QC Ware Shows off Quantum Computing as a Service Offering
A Palo Alto, California startup named QC Ware has started offering quantum-computing-as-a-service to their clients. The announcement comes on the heels of Google’s researchers stating last week that they had achieved quantum supremacy. The company’s public beta named Forge opened to their clients this week, allowing them to join the ranks of IBM, D-Wave, and Rigetti, as another name in the competitive quantum cloud services market.
A Shift in Paradigm
QC Ware intends to use its service to help businesses accelerate solutions to enterprise-level problems. Quantum computing utilizes a system that is different from standard computing, allowing a quantum bit (abbreviated to “qubit”) to take the values of 0,1 or both. The ability to hold multiple different configurations of states within their qubits allows quantum processors to condense processing across numerous possibilities, only presenting the ‘right’ answer when it finds the solution.
QC Ware’s customers can take advantage of the quantum computing algorithms the company has developed over the years, adapting them to the individual business’ needs. Additionally, QC ware offers customers the option of running their calculations on high-performance computers capable of simulating quantum processing, or on actual quantum computers owned by IBM, Rigetti, or D-Wave.
Quite a Long Road Ahead
While Google’s quantum supremacy announcement offers hope for the idea of quantum computing, it may be a while before we see commercial applications of the technology. Currently, most quantum computing is done through simulated means, since very few companies have access to a quantum processor. An additional complication to quantum computing dominance is the different architectures companies that currently utilize the technology use. Since there is no standard, getting solutions can vary between one processing stack and another. Real quantum computing is going to happen within the next decade, most likely, but no one can pinpoint how soon to expect it.
