CINECA and D-Wave Expand Access to Quantum Computing Technology and Resources in Italy

BOLOGNA, Italy and BURNABY, British Columbia, May 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CINECA, the Italian inter-university consortium and one of the world’s leading global supercomputing centers, and D-Wave Systems Inc., the leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services, today announced a formal collaboration to offer Italian universities, researchers, and developers expanded access to practical quantum computing technology and resources through D-Wave’s Leap™ quantum cloud service.

CINECA, which is made up of 69 Italian universities, 25 national research institutions, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Universities and Research, will benefit from expanded, real-time access to the Leap quantum cloud service. This access includes D-Wave’s hybrid quantum/classical solvers, which leverage both quantum solutions and best-in-class classical algorithms to run large-scale business-critical problems. With real-time access to quantum computers via the cloud, the Italian and international scientific community have the opportunity to further quantum education, publication, and R&D, while boosting the development of real-world quantum applications.

This collaboration aids the consortium's mission to support Italy's scientific community and improve quantum computing literacy and skills training for university partners. This, in turn, will benefit the larger public administration and private enterprise ecosystem. CINECA university members, such as the Polytechnic University of Milan, have already expressed interest in leveraging quantum computing to explore drug repurposing and development, natural disaster response and relief, and sustainability challenges such as decarbonization and energy production. As an example of the value of the collaboration, D-Wave and CINECA hosted a joint webinar on March 31^st showcasing CINECA’s work on molecular docking for drug discovery utilizing D-Wave’s quantum system.

D-Wave will also provide cloud access via Leap to its latest generation quantum system, Advantage, which includes:

• Updated Topology: The topology in Advantage makes it the most connected of any commercial quantum system in the world. In the Advantage system, each qubit may connect to 15 other qubits, enabling the embedding of larger, more complex problems.
• Increased Qubit Count: Advantage includes more than 5,000 qubits. More qubits and richer connectivity provide quantum programmers access to a larger, denser, and more powerful graph for building commercial quantum applications.
• Greater Performance & Problem Size: With the capacity to solve problems with up to 1 million variables, the hybrid solver service in Leap allows researchers to run large-scale, business-critical problems, expanding the complexity and more than doubling the size of problems that can run directly on the quantum processing unit (QPU).
• Expansion of Hybrid Software & Tools in Leap: The hybrid solver service, new solver classes, ease-of-use, automation, and new tools provide an even more powerful hybrid rapid development environment in Python for business-scale problems.
• Ongoing Releases: D-Wave continues to bring innovations to market with additional hybrid solvers, QPUs, and software updates through the cloud. Users can get started today with Advantage and the hybrid solver service, and will benefit from new components of the platform through Leap as they become available.

“We have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the pioneering team at CINECA, which was one of the first non-profit consortiums to explore quantum computing with us,” said Daniel Ley,  SVP Global Sales, D-Wave. “Bringing quantum computing to the world requires more than just vendors alone. We need to continue to build a robust ecosystem of developers and researchers, innovative scientific institutions, cutting-edge academic organizations, and forward-thinking businesses to work together. CINECA is aligned with us in that mission and committed to helping their ecosystem build practical and applied quantum computing applications.”

“At CINECA we are very happy to be part of this agreement with D-Wave. Quantum computing is a field that has been strongly emerging in recent years,” said Sanzio Bassini, Head of the HPC Department at CINECA. “Its natural association with HPC, which CINECA has been dealing with for more than 50 years, makes the issue of high interest both for CINECA and for the entire ecosystem of universities and research institutions that it represents. Thanks to D-Wave for the collaboration. I have no doubt that it will be a wonderful experience for both parties.”

“Thanks to the quantum team at CINECA we were able to start addressing part of our molecular docking problem using D-Wave’s system,” said Gianluca Palermo, Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan. “They supported us in the problem formulation such that it was manageable by the quantum solver, and in its deployment on the quantum machine. This is the key to educating a team with no prior experience and helping them evaluate the endless possibilities offered by quantum systems.”

To learn more about how CINECA and D-Wave are working together to expand access to quantum computing technology and resources in Italy click here. To find out more about CINECA’s work in molecular docking for drug discovery utilizing D-Wave’s quantum systems, click here.

About CINECA
CINECA established in 1969, is a not-for-profit consortium of 69 Italian Universities 25 national research institutions, the Italian Ministry of Education, and the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research. CINECA is the Italian national facility for supercomputing applications and research, one of the largest in Europe. It develops advanced Information Technology applications and services supporting the European scientific communities, the Italian academic administration offices, the Italian Ministry of Education, the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research, and the world of industry and Public Administration.

CINECA’s HPC infrastructure is equipped with cutting-edge technology managed by qualified personnel, which cooperates with researchers and customers for the most effective exploitation of the HPC systems, in both the academic and industrial fields. The mission of CINECA is to accelerate the scientific discovery by providing high performance computing resources, data management and storage systems and tools, HPC services and expertise at large. CINECA represents Italy in PRACE (the pan-European ESFRI e-infrastructure for HPC) and in the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (a joint initiative between the EU, European countries and private partners to develop a World Class Supercomputing Ecosystem in Europe).

About D-Wave Systems Inc.
D-Wave is the leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software and services and is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing for the world. We do this by delivering customer value with practical quantum applications for problems as diverse as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, scheduling, cybersecurity, fault detection, and financial modeling. D-Wave’s systems are being used by some of the world’s most advanced organizations, including NEC, Volkswagen, DENSO, Lockheed Martin, USRA, USC, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, D-Wave’s US operations are based in Palo Alto, CA. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including PSP Investments, Goldman Sachs, BDC Capital, NEC Corp., and In-Q-Tel. For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com.

Contact
D-Wave Systems Inc.
[email protected]