Session G30: Commercial Applications of Quantum Computing

Heron Processors on the Utility Frontier

Continued advances in the scale, quality, and speed of superconducting quantum processors have pushed such devices into the era of utility, where quantum computational results challenge the reach of exact classical simulation. While early demonstrations with utility-scale processors have generated substantial interest, further improvements in processor quality are expected to significantly broaden the scope of this nascent computational platform. In this talk, we present an experimental characterization of Heron, a tunable-coupler-based quantum processor that demonstrates a material improvement in quality relative to prior generation 100+ qubit processors. We will discuss Heron's performance as described by relevant metrics such as coherence, crosstalk, and fidelity, highlighting both the obvious benefits of, and challenges unique to, tunable coupler architectures. Finally, we will discuss the projected impact of Heron's performance improvements on near-term error mitigation demonstrations.   

Controlling large superconducting quantum processors

Realizing commercially valuable quantum computations may require implementing quantum error correction on millions of qubits. Fulfilling this ambitious goal will take not only manufacturing high-performance quantum hardware at scale but engineering a control system that can reach its performance limits. In this talk, I will discuss some of the challenges associated with controlling large superconducting quantum processors, automated strategies for overcoming them, and an outlook for the future.   

Full-Stack Compilation and Optimization with the Quantinuum H-series Quantum Computers

Each of Quantinuum's H1- and H2-series quantum computers is built on a fully reconfigurable array of trapped-ion qubits and isolated interaction zones, prioritizing arbitrary connectivity, high-fidelity quantum operations, and low cross-talk errors. Our circuit submission stack has multiple layers of compilation and optimization, and in this talk we will highlight several of the options available for maximizing circuit utility and fidelity, including integrated TKET optimization. We will also provide an overview of our native gate set, current specs, and ongoing improvements to the H-series machines.   

Entering the Quantum Utility Era: Challenges and Breakthroughs

In this presentation I will review three key enablers of quantum utility for near-term quantum computers. 

Specifically, I will discuss (i) how to obtain significant circuit depth reduction via hardware-tailored transpilation and measurement-efficient ground state finding; (ii) a new readout procedure based on informationally complete measurements, allowing fewer shots per estimator primitive; (iii) a post-processing noise mitigation scheme offering quadratic speedup wrt PEC.

The combination of the approaches above forms a new algorithmic framework for moving from proof-of-principle demonstrations to useful and commercially relevant quantum simulations.   

Abstracting quantum computation

Quantum computers have the potential to drastically outperform conventional computers for a variety of tasks, from simulating molecular interactions to machine learning. However, our understanding of how to construct non-trivial quantum algorithms is still in its infancy and human intuition is not well suited to finding ways to accomplish computational tasks through quantum interference. As a result, reaching a future where quantum computing is widely used requires not only overcoming the challenges of building scalable quantum computers, but also finding new ways to program these systems to tackle new and more complex problems. In this talk I will introduce some of the work we have been doing at Horizon Quantum Computing to simplify the task of programming quantum processors through increasing levels of abstraction, and discuss progress towards our goal of compiling classical code to take advantage of quantum processors, through automated synthesis of quantum algorithms.