In 2023, the EuroHPC JU signed hosting agreements with six sites across Europe to host and operate its quantum computers. These devices will allow European users to explore a variety of quantum technologies coupled to leading supercomputers.
All six procurements for the EuroHPC quantum computers have now been successfully completed. A news step towards a European hybrid HPC-QC infrastructure is now reached. Indeed, it’s time for the community to advance towards the integration of these devices with the respective supercomputers, for the benefit of the European open research community.
The six Hosting Entities and their respective partners have formed a joint and collaborative project called EuroQHPC-Integration, in which they decided to pool their efforts on 4 main topics:
- The harmonization of the user experience across all six hybrid HPC-QC platforms;
- Joint development of proof-of-concept applications and benchmarks running on the various hybrid HPC-QC systems;
- Contribution to standardization efforts;
- Joint Technical Support Team for applications and use cases.
This project, coordinated by GENCI, brings together 30 partners, spread across 17 European countries, and relies on 6 quantum computers with various architectures (neutral atoms, superconducting qubits with different topologies, quantum annealing, photonics, trapped ions) that will be coupled with 6 European supercomputers forming an unprecedented hybrid HPC/QC infrastructure.
The project kick-off meeting is taking place on the occasion of the EuroHPC Summit in Krakow, on March 19th, 9:00-12:00, gathering most partners on-site and in visio-conference.
Quotes
EuroQCS France
“EuroQCS France is very proud to be responsible for coordinating this project. Indeed, EuroQHPC Integration is a European project based on EuroHPC’s quantum infrastructures. The project's richness lies in the variety of technologies and the different approaches taken by the partners. This initiative, which is unique in the European and even international ecosystem, aims to federate and pool the expertise and feedback of hosting entities in HPCQC integration. The ultimate aim is to have common environments and services, based in particular on the EuroHPC federation platform. EuroQHPC integration aims to roll out a whole range of services and joint initiatives, including facilitating access to users' machines, cross-testing and joint benchmarks, sharing best practices and user support” declared Sabine Mehr, Head of Quantum Computing at GENCI.
EuroQCS Exa
EuroQCS Italy
“Italy strongly believes in neutral atom technology, particularly for its potential applications and scalability,” said Daniele Ottaviani, head of quantum computing at Cineca and lead of WP6-EuroQCS-Italy. “As part of the EuroQHPC-Integration project, the EuroQCS-Italy consortium will focus on developing the full integration stack, from middleware to software and hybrid quantum-classical algorithms. Together with our partners, we will ensure seamless interoperability across quantum and classical systems, implementing our solutions across the quantum platforms of all EuroQHPC-Integration partners.”
Lumi-Q
“We are excited to have a quantum computer with this unique topology. This architecture will significantly improve the efficiency of quantum computations. The star topology offers optimal connections between qubits, minimising the count of hardware-imposed MOVE/SWAP operations. Thanks to this topology, we can better utilise the coherence time and execute deeper quantum circuits in a wide range of applications, from artificial intelligence to complex system simulations,” said Branislav Jansik, Supercomputing Services Director at IT4Innovations.
EuroQCS Poland
"EuroQCS-Poland focuses on integrating the trapped-ion quantum computer PIAST-Q with the PSNC supercomputing infrastructure, ensuring seamless connectivity between quantum and HPC hardware components. As part of the EuroQHPC-Integration project, we will contribute application-specific integrations to optimize hybrid quantum-HPC workflows, including open-source HPC-QC libraries, tools, multi-user programming environments, and low-level hardware HPC-QC experimental integration." Krzysztof Kurowski, Coordinator of the EuroQCS-Poland consortium
EuroQCS Spain
“Within the EuroQHPC-Integration project, the EuroQCS-Spain consortium will evolve the open-source task programming language PyCOMPSs to support the development of hybrid quantum-classical workflows. We have the experimental quantum computing expertise from the IFAE team that will help us in developing proper benchmarking techniques for these computers. Together with the INL, we will develop novel hybrid quantum algorithms and their applications, and put our results in practice by implementing them into the quantum computers from all EuroQHPC-Integration partners” – Alba Cervera Lierta, senior researcher at the BSC and coordinator of the WP5-EuroQCS Spain.
To read and download the press release :