact solver on the real hardware, which in terms of software development fits right into a normal application workflow."

   IBM offers free cloud-based access to a quantum computer, but that service is aimed at teaching users the concepts of quantum computing, in hopes of enlisting the engineering community’s help at solving the outstanding quantum physics problems keeping IBM from developing commercial quantum applications today.

   Said Jerry Chow, IBM’s manager of experimental quantum computing, "We will be in the research and development stage for the foreseeable future. We are providing free access to 5-qubit and 16-qubit quantum computers with the IBM Q Experience, paid access to 20-qubit quantum computers to our partners in the IBM Q Network, and are currently prototyping a new 50-qubit model."

   In comparison, D-Wave’s Leap platform offers users access to 2,000 quantum bits (qubits), and the company says its next-generation chip will feature 5,000 qubits."

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4. 

   jurvetson

   Nov 29, 2018 at 4:19 pm

   Meanwhile, from VW in the WSJ:

   "Quantum computers can solve such problems in near real-time, while classical computers would usually take minutes or hours. We had to abort the run time because it took too long on a classical computer… the calculation has to happen in milliseconds. D-Wave Systems Inc.’s machine, called a quantum annealer, is particularly useful for such optimization problems as routing thousands of taxis to different points within a city to avoid traffic jams” — Dr. Hofmann, Volkswagen’s CIO

   “Quantum routing could be a feature in the navigation system of Volkswagen Group vehicles

   The company, which has three quantum computing-related patents pending, also could offer the system to public transportation companies or ride sharing companies to predict revenues based on more accurate passenger demand

   Other automakers including Ford Motor Company are experimenting with quantum computing, an emerging technology that has the potential to solve complex business problems beyond the scope of today’s supercomputers, through harnessing the properties of quantum mechanics.

   While traditional computers use binary digits, or bits, which either can be 0s or 1s, quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits, which represent and store information as both 0s and 1s simultaneously. Quantum computers have the potential to sort through a vast number of possible solutions — more than the number of atoms in the universe — with the calculations being completed as fast as a fraction of a second.”

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