NVIDIA Launches Hybrid Quantum-Classical HPC Computing Platform

NVIDIA has been moving into quantum computing for some time — last November, the company announced the cuQuantum software development kit for quantum computing workflows. And NVIDIA managers have talked more frequently about the company’s quantum strategy (see our interview at ISC with NVIDIA’s Head of Technical Marketing for HPC/AI and Quantum Dion Harris).

Today, the company made its biggest quantum announcement yet with the launch of what it calls a unified computing platform “for speeding breakthroughs in quantum research and development across AI, HPC, health, finance and other disciplines.” 

The NVIDIA Quantum Optimized Device Architecture, or QODA, is a coherent hybrid quantum-classical programming model, the company said. It’s an open, unified environment for “some of today’s most powerful computers and quantum processors, improving scientific productivity and enabling greater scale in quantum research.”  

NVIDIA said HPC and AI domain experts can use QODA to add quantum computing to existing applications, leveraging both quantum processors as well as simulated future quantum machines using NVIDIA DGX systems and NVIDIA GPUs available in scientific supercomputing centers and public clouds. 

“Scientific breakthroughs can occur in the near term with hybrid solutions combining classical computing and quantum computing,” said Tim Costa, director of HPC and Quantum Computing Products at NVIDIA. “QODA will revolutionize quantum computing by giving developers a powerful and productive programming model.”

Quantum organizations already use NVIDIA GPUs and specialized NVIDIA software – NVIDIA cuQuantum – to develop individual quantum circuits. QODA is designed to help developers build complete quantum applications simulated with NVIDIA cuQuantum on GPU-accelerated supercomputers.

Today, at the Q2B conference in Tokyo, NVIDIA announced QODA collaborations with quantum hardware providers IQM Quantum Computers, Pasqal, Quantinuum, Quantum Brilliance and Xanadu; software providers QC Ware and Zapata Computing; and supercomputing centers Forschungszentrum Jülich, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 

“Quantinuum is partnering with NVIDIA to enable users of Quantinuum’s H-series quantum processors, powered by Honeywell, to program and develop the next generation of hybrid quantum-classical applications with QODA. This ties together the best performing classical computers with our world-class quantum processors,” said Alex Chernoguzov, chief engineer at Quantinuum.

“The hybrid quantum-classical capabilities developed by NVIDIA will enable HPC developers to accelerate their existing applications by providing an efficient way to program quantum and classical resources in a consolidated environment,” said Yudong Cao, chief technology officer at Zapata. “Near-term applications in chemistry, drug discovery, materials science and more can now be seamlessly integrated with quantum computing, driving new discoveries in these fields as practical quantum advantage emerges.”