IBM’s Forward Leaning History Leaves Supercomputing Setbacks Behind
If you are unaware of supercomputing history, this write-up sets the background and an interesting perspective of the forward looking strategy IBM holds to. Worth the quick read. Because Quantum is Coming. Qubit.
IBM and the Past, Present, Future of Supercomputing
Key points…
+ Over the past quarter-century, IBM and its strategic partners have been at the forefront of supercomputing systems and achievements. The company has enjoyed an inordinate amount of time at the peak of the Top500.org list. Like every other supercomputing vendor, IBM has seen its industry-leading solutions pursued and eventually overtaken by newer systems. But rather than retire from the field, the company responded to those setbacks with fresh innovations that put it back on top. Given that history, it is entirely likely that IBM will continue to add to its notable record of supercomputing success.
In short, IBM appears well-positioned to continue developing advanced IBM Q systems and to pursue and capture commercial opportunities in related areas, including business applications and hybrid quantum/supercomputing systems.
+ The cognitive-enabled heterogeneous supercomputing model that the CORAL program envisioned will continue to evolve in the Aurora, Frontier and El Capitan systems, but what comes after that? A still-emerging area that seems particularly intriguing is quantum computing… where qubit-based systems are enabling researchers to become familiar and experiment with quantum concepts. Areas where quantum solutions could be advantageously deployed include material science and discovery, risk analysis, financial services and machine learning.
+ IBM has been active in quantum computing development for nearly four decades, resulting in the IBM Q quantum systems that the company makes available via the IBM Q Experience. That online service provides access to two 5-qubit processors and a 16-qubit processor, where researchers can explore tutorials and simulations and run algorithms and experiments (more than 100,000 experiments have been run to date). IBM is also developing larger quantum systems, including the 20-qubit IBM Q System One announced in January and a 50-qubit prototype system.
Source: eWEEK. Charles King , IBM and the Past, Present, Future of Supercomputing…
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