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Zapata's quantum coders, ready for a hot & noisy ride.

Were on the road to quantum computing. But these massively powerful machines are still in somewhat embryonic prototype stages and we still have several key challenges to overcome before we can start to build more of them.

As a quantum reminder: traditional computers compute on the basis of binary 1s and 0s, so all values and mathematical logic are essentially established from a base of those two values quantum superposition particles (known as qubits) can be 1 or 0, or anywhere in between and the value expressed can be differentiated depending upon what angle the qubit is viewed from so with massively more breadth, we can create a lot more algorithmic logic and computing power.

One of the main challenges associated with building quantum computing machines is the massive heat they generate. Scientists have been working with different semiconducting materials such as so-called quantum dots to help overcome the heat challenge. This issue is that qubits are special, qubits are powerful, but qubits are also fragile... and heat is one of their sworn enemies.

Another core challenge is noise.

As computations pass through the quantum gates that make up the quantum circuits in our new super quantum machines they create a lot of noise disturbance (think of an engine revving louder as it speeds up), so this means we have come to define and accept the term NISQ-based quantum applications i.e. Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ).

As beautifully clarified by theoretical physicist John Preskill in this 2018 paper, Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) technology will be available in the near future. Quantum computers with 50-100 qubits may be able to perform tasks which surpass the capabilities of todays classical digital computers, but noise in quantum gates will limit the size of quantum circuits that can be executed reliably. Quantum technologists should continue to strive for more accurate quantum gates and, eventually, fully fault-tolerant quantum computing.

The fact that we know about the heat and noise challenges hasnt stopped companies like Strangeworks, D-Wave Systems, Coldquanta and others (including usual suspects Intel, IBM and Microsoft) forging on with development in the quantum space. Joining that list is Boston-headquartered Zapata Computing, Inc. The company describes itself as the quantum software company for near-term/NISQ-based quantum applications empowering enterprise teams. Near-term in this case meaning, well, now i.e. quantum stuff we can actually use on quantum devices of about 100-300 qubits.

Zapatas latest quantum leap in quantum (pun absolutely intended) is an early access program to Orquestra, its platform for quantum-enabled workflows. The company claims to have provided a software- and hardware-interoperable enterprise quantum toolset i.e. again, quantum tools we can actually use in modern day enterprise IT departments.

Using Zapatas unified Quantum Operating Environment, users can build, run and analyze quantum and quantum-inspired workflows. This toolset will empower enterprises and institutions to make their quantum mark on the world, enabling them to develop quantum capabilities and foundational IP today while shoring up for derivative IP for tomorrow, says CEO Christopher Savoie. It is a new computing paradigm, built on a unified enterprise framework that spans quantum and classical programming and hardware tools. With Orquestra, we are accelerating quantum experiments at scale.

Zapatas Early Access Program to Orquestra is aimed at users with backgrounds in software engineering, machine learning, physics, computational chemistry or quantum information theory working on the most computationally complex problems.

Orquestra is agnostic across the entire software and hardware stack. It offers an extensible library of open source and Zapata-created components for writing, manipulating and optimizing quantum circuits and running them across quantum computers, quantum simulators and classical computing resources. It comes equipped with a versatile workflow system and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to connect all modes of quantum devices.

We developed Orquestra to scale our own work for our customers and then realized the quantum community needs it, too. Orquestra is the only system for managing quantum workflows, said Zapata CTO Yudong Cao. The way we design and deploy computing solutions is changing. Orquestras interoperable nature enables extensible and modular implementations of algorithms and workflows across platforms and unlocks fast, fluid repeatability of experiments at scale.

So were on a journey. The journey is the road from classical-to-quantum and the best advice is to insist upon an interoperable vehicle (as Zapata has provided here) and to take a modular and extensible approach. In car analogy theory, that would mean break your journey up into bite-size chunks and make sure you have enough gas for the long haul when it comes. The quantum software parallel is obvious enough not to even explain.

Even when quantum evolves to become more ubiquitously available, many people think it will still be largely delivered as a cloud computing Quantum-as-a-Service (QaaS) package, but understanding the noisy overheated engine room in the meantime makes for a fascinating movie preview.

Excerpt from:
Quantum Computing Is Hot And Noisy, But Zapata Opens Early Access - Forbes