OVHcloud formalized, Thursday, March 16, the purchase of its very first quantum computer from Quandela, an influential French start-up in this buoyant market.
Considered as a still emerging technology far from the glitz and glitter of the general public, quantum computing is nevertheless intended, like AI, to solve complex problems (cryptography, optimization, machine learning) by processing much more information than a typical computer. OVHcloud, the French cloud reference, has just purchased a quantum computer from Quandela. A first, for both of them.
A first for a European Cloud player
What did OVHcloud buy? The firm has acquired its first quantum machine, more particularly a photonic processor designed by the French Quandela and which responds to the name of MosaiQ. This operation ” kicks off numerous research and development projects », assures OVH.
The company aims to offer its R&D teams the means to experiment with different use cases thanks to this new equipment, a machine based on a QPU (for Quantum Processing Unit). This purchase also makes OVHcloud “ the first European cloud service provider to acquire a photonic processor-based quantum system “, as explained by the group’s R&D boss, Miroslaw Klaba. For its part, Quandela signs its first QPU order. It was already the first European start-up to connect a quantum computer to the general public.
Last summer, OVHcloud had already taken a first step in this area with the arrival of emulators that would help to offer an “as-a-service model” that brings together the products and services offered by the supplier and makes them accessible. using a simple browser.
Harnessing the enormous potential of quantum photonics
OVHcloud should be able to consider the next step this fall, when the MosaiQ computer is expected to be delivered. And everything should be able to work quickly, the use of OVH infrastructures by Quandela having already been the subject of feasibility in recent years (proof of concept, or proof of concept). ” It turns out that the first customers of Quandela connect to their QPU through OVHcloud “, says the Cloud company.
Remember that when we talk about a photonic quantum platform (which is MosaiQ), it is a machine that is intended to manipulate pure photons. Photonics is the study of light and the technologies that arise from the use of these photons. It is different from electronics, which relies on electrons.
The quantum computer uses the quantum properties of photons with qubits capable of managing states superimposing a 0 and a 1. Together, they make it possible to superimpose a very large number of values. It is this process that allows a computer to reach the quantum. And photons don’t cause magnetic interference or heat in these new quantum computer chips.
The first version of the MosaiQ quantum photonic machine, made available to OVHcloud, should initially offer a computing power of 2 qubits. It will be scalable.
Source : OVHcloud
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