Burnaby-based D-Wave has launched free access to its D‑Wave Leap Quantum Application Environment (QAE).
Called Leap, the QAE is provides real-time access to a D-Wave 2000Q quantum computer to submit and run applications, open-source development tools, interactive demos, educational resources, and knowledge base articles. The platform is targeted to developers and researchers.
“The next frontier of quantum computing is quantum application development. While we continue to advance our industry-leading quantum technology, our goal with Leap is to ignite a new generation of developers who will explore, experiment, and ultimately build our quantum application future,” said Vern Brownell, CEO at D-Wave. “Since day one, D‑Wave has been focused on fueling real-world quantum application development. We believe that the Leap Quantum Application Environment is one of the most important steps toward realizing our vision of practical quantum computing to-date.”
D‑Wave customers said its customers have developed at least 100 early applications for problems like airline scheduling, election modeling, quantum chemistry simulation, automotive design, preventative health care, and logistics. The goal is to provide software tools that make it easier to develop new applications.
“Our job is to sift through the sands of data to find the gold—information that will help our manufacturing customers increase equipment efficiency and reduce defects. With D‑Wave Leap, we are showing we can solve computationally difficult problems today, while also learning and preparing for new approaches to AI and machine learning that quantum computing will allow,” said Abhi Rampal, CEO of Solid State AI. “We started with quantum computing on D-Wave because we knew we wanted to be where the market was going, and we continue because we want to be a leader in finding commercial applications for the technology. With Leap, D‑Wave is making systems, software, and support available to help developers and innovators commercialize quantum applications.”
D-Wave has been steadily improving access to its quantum computing platform over the past year. In January 2017, the company made one of its software tools open source, and later that year it partnered with the Creative Destruction Lab to launch a one-year program for quantum machine learning startups.