The World's Most Powerful Supercomputer Now Has a Companion: The European Quantum Computer IQM Radiance

The first quantum computer installed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States comes from the Finnish company IQM, where the world's most powerful supercomputer, Frontier, is located. The combination of these two devices aims to provide new tools for scientific research in chemistry, physics, and materials science.

IQM Installs the First Quantum Computer in the United States

For a few years now, discussions about quantum computers have shifted from viewing them as standalone calculators to considering them as devices connected to supercomputers that will perform specific types of calculations—particularly those areas where their architecture offers significant advantages over classical alternatives. Thus, it is not surprising that the first quantum computer sold by IQM in the United States has been purchased by ORNL to support Frontier.

The new system, named Pathfinder, is an IQM Radiance computer with 20 superconducting qubits. It has been recently inaugurated and will progressively be integrated into the ORNL infrastructure. The goal is to develop algorithms that leverage both classical and quantum components for scientific research.

"Our first system in the United States is now at the Oak Ridge site, connected to their HPC environment, and is owned and controlled by their teams," said Jan Goetz, CEO and co-founder of IQM.

"Quantum computers become useful when they operate within a real computing infrastructure, and there's no better place to demonstrate this. Oak Ridge is a place where high-intensity calculations are performed."

"On-premise systems allow us to demonstrate quantum computing concepts that achieve our goal of building a hybrid and scalable HPC ecosystem," said Travis Humble, the director of the quantum sciences center at ORNL.

"The presence of the IQM Radiance quantum computer at our site has already accelerated the integration with classical HPC computing capabilities. Our research teams are now developing methods and tools to demonstrate applications in material simulation, chemistry, and artificial intelligence."