Quantum takes hold in Bromont

(Bromont) The overdrive computing capacity of the IBM Quantum System One quantum computer in Bromont is now operational and is already used by five companies and start-up who wish to push concepts further that traditional computing does not allow them to do. I had the chance to see the machine and suddenly found myself right in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Installed in a glass room, located on the ground floor of the IBM semiconductor manufacturing plant in Bromont, the quantum supercomputer offers an extremely refined image. We essentially see a high-tech metal tank attached to the ceiling and lit in a futuristic way.

I had the impression of finding myself in front of HAL, the mission computer which manages the crew of the spaceship heading towards Jupiter in Stanley Kubrick’s film, released in 1968. The acronym HAL is actually composed from each of the letters which precede those of the name IBM in the alphabet…

The metal tank actually hides trees that extend from its cylindrical base which houses a refrigerator which maintains the superconductivity of the quantum computer at a temperature of -270 degrees Celsius. The computer itself is wedged at the bottom of the cylinder, covers an area of ​​1 cm by 1 cm and is yet capable of generating a power of 127 qubits (quantum bit).

“But what we don’t see is in the room behind where there is all the pumping equipment and electrical systems,” Marie-Ève ​​Boulanger, program manager of the Digital and Quantum Innovation Platform, explains to me. PINQ^⁠2which runs the IBM Quantum System One quantum supercomputer.

PINQ^⁠2 is an initiative of the University of Sherbrooke and the government of Quebec which paid 68 million to acquire the rights to use the quantum supercomputer for the next five years in order to benefit Quebec companies that want to push their expertise further , particularly in the energy, life sciences or sustainable development sectors.

Marie-Ève ​​Boulanger did her doctoral thesis at the University of Sherbrooke, under the supervision of Professor Louis Taillefer, on quantum materials and superconductivity. It is in this environment that we find ourselves in Bromont, a few steps from science fiction.

Already 2 billion operations

IBM’s quantum supermachine was inaugurated with great fanfare on Friday in the American computer giant’s semiconductor factory in Bromont by the Minister of Economic Development, Pierre Fitzgibbon, and numerous guests and specialists.

Already used by five companies and start-up, the quantum computer has been operational since July and has performed more than two billion operations to date. A number that will accelerate, according to its general director, Éric Capelle, who anticipates that around ten other companies will join PINQ^⁠2 over the next year to take advantage of its computing capabilities.

“We offer a hybrid environment with classical and quantum computing and cloud computing. We have many drug development projects where companies have reached their power limit. To simulate molecules, it’s easier to do it with an atom-based computer,” explains Éric Capelle.

PINQ’s quantum support offering^⁠2 deployed in three ways. First, we start with a proof of concept offer to determine if quantum can significantly advance a project.

Then, we propose an acceleration stage where we will use university specialists to develop industrial solutions before moving to the innovation stage, taking advantage of IBM’s research laboratories in New York to go even further. .

In addition to health, environment and energy, quantum computing is popular in the aeronautics sector and in the world of finance.

Two Quebec financial institutions (we presume that they are Desjardins and the National Bank…) are also working on a proof of concept for the detection of credit card fraud, and quantum computing can help them to go further in the development of an intervention model.

Quantum computing is still in the development stage, agrees specialist Marie-Ève ​​Boulanger, but its power is only increasing. The 127-qubit capacity of the Bromont supercomputer will soon be supplanted by a new 433-qubit model, but it is the quality of the qubit that makes the difference, she explains to me.

“A good network is made up of logical qubits which have the capacity to solve problems more quickly than traditional algorithms. We already have supercharged computing capacity and it will develop further quickly,” predicts Marie-Ève ​​Boulanger.