{"id":43524,"date":"2025-09-04T17:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/43524\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:00:09","slug":"quantum-brilliance-ornl-pioneer-quantum-classical-hybrid-computing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/43524\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantum brilliance: ORNL pioneer quantum-classical hybrid computing\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quantum Brilliance – QDK in rack. Image from Quantum Brilliance, with permission. <\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s\u00a0Oak Ridge National Laboratory<\/a> (ORNL) announced its first installed and operational quantum computer in its data centre in Tennessee.\u00a0The system is a diamond-based quantum accelerator cluster from Australia-based Quantum Brilliance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike most other quantum computers, the QB system works at room temperature in a rack-mounted compact form without requiring\u00a0cryogenic temperatures or complex laser and vacuum systems to keep the qubits stable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ORNL will use the system to explore how parallelized quantum processing units (QPUs) can enhance high-performance computing, much like GPUs have done for classical workloads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laboratory staff will use ORNL\u2019s first on-site, commercial quantum computer cluster to explore ways to integrate this emerging technology into classical high-performance computing infrastructures and tap its potential for massive computational power gains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Ashley Barker of ORNL<\/a>: \u201cBy hosting a Quantum Brilliance system on site, we\u2019ll be maturing the real mechanics of hybrid computing \u2014 co\u2011scheduling, end\u2011to\u2011end performance tuning, data and workflow orchestration, workforce development and more \u2014 so we can eventually move HPC-quantum integration from a conceptual pilot to a fully embedded capability within leadership computing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cLeveraging the potential power of quantum computing in a hybrid ecosystem is important to the nation and aligns with ORNL\u2019s mission of boosting innovation, energy, competitiveness and national security.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quantum computing\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 a technology still in its formative stages compared to classical supercomputers\u2014 utilizes quantum bits, or qubits, to perform calculations. Unlike binary bits used by classical computers, qubits don\u2019t use 1s and 0s to encode information. Rather, they use a quantum\u00a0superposition\u00a0to exponentially increase processing power for certain kinds of problems, including\u00a0quantum mechanics.<\/p>\n

Last year, the OLCF\u00a0published a paper in\u00a0Future Generation Computing Systems\u00a0proposing a framework to integrate quantum and classical computing, reflecting its commitment to hybrid computing research.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The partner \u2013 Quantum Brilliance \u2013 is based in Australia and Germany and specializes in the design, fabrication and manufacturing of small, ruggedized quantum devices. The company\u2019s quantum system is a hybrid full-stack platform that integrates a quantum processing unit, or QPU, alongside graphics processing unit, or GPU, and CPU components, allowing it to support parallel and hybrid quantum-classical workflows.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

ORNL\u2019s first on-site, commercial quantum computer cluster will be used by OLCF staff to explore ways to integrate this emerging technology into classical high-performance computing ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Installed in the OLCF\u2019s\u00a0Advanced Computing Ecosystem\u00a0testbed \u2014 a data centre sandbox for experimenting with new computer technologies \u2014 the cluster of three Quantum Development Kits, or QDKs, features three parallelized QPUs for a total of six qubits. Although most current quantum computer systems are prone to high error rates, with physically large architectures that require extreme cooling to retain quantum coherence, the diamond-based QPUs used by Quantum Brilliance operate at room temperature in a relatively small package.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the technology, check out the companion article Q&A: Inside Quantum Brilliance\u2019s Quantum Computer Technology<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quantum Brilliance – QDK in rack. Image from Quantum Brilliance, with permission. The U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s\u00a0Oak Ridge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[262],"tags":[4086,314,18,19,3536,17,751,172,133,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-43524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-computation","9":"tag-computing","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-innovation","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-quantum-computing","15":"tag-research","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}