Insider Brief:
- Now available on AWS’s Amazon Braket platform, the Rigetti Ankaa-2 processor offers 84-qubits with continuous availability.
- The Ankaa-2 features a square lattice configuration for efficient algorithm mapping, improved gate operation times, and higher two-qubit fidelities.
- Ankaa-2 fully integrates with AWS’s Braket Hybrid Jobs and parametric compilation features.
According to a recent post by AWS, the Amazon Braket platform has added the the 84-qubit superconducting Rigetti Ankaa-2 quantum processor, now available to all users for executing circuits throughout the day. This addition grants long-desired accessibility and efficiency to developers worldwide, providing them access to a virtual laboratory around the clock.
Quantum cloud providers are essential to the quantum ecosystem as they provide low barriers to entry through accessible online interfaces. They are often available through pay-as-you-go-pricing, bringing advanced quantum hardware to a broader audience. AWS Braket is one such service for developers and scientists alike, providing a slew of tools to design, test, and run quantum algorithms for the sake of research, discovery, or proof of concept applications.
AWS Braket provides access to various gate-based and analog QPUs and simulators. Current quantum hardware providers including IonQ, IQM, QuEra Computing, and Rigetti. Rigetti’s universal, gate-based Ankaa-2 processor with 84 qubits and scalable multi-chip technology joins its predecessor, the 79-qubit Aspen-M-3.
As highlighted in a release earlier this year, the Ankaa-2 processor offers significant advancements, including a 2.5x performance improvement over previous Rigetti quantum processing units. Rigetti engineers designed the processor with a square lattice configuration, where each qubit has four nearest neighbors. This provides a more efficient mapping of quantum algorithms to the hardware. Increasing the number of nearest neighbors in a QPU layout increases the number of direct and shorter connections between qubits. Facilitating interactions with fewer intermediate steps reduces additional operations that might introduce errors or increase overall computational time.
To further optimize runtime and improve overall experience, the Ankaa-2 processor supports AWS’s Braket Hybrid Jobs feature and parametric compilation. AWS’s Braket Hybrid Jobs provides access to a quantum-classical runtime environment that effectively uses each technology according to its strength. Parametric compilation through Braket automatically compiles and caches pre-compiled circuits, reducing unnecessary overhead associated with repeated compilation steps.
The combination of an intentionally-designed square lattice configuration, hybrid job support, improved gate operation times, and higher median two-qubit gate fidelities establishes Ankaa-2 as a well-rounded option for executing complex quantum tasks. Furthermore, the support for pulse-level control on the Ankaa-2 device allows researchers to experiment with customized analog control signals, enabling more precise quantum operations and finely-tuned quantum algorithms.
AWS emphasizes that the Ankaa-2 processor is particularly notable for its ability to execute quantum circuits continuously throughout the day. Continuous availability is not at all trivial for researchers and scientists actively developing quantum applications. Long wait-times and general inaccessibility around hardware availability has long seeded doubt in practicality. This new addition to the hardware suite will allow researchers across time zones to perform their quantum experiments as needed, without interruption.
Through access to more reliable and advanced quantum hardware, AWS is providing the tools necessary for quantum researchers and scientists worldwide to explore new quantum algorithms and applications with greater confidence. While much remains to reach extensive practicality and discovery in fields such as quantum chemistry, optimization, and machine learning, we may achieve hard things with access to the right tools at the right time. The Ankaa-2 processor demonstrates specialized quantum hardware and continuous availability as a model for future quantum computing services in demonstrating the importance of an accessible and efficient tool in the development of quantum technologies.
