IBM boasts of 18 quantum computer models, based on the number of qbits, but it isn’t the only player staking out the quantum market. Last week D-Wave, another early shipper of quantum systems, announced a joint quantum product development and marketing initiative with NEC, which made a $10 million investment in D-Wave.
D-Wave NEC Qauntum Leap
The two companies, according to the announcement, will work together on the development of hybrid quantum/classical technologies and services that combine the best features of classical computers and quantum computers; the development of new hybrid applications that make use of those services; and joint marketing and sales go-to-market activities to promote quantum computing. Until quantum matures, expect to see more combinations of quantum and classical computing as companies try to figure out how these seemingly incompatible technologies can work together.
For example the two companies suggest that NEC and D-Wave will create practical business and scientific quantum applications in fields ranging from transportation to materials science to machine learning, using D-Wave’s Leap with new joint hybrid services. Or, the two companies might apply D-Wave’s collection of over 200 early customer quantum applications to six markets identified by NEC, such as finance, manufacturing and distribution.
“We are very excited to collaborate with D-Wave. This announcement marks the latest of many examples where NEC has partnered with universities and businesses to jointly develop various applications and technologies. This collaborative agreement aims to leverage the strengths of both companies to fuel quantum application development and business value today,” said Motoo Nishihara, Executive Vice President and CTO, NEC.
Also, NEC and D-Wave intend to create practical business and scientific quantum applications in fields ranging from transportation to materials science to machine learning, using Leap and the new joint hybrid services. The two companies also will apply D-Wave’s collection of over 200 early customer applications to six markets identified by NEC, such as finance, manufacturing and distribution. The two companies will also explore the possibility of enabling the use of NEC’s supercomputers on D-Wave’s Leap quantum cloud service.
“By combining efforts with NEC, we believe we can bring even more quantum benefit to the entire Japanese market that is building business-critical hybrid quantum applications in both the public and private sectors,” said Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. He adds: ” We’re united in the belief that hybrid software and systems are the future of commercial quantum computing. Our joint collaboration will further the adoption of quantum computing in the Japanese market and beyond.”
IBM continues to be the leader in quantum computing, boasting 18 quantum computers of various qubit counts. And they are actually available for use via the Internet, where IBM keeps them running and sufficiently cold–a few degrees above absolute zero–to ensure computational stability. Quantum computers clearly are not something you want to buy for your data center.
But other companies are rushing into the market. Google operates a quantum computer lab with five machines and Honeywell has six quantum machines, according to published reports. Others include Microsoft and Intel. Plus there are startups: IonQ, Quantum Circuits, and Rigetti Computing. All of these have been referenced previously in earlier DancingDinosaur, which just hopes to live long enough to see useful quantum computing come about.
DancingDinosaur is Alan Radding, a veteran information technology analyst, writer, and ghost-writer. Follow DancingDinosaur on Twitter, @mainframeblog, and see more of his work at http://technologywriter.com/
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