IDC High Performance Computing Conference validates Quantum Computing as entering the mainstream

Yesterday the first time the IDC HPC user forum has had a session on quantum computing. There an entire session on quantum computing and the keynote speaker at the event was Charlie Bennett, an IBM Fellow who is well-known to quantum information folks, as (among other things) he co-invented quantum cryptography.

* Geordie Rose (CTO of DWAve Systems) presented their 512 qubit adiabatic quantum annealing computer
* Hartmut Neven from Google talked about their D-Wave machine and their commercial application
* Dave Wecker from Microsoft gave an overview of his group’s work on building software for programming, compiling and visualizing quantum circuits.
* Jay Gambetta from IBM Yorkton Heights gave a talk about the IBM work on transmon qubits.

Hartmut Neven from Google described three use cases for machine learning with Dwave Quantum Computers.

1) Finding extremely sparse classifiers
2) Reducing the negative effects of improperly labeled items in supervised machine learning methods
3) Training and inference in deep learning.

One very interesting thing he revealed was that the first of these was used to train blink detectors in the Google Glass product. This is the very first time that a quantum algorithm has been used to develop commercially deployed software.

This is a new use case opportunity for Dwave. The scenario where you need an always on detector / classifier onboard a device with extreme power constraints is increasingly common. Quantum computers can make mobile and wearable devices work better and more energy efficiently. The always on detector also has applications in robotic cars and other robotic applications.

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