The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) announced last week the signature of six hosting agreements for the upcoming European quantum computers with Italy, Poland, Spain, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
The signing ceremony, which took place at the EuroHPC JU premises in Luxembourg, was attended by representatives from the hosting organisations and the European Commission.
These first European quantum computers, which are expected to be operational by 2025, are a major step towards a European quantum computing and supercomputing infrastructure that will ultimately offer high and energy-efficient computational performances superior to current supercomputers. Together, this collaborative network of top performing quantum computers will allow for complex tasks, such as simulating the human body to conduct virtual drug trials, modelling chemical reactions to design new materials, or managing renewable energy sources via the grid for the benefit of a whole range of business sectors and public users. They will be supported and complemented by Centres of Excellence for Science and Industry. These will focus on identifying the problems that quantum computers and simulators are best equipped to solve.
The six hosting agreements define the roles, rights, and obligations of the parties selected to deploy the new quantum computers, which will be integrated into existing supercomputers:
- LUMI-Q will be integrated into the supercomputer KAROLINA at the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre.
- EuroQCS-Italy will be hosted in the data centre of CINECA and integrated into the pre-exascale supercomputer Leonardo.
- EuroQCS-POLAND will be hosted at the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre and integrated into the Centre’s infrastructure.
- EuroQCS-Spain will be integrated into the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación.
- Euro-Q-Exa will be hosted at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and integrated into the Centre’s infrastructure.
- EuroQCS-France will be driven by GENCI and integrated into the Joliot Curie supercomputer at the premises of the Très Grand Centre De Calcul operated by CEA (France).
The hosting entities were selected in order to ensure a diversity in quantum technologies and architectures, giving Europe an opportunity to be at the forefront of this still-novel field.
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking will co-fund up to 50% of the overall cost of the quantum computers, with funding coming from the DIGITAL Europe programme, for a total investment of €100 million. The procurement process for the quantum computers will start immediately in order to make them accessible to users as soon as possible.
Source: European Commission | News (https://rb.gy/1suwl)