Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

Dario Gil, director of the IBM Research Institute, said a few days ago that the exponential development of computing technology and global collaboration can help us deal with the global crisis and other major social challenges, including the novel coronavirus epidemic.

In his speech at the IBM Think Digital conference, Dario Gil pointed out that the emerging field of quantum computing will complement today's supercomputers and other classical computers to accelerate scientific discovery and technological innovation.

Collaboration is a key factor to success, not only between people, but also between traditional computing models and quantum computing models. "in times of crisis, unity is particularly important," he said. the world is facing increasingly complex problems, and we need to work together to solve them. "

As a founding member of the COVID-19 High performance Computing Alliance (COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium), IBM is devoting a lot of resources to the fight against the virus. More than 30 members of the alliance have gathered more than 400 trillion floating-point computing power and 100000 nodes per second to seek a broad portfolio of projects to help us learn more about the epidemic, understand novel coronavirus's evolution and accelerate the development of antiviral drugs and vaccines.

Gil says researchers have been trying to find ways to inactivate the virus. The early experience in fighting the novel coronavirus epidemic shows that strong computing power is the right-hand man to help humans defeat the virus. The enemy we face, novel coronavirus, is no more than 100nm in size, and supercomputers can model and help researchers better understand the protein structure of the virus, thus helping researchers explore various compounds that can be used to fight the virus.

Towards the qubit paradigm

In the process of fighting against novel coronavirus, researchers use more classical computing bit paradigm, and qubits appear as a more powerful computing paradigm. "in the future, bits and qubits will be the basic computing paradigm, and we can use them to solve complex problems around the world," Gil said.

Classical computers use binary circuits with switches. Quantum computers involved in subatomic quantum physics can make use of some "superpowers" in nature, such as superposition, reasoning and entanglement, to carry out more complex operations. This kind of calculation is expressed by quantum circuit, which is an index that can accurately measure the power of quantum computer.

Gil also said: "the advantage of quantum computing is that we can use different types of circuits to achieve different functions."

Quantum computing has many uses, and fighting the novel coronavirus epidemic is just one of them. For example, a circuit can be used to simulate financial risks, while others can measure the energy contained in compounds that may be used in the development of new battery technologies. Such quantum circuit libraries that can be embedded in classical programs are emerging, which can make classical programming and quantum computing complement each other.

Celebrating the fourth Anniversary of IBM Quantum Experience

To emphasize the importance of circuits to quantum computing, IBM recently launched the Quantum Challenge (Quantum Challenge). The challenge invites programmers to complete four quantum computing exercises by May 8, through which contestants will improve their understanding of quantum circuits and test their abilities in practice. The challenge is held to celebrate the fourth anniversary of IBM Quantum Experience, and IBM Quantum Experience provides the public with a channel to access the IBM Quantum Computing Group through IBM Cloud.

"We are very lucky that some of the most talented people in the world are trying to explore which circuits can help us take advantage of quantum advantage," Gil said. This also proves that the operation speed of quantum computers is obviously faster than that of classical computers.

He also referred to a groundbreaking paper he co-authored with T.J. Watson Laboratory researcher Sergey Bravyi, which provided the first mathematical proof that quantum circuits have recognized advantages over classical circuits.

Since May 2016, we have executed more than 180 billion quantum circuits on IBM quantum computers through IBM Cloud, providing quantum computing access to more than 230000 users from around the world. Currently, IBM provides 18 different quantum systems through IBM Cloud. Gil also gave a brief introduction to an IBM Research quantum computing center that houses four quantum computing systems, which is part of the presentation.

Gil also introduced the value of "quantum volume (Quantum Volume)" in his speech, which can be used to measure the ability of quantum computers to reduce the error rate as the number of qubits increases. He pointed out that the quantum volume in IBM products has doubled every year since 2016, and IBM is committed to maintaining this growth trend in the coming years.

Many large enterprises around the world are also active users of IBM quantum computers. Among them, Daimler AG is using quantum computing to develop better battery materials, while ExxonMobil (ExxonMobil) hopes to use quantum computing to model the thermal reaction of petrochemical research and development. In addition, JP Morgan Chase is using IBM quantum computers to create a method and combinations of options for pricing financial derivatives contracts, also known as "options".

At the end of his speech, Gil shared his thoughts on the future of computing. "at present, the bit, qubit and neural network systems that form the basis of artificial intelligence are gradually converging, which will have a far-reaching impact on the computing field," he said. "We will use artificial intelligence-assisted programming and hybrid cloud architecture to coordinate this convergence, thus masking the complexity of the underlying infrastructure."

"this will be a revolution. This integration will not only revolutionize the way science practices and the speed at which we discover new technologies, but also lead to a whole new set of intelligent mission-critical applications." Gil said.

Author: Larry Greenemeier

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