[News Terms] 'Hybrid Quantum Computer'

Japan Connects Supercomputer 'Fugaku' with Quantum Computer
Calculation Speed Over 100 Million Times Faster Than Supercomputer
Plan to Catch Up with US Leading in Quantum Computer Technology

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] Japan plans to link the supercomputer "Fugaku," jointly developed with Fujitsu for quantum computers, to realize practical quantum computing. This is an intermediate step collaborating with a supercomputer, which is the stage just before a finished quantum computer product, called a "hybrid quantum computer." The plan aims to catch up with the United States and China, which are ahead in the quantum computer field.

The world's leading quantum computer company Google plans to release a finished quantum computer product by 2029. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and semiconductor giant Nvidia are also aiming for practical use through services linking quantum computers and supercomputers.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on the 3rd that "the national research institute RIKEN plans to showcase a hybrid quantum computer product in 2025 by connecting the supercomputer 'Fugaku' with a quantum computer." Quantum computers have an enormous calculation speed but have the disadvantage of being prone to calculation errors due to instability in the processing. The plan is to use the supercomputer to organize or supplement the process to prevent errors.

RIKEN will connect Fugaku, located in Kobe City, and the quantum computer via communication to share roles such as calculations between the two. If quantum computers become practical, they will support technological innovation in Japanese companies, such as new drug development and new material development. They are also expected to be used in semiconductor material development and artificial intelligence (AI) fields handling vast amounts of data.

The supercomputer "Fugaku," which will complement the quantum computer, has the world's second-highest computing power, capable of performing 442 petaFLOPS per second. One petaFLOPS is the speed of performing 1,000 trillion calculations per second. It is known to be more than 100 million times faster than existing supercomputers, enabling precise simulations at the atomic or electron level. In 2019, Google's prototype quantum computer executed a calculation that would take a supercomputer 10,000 years in just 3 minutes.