• IBM Announces IBM Q System One quantum computing platform - Superconducting 20-qubit platform will be available to outside users via the cloud.
• IEEE Computer Society Predicts Top 10 Trends for 2019 - Accelerators for Deep Learning lead the list.
• US National Quantum Initiative Approved - Provides $1.2B over 5 years to promote quantum information science at government agencies, and coordinate with R&D in academia and industry.
• IBM Reveals 8-Bit Analog Chip with Phase-Change Memory - Designed for integration with neural nets.
• In-Memory Computing Chip as AI Accelerator - Princeton University researchers designed and demonstrated analog neural network integrated with CPU.
• Europe Launches Quantum Flagship R&D Project - 10-year, 1B€ program includes quantum computing, communication, simulation, and sensing.
• New MIT College of Computing - $1B commitment focuses on education and research toward future AI.
• IBM Identifies New Class of Problems for Quantum Computers - Can be implemented using present generation of noisy quantum computers.
• 3 Directions for Moore’s Law - Major companies are taking different approaches to continued scaling of transistors.

An Outlook for Quantum Computing

Proceedings of the IEEE recently published an overview of the present and future status of quantum computing, by Dmitri Maslov, Yunseong Nam, and Yungsang Kim, of the US National Science Foundation and IonQ, Inc.

Read the overview here

This work presents a qubit technology associated with trapped ions coupled by optical pulses. While this technology is different from the superconducting integrated circuit approach being pursued by other projects, it has advantages in not requiring deep cryogenic temperatures for operation, and also offers long coherent times. The ion traps can be microfabricated on a chip, as shown in the figure.

Current quantum computing technologies are noisy intermediate-scale quantum systems (NISQ), which cannot carry out desired quantum algorithms without quantum error correction, which is not yet available. The next major step is to demonstrate that a quantum computer can be used to solve a problem of practical utility that cannot otherwise be addressed, such as various kinds of quantum simulations. The transition of the proof-of-concept devices to useful computational systems faces a set of new technical challenges, ranging from improving and expanding qubit hardware to developing control/operating systems to innovations in algorithms and applications.

This issue of Proceedings of the IEEE also contains a set of other articles on alternative modes of computing. See here for the Table of Contents.

The Era of AI Hardware

At the recent IEEE Industry Summit on the Future of Computing, held in Washington DC as part of IEEE Rebooting Computing Week, one of the keynote talks was by Dr. Mukesh Khare, Vice President of Semiconductor Research, IBM Research. A brief introductory video of IBM’s efforts in this field is given here. Dr. Khare’s talk is available here.

The concurrent evolution of broad AI with purpose-built hardware will shift traditional balances between cloud and edge, structured and unstructured data, and training and inference. Distributed deep learning approaches, coupled with heterogeneous system architectures effectively address bandwidth, latency, and scalability requirements of complex AI models. Hardware, purpose-built for AI, holds the potential to unlock exponential gains in AI computations. IBM Research is making further strides in AI hardware through the use of Digital AI Cores using approximate computing, non-Von-Neumann approaches with Analog AI Cores, and the emergence of quantum computing for AI workloads.

Videos of other Industry Summit 2018 invited talks are available from IEEE.tv.

• Rebooting Computing Video Overview
• IEEE Future Directions
• Computing in Science and Engineering on the End of Moore's Law
• IEEE Journal of Exploratory Solid-State Computational Devices and Circuits (JXCDC)
• Arch2030 Workshop Report
• Workshop on Neuromorphic Computing
• Workshop on Beyond CMOS Technology
• Update on National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI)
• RC White Paper on Nanocomputers
• IEEE Computer Magazine on Rebooting Computing
• RC-ITRS Report on the Foundation of the New Computer Industry Beyond 2020