IBM Shows Ambitious Roadmap for Quantum Computing Ecosystem

IBM today laid out a more detailed roadmap for bringing quantum computing to practical usefulness. Last fall, IBM spelled out its hardware plans. Today, it spelled out its software ecosystem plans including, among other things, new tools and cloud initiatives. Perhaps wisely, IBM still injected a note of caution regarding quantum computing’s near-term prospects.

Writing in a IBM research blog today, IBM’s Karl Wehden, Ismael Faro, and Jay Gambetta, said, “Quantum computing is on the verge of sparking a paradigm shift. Software reliant on this nascent technology, one rooted in the physical laws of nature, could soon revolutionize computing forever. Bear in mind, however, that it took classical computing many decades to go from individually programmed logic gates to the sophisticated cloud-based services of today—and we hope to see quantum computing take that same leap in just a few short years. We think we can get there, but we can’t take this leap alone.”

The hardware roadmap released in the fall outlined IBM’s planned path to 1000-qubit machines, including named systems, and description of a giant dilution refrigerator project named Golden Eye that would be able to house a million qubits. (See HPCwire coverage, IBM’s Quantum Race to One Million Qubits.) IBM’s Eagle quantum system (127) qubits is due in 2021 with Osprey (433 qubits in 2022) and Condor (1000 qubits in 2023) to follow.

It’s a bold plan, but not without a few skeptics. That said, it embodies IBM’s belief that practical quantum computing is closer, perhaps, than many expect. Today’s roadmap, delivered with a blog and video, tackles the software side. In a chart describing the roadmap, IBM layers expected advances for software development on top of its hardware plans (see below).

“Our Development Roadmap serves to give each developer segment the tools they need to produce the best circuits, algorithms, and models, while maximizing the opportunities for collaboration. We are increasing the variety of circuits and the capacity of our systems to run more circuits more quickly, while developing a platform where quantum developers can work seamlessly in the same integrated cloud-based framework,” wrote Wehden (pre-sales and client success director), Faro (distinguished engineer and tech lead), and Gambetta (IBM Fellow and VP quantum).

“Workloads with both quantum and classical components will not be constrained by origin or the nature of integration, and the hybrid cloud will allow these workloads to run everywhere that our cloud native systems run today and in the future.

“Today, we’re making crucial updates for quantum kernel developers writing code at the lowest level, for whom we’ve been focusing on developing circuit APIs. This year, we plan to release the Qiskit runtime—an execution environment that increases the capacity to run more circuits at a much faster rate than ever before, and with the capability to store quantum programs so other users can run them as a service. The Qiskit runtime rethinks the classical-quantum workload so that programs will be uploaded and executed on classical hardware located beside quantum hardware, slashing latencies emerging from communication between the user’s computer and the quantum processor,” they wrote.

IBM says these, and other improvements, “will lead to a 100x speedup in workloads that exploit iterative circuit execution, which will allow our quantum systems to run jobs in just a few hours that, today, can take months.”

The devil, of course, is in the details. The blog and video are worth perusing. Broadly, the conversation around quantum computing has spread and gained volume in recent months as government efforts (money) and the number of nascent quantum technology companies have mushroomed.

“By 2023, we expect to offer entire families of pre-built runtimes tailored to these domains, callable from a cloud-based API using a variety of common development frameworks. At this point, we think the foundations laid down by quantum kernel and algorithm developers will allow model and enterprise developers to explore quantum computing models on their own without having to think about the quantum physics. Developers will have the freedom to enrich systems built in any cloud-native hybrid runtime, language, and common programming framework, or integrate quantum components simply into any business workflow,” according to the blog.

From here to there seems like a long way technologically if not in time. The growing frenzy of research into varying qubit technologies, qubit control mechanisms, software tools, and underlying applications make it hard to predict winners and losers. The semiconductor-based superconducting qubit technology IBM has bet on is probably the most advanced. Ion trap and cold atom technologies are also gaining strength and recent work in optical approaches, led by the network community, is promising.

Developing a software ecosystem able to deal with diverse underlying qubit technologies while presenting a high enough abstraction layer to software developers to make their jobs easier would be a huge step forward.

As part of its announcements today, IBM also highlighted the Unitary Fund, a non-profit seeking to develop the ecosystem. IBM is a member. Here’s an excerpt from the Unitary Fund website

“We do two main things:

• We run a microgrant program. We fund explorers across the world to work on quantum technologies. Do you have an idea for a project? Apply for a microgrant. More details are in our FAQ. Check out our previous grants.
• We do our own research on projects that help the ecosystem as a whole. For example, we are developing mitiq, an open source compiler for error-mitigated quantum programming.

“Our grant program gives $4k cash grants for projects that help develop the quantum technology ecosystem. This could be open source quantum software, educational materials and workshops, a new quantum sensor prototype, or much more.”

The Unitary Fund lists its sponsors as: IBM, Alphabet X, Microsoft, Cambridge Quantum Computing, Rigetti, Xanadu, Zapata Computing, QCWare,  quantumcomputing.com, Strangeworks, PLOS, Steve Willis & NYC QuantumMeetup, EeroQ, John Hering, Jeff Cordova, Nima Alidoust, Travis Humble, Will Zeng

Link to IBM blog: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2021/02/quantum-development-roadmap/

Link to IBM video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp7UFdtwdTw