D-Wave Opens Quantum-Computing Resources to Coronavirus Research
01 April 2020 - 8:20PM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Castellanos
Quantum-computing vendor D-Wave Systems Inc. said Tuesday it is
giving researchers and companies studying the novel coronavirus
free access to its early-stage, experimental machines over the
cloud.
Canadian firm D-Wave is among several technology companies
providing free advanced computing resources to researchers working
to combat the global pandemic. International Business Machines
Corp., for example, in March started offering free remote access to
two of the world's most powerful supercomputers.
D-Wave has assembled a team of experts from about a dozen
universities and companies including Volkswagen AG, Denso Corp. and
startup Menten AI who are familiar with its quantum-computing
services to help interested researchers program the computers.
"We have a fairly unique system that could add value," said Alan
Baratz, the company's chief executive. Access to the company's
quantum-computing system normally costs about $2,000 an hour,
whereas access to its hybrid system costs about $100 an hour, he
said.
Researchers trying to combat the respiratory illness known as
Covid-19 could use D-Wave's quantum-computing system or its hybrid
machine to possibly speed up certain calculations related to drug
discovery and hospital logistics, according to Mr. Baratz and other
experts. The company's hybrid machine uses graphics-processing
units, commonly found in laptops and cell phones, as well as
quantum processors.
There is currently no commercial-grade quantum computer on the
market, but many companies, including D-Wave, are building
quantum-computing systems using different technologies and
architectures that could one day prove to be more powerful than
traditional computers, including supercomputers. Companies
including financial services firms and automakers are experimenting
with early-stage quantum computers currently offered by firms such
as D-Wave.
Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon Web Services subsidiary has recently
launched quantum computing services. It says quantum computers are
not yet at the stage where they can provide immediate benefit in a
crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. Computations that run on
currently available quantum computers don't exhibit a game-changing
speedup for solving practical problems, according to AWS.
Still, researchers are trying to test the technology's
power.
Japanese startup Sigma-i Co. is exploring how D-Wave's
quantum-computing systems could be used to solve optimization
problems related to sending Covid-19 patients to the right
hospitals in the fastest time while not over-burdening health-care
systems.
By harnessing the properties of quantum physics, quantum
computers have the potential to sort through a vast number of
possibilities nearly instantaneously and come up with a probable
solution. While traditional computers store information as either
zeros or ones, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which
represent and store information as both zeros and ones
simultaneously.
"What we're working on right now is on the issue of handoff by
allocating patients to medical facilities as close as possible
according to the patient's symptoms, so as not to exceed the
capacity of the medical facilities," Sigma-i Chief Executive
Masayuki Ohzeki said in an email.
This is a mathematical problem that can be done on a
quantum-computing system that takes into account the distance from
the origin of the patients to the medical facilities as well as the
patient's symptoms and the capacity of each medical facility, he
said.
A quantum computer could also be used to help quickly validate a
vaccine for the virus. Such machines, though, are still in their
very early stages, said Martin Reynolds, vice president and analyst
at research firm Gartner Inc., covering emerging technologies.
Volkswagen, which has previously experimented with quantum
computers from D-Wave and other vendors to calculate the fastest
routes for different vehicles, has several experts on hand to help
researchers interested in using D-Wave's machines for Covid-19
research.
"In the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, the potential of
quantum computing can open up new opportunities," said Florian
Neukart, director of advanced technologies and IT innovation at
Volkswagen Group of America, in an email.
Menten AI, a San Francisco-based startup that uses machine
learning and quantum computing to design protein drugs and enzymes
for use in drug discovery, said D-Wave's hybrid quantum system has
shown promising results outside of Covid-19 research.
The company recently used D-Wave's hybrid machine to run several
computations related to protein packing, which is a component of
drug discovery, said Hans Melo, co-founder and CEO.
Write to Sara Castellanos at sara.castellanos@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 01, 2020 14:05 ET (18:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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