July 16, 2018 (Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada) – Quantum Benchmark (“the Company”), a software company focused on delivering quantum computing solutions, is pleased to announce the commercial launch of its True-Q™ software system.
Errors are endemic in quantum computing. If error rates can be kept sufficiently low, quantum computers can offer transformational capabilities to tackle the world’s most challenging computational problems. Quantum Benchmark’s True-Q™ is a new suite of software products, built for makers and users of quantum computers, providing error characterization, error suppression, error correction and performance validation.
“True-Q™ increases the size and scope of problems that quantum computers can solve by successfully diagnosing and suppressing errors. For example, diagnosing errors helps hardware makers improve the design and control of their quantum computers, and suppressing errors during run-time helps users tackle bigger problems with the available hardware,” says Joseph Emerson, CEO of Quantum Benchmark. “There are high expectations for quantum computing. Helping end-users verify the validity of their quantum computations is crucial because very soon quantum computers will be able to solve complex problems whose solutions can no longer be checked with classical computers. Having this kind of validation will accelerate the adoption of true quantum computing solutions.”
The launch of True-Q™ includes several founding customers who have signed licence agreements, along with a strong pipeline of near-term opportunities.
The launch is also one of several milestones the Company has achieved in a relatively short timeline. Earlier this year, Quantum Benchmark was recognized by IBM as a “top startup” and invited to join the IBM Q Network, a worldwide community dedicated to advancing quantum computing and exploring practical applications for business and science. The IBM Q Network includes organizations such as JPMorgan Chase, Daimler AG, Samsung, Honda and Oxford University.
In the last 12 months, the Company also closed $1 million in seed-round financing led by Vanedge Capital.
The Company’s leading solutions have also attracted support and validation from the world’s leading researchers in the field of quantum computing, including: Rainer Blatt, research director of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Innsbruck, Austria; Raymond Laflamme, Order of Canada recipient and Founding Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo; and Dr. Irfan Siddiqi, Director of the Center for Quantum Coherent Science at University of California, Berkeley.
“Characterizing errors is a crucial aspect of building large-scale quantum computers. This is important for understanding how to design better controls, how to design good error correction strategies, and ultimately validating how reliably quantum hardware can perform computations,” says Blatt. “Quantum Benchmark is leading the world in this capacity, and our own lab has benefited tremendously from applying these methods to gain a better understanding of the performance of our ion trap quantum processor as we scale up our system to compute with large numbers of qubits.”
“A critical aspect of building robust quantum computers is a software layer that characterize errors and suppresses them when possible through the appropriate implementation of optimal error-correction strategies that can deliver reliable qubits to the end-user,” says Laflamme. “Quantum Benchmark is a spin-off from research performed at the Institute for Quantum Computing and their team includes several of the researchers who pioneered crucial methods in this area. I have applied many of their methods in my own lab. I look forward to seeing Quantum Benchmark play a valuable and unique role in global efforts to build reliable quantum computers that can help solve some of the world’s most important and pressing problems.’’
“The methods of error characterization and suppression developed by Quantum Benchmark are important tools that help in the design and control of robust quantum computation as these systems are now scaling up to tackle increasingly complex problems, says Siddiqi. “The Quantum Benchmark team includes several of the researchers who pioneered key developments in this area and their tools are sure to be an extremely valuable contribution to the quantum computing ecosystem.”
The Company is actively marketing its technology and capabilities to leading developers and users of quantum computing.
For makers and users of quantum hardware, the True-Q™ suite is an essential component of the quantum computing software stack. True-Q™ provides tools to help improve and quantify the widely variable performance capabilities of quantum hardware, increasing the reach of quantum computing to solve real-world problems. True-Q™ optimizes and validates, during run-time, the performance of any application or algorithm run on any quantum computing hardware platform. The direct benefits of True-Q™ to end-users of quantum computers include:
We are a venture-backed, software start-up located in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada, that is focused on delivering quantum computing solutions. The Company, spun off from the Institute for Quantum Computing, was founded in 2017 and is built on decades of groundbreaking research. Our team includes world-leading researchers in quantum error-characterization and error-correction who help makers and users of quantum computers achieve optimal and reliable performance on the quantum computers of today and tomorrow.
More information about Quantum Benchmark, our technology and products: www.quantumbenchmark.com
Joseph Emerson, PhD
CEO, Quantum Benchmark
jemerson@quantumbenchmark.com