Citing an increase in user demand for quantum simulators, the UK government is set to purchase its second quantum computing simulator, according to media reports and government announcements.
According to the announcement, UK Research & Innovation awarded £385,000 — or about $470,000 U.S. — for a Quantum Learning Machine — or QLM. The device, which is a quantum simulator that mimics quantum behavior, is developed by Atos, a French based company with an IT services unit located in London.
The device will be installed in the Hartree Centre, located at Daresbury Laboratory, one of the UK’s only supercomputing centers dedicated to industry applications. It will join Hartree Centre’s other high performance computing devices, including the Scafell Pike — Bull Sequana X1000 and the JADE 2 — Bull Atos NVIDIA DGX1 Max-Q.
The announcement reports that the second unit will help address resource issues because a large number of users would like access. This news also underscores the desire for classical computer- and supercomputer-equipped data centers to explore quantum computing and hybrid quantum computing.
Atos’s QLM can simulate three different quantum computing modalities, including the gate model, the annealing model, and the analog model. According to government specifications, the device can simulate quantum computers of up to 38 qubits.
Data Center Dynamics reports that Atos has previously announced deals to supply QLMs to the Galician Supercomputing Center, the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, and OVHcloud.
The Hartree Centre is part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) – one of Europe’s largest multi-disciplinary scientific research organisations – within UK Research and Innovation.
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