Oak Ridge labs gets hybrid quantum-HPC system to test qubit error correction

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has acquired a hybrid quantum-HPC system to advance research in quantum error correction, a crucial component for practical quantum computing. The system, unveiled by the Quantum Science Center (QSC) at ORNL, merges IBM quantum processors with an HPC system powered by AMD silicon. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), the co-design platform integrates IBM Quantum System Two, featuring 120-qubit Nighthawk r2 processors, with Umbra, a classical HPC system equipped with AMD 5th Gen Epyc CPUs and Instinct MI355X GPU accelerators.

AMD Versal SoCs provide low-latency control, readout, and decoding for quantum circuitry. This unified environment enables researchers to develop and validate quantum algorithms, workflows, and applications in a quantum-centric supercomputing framework. ORNL's director, Travis Humble, emphasized the platform's role in solving quantum error correction challenges, which are essential for making quantum computing a practical tool for scientific discovery.

IBM Fellow Jay Gambetta highlighted the shift from questioning whether error correction works to accelerating and optimizing it for building usable systems for scientists. IBM suggests hierarchical error correction as a promising approach, utilizing an inner code to protect qubits within a module and an outer code to add a second layer of protection around the logical qubits.

This co-design platform will play a key role in the DoE's Quantum Genesis Mission objectives, including the Q Competition to deliver a system with 100 logical qubits capable of performing hundreds of millions of fault-tolerant operations by 2028.