Abstract

What can quantum computing really offer? How relevant is it in the context of other powerful tools like exascale computing clusters? At Calcul Québec, we are deeply embedded in the world of high-performance computing and advanced digital research infrastructure. For us, quantum computing naturally places itself as simply another powerful tool in the computing toolbox. A QPU, like a GPU, has tasks it excels at, and tasks it does poorly. The challenge and opportunity we face is: how do we integrate this new tool in a way that complements and works together with what already exists? How do we make use of the unique capabilities of quantum computing in the context of our already powerful infrastructure? Most importantly, how can we take all that we have learned from decades as a provider of high-performance computing and apply it to quantum? How do we make quantum accessible, applicable, and valuable to computational research? We will be discussing our relevant lessons learned from high-performance computing and our plan for integrating MonarQ, our new 24-qubit superconducting quantum computer, into our existing computational infrastructure. We will cover both the challenges and opportunities we continue to encounter in integrating the research communities of classical and quantum computing.