Google to continue collaboration with Kitchener-Waterloo’s Quantum Benchmark
Thursday, October 24, 2019
One day after Google revealed its research paper claiming quantum supremacy, Kitchener-Waterloo-based startup Quantum Benchmark announced that the Silicon Valley tech giant had renewed its licence subscription for Quantum Benchmark’s quantum computing software system.
Having spun off from the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing in 2017, Quantum Benchmark provides software that characterizes and reduces errors in quantum computing.
The Google, Quantum Benchmark collaboration was first announced in July 2018, with the startup noting that Google would be integrating Quantum Benchmark’s True-Q software solution into Google’s open-source quantum framework, Cirq. The integration was meant to help Cirq users solve complex problems on existing hardware, but allowing them to characterize, suppress, correct, and validate errors. At the time, True-Q was part of a first wave of software offerings to be integrated with Cirq.
“Our relationship with Google’s world-leading quantum computing effort not only highlights the essential role of our technology but our ability to support the efforts of large-scale industry players during this revolutionary stage of quantum computing development,” said Joseph Emerson, CEO and chief scientist at Quantum Benchmark.
Following the announcement of Google renewing its license with Quantum Benchmark, John Martinis, chief scientist of quantum hardware and leader of Google’s efforts to achieve quantum supremacy noted that he could not imagine building a quantum computer without Quantum Benchmark’s method.
“Quantum Benchmark’s True-Q software system and the Quantum Benchmark support team have provided us with novel insights into the performance of our quantum gate operations,” added Julian Kelly, a quantum research scientist at Google’s Quantum AI Lab. “We look forward to continuing to work with them to develop a deep understanding of our processors as we scale.”
Quantum Benchmark works with a variety of global tech giants fighting the quantum race, including IBM. In April 2018, Quantum Benchmark became one of eight startups accepted into IBM’s Q Network, which is dedicated to helping startups run experiments and algorithms on IBM’s quantum computers.
IBM has called out Google for claiming it had won the quantum race, arguing that its methodology was not accurate and even objecting to the term and idea of ‘quantum supremacy.’
The Kitchener-Waterloo startup noted that it also works with a number of high-tech companies, startups, and academic labs and as a result of its growing customer base has opened a second office in Berkeley, California.
Quantum Benchmark also recently launched True-Q in a software-as-service (SaaS) platform. meant for “first-wave” users of cloud quantum computing.
“We are now at the dawn of a new era of quantum computing that can offer transformational capabilities,” Emerson said. “We are excited to continue working with Google at the leading edge of quantum to help extend their hardware capabilities to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.