This integration is the first time that a third-party independent software vendor’s technology solution has been made available for users to select in the IBM Quantum Pay-As-You-Go Plan.
The integration aims to provide user-friendly functionality to address the primary challenge facing quantum computing end-users which unreliable results from algorithms run on hardware.
In order to get the most out of near-term quantum computers users need to be an expert in an array of technical specialisations – algorithms, compilers, error suppression strategies, and error mitigation – if they want to achieve reliable results.
The combination of Q-CTRL technology and IBM Quantum services looks to address this challenge by making it simpler to get useful results from real hardware by automatically addressing the problem of noise and hardware error.
Companies and end-users want more streamlined ways to integrate useful quantum computing into their workflows and to better leverage their existing IT expertise. Q-CTRL's performance-management infrastructure software, Q-CTRL Embedded, aims to provide these benefits to users and will now be an option within the IBM Quantum Pay-As-You-Go Plan.
That means that any IBM Quantum Pay-As-You-Go Plan user can have the option to utilise Q-CTRL’s advanced technology using a single command within their Qiskit environment - accessing Q-CTRL’s performance-management software incurs no additional costs to the IBM Quantum Pay-As-You-Go Plan.
“Since we joined the IBM Quantum Network in 2018, we’ve been building the world’s most advanced infrastructure software for performance management in quantum computing,” said Q-CTRL CEO and Founder Michael J. Biercuk. “IBM has built a world-class quantum computing platform with the flexibility needed for experts like Q-CTRL to demonstrate new software able to dramatically improve the success of real quantum algorithms - detailed tests on a suite of benchmarking algorithms showed benefits up to thousands of times.”
Q-CTRL Embedded delivers enhancements in computational accuracy and efficiency through a simple configuration-free setting. When the performance management option is selected, a fully configured autonomous toolchain is triggered in the background to suppress errors.
According to recently peer-reviewed research on this topic and new tests on utility-scale quantum systems, benefits can reach up to:
- 10X increase in the complexity of quantum algorithms they can run (measured through circuit depth), up to intrinsic hardware limits;
- 100X cost reduction relative to alternative research-grade error-reduction strategies by reducing the number of experimental “shots” required to suppress errors;
- >1,000X improvement in the success of quantum algorithms widely used in the sector.
These functionalities, in combination with the IBM Quantum development roadmap, aim to accelerate the path toward quantum advantage and allow end users from research to enterprise to gain strategic advantages they’ve been seeking from their quantum applications.
Alpha-test customers include quantum technology start-ups, large industrial partners including Airbus, and Big Four consulting firms.
