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Amazon today announced the general availability of Amazon Braket, a fully managed Amazon Web Services (AWS) product that provides a development environment for exploring and designing novel quantum algorithms. Customers can tap Braket — which launched in preview last December — to test and troubleshoot algorithms on simulated quantum computers running in the cloud to help verify their implementation. Users can then run those algorithms on quantum processors in systems from D-Wave, IonQ, and Rigetti.
In theory, quantum computing has the potential to solve problems beyond the reach of classical computers by harnessing the laws of quantum mechanics to build powerful information-processing tools. Scientific discoveries arising from quantum computing could transform energy storage, chemical engineering, drug discovery, financial portfolio optimization, machine learning, and more. But advances require in-house expertise, access to quantum hardware, or a combination of both. Amazon asserts that managed quantum infrastructure could help facilitate research and education in quantum technologies and accelerate breakthroughs.
Using Jupyter notebooks and existing AWS services, Braket users can assess present and forthcoming capabilities, including quantum annealing, ion trap devices, and superconducting chips. Amazon says partners were chosen “for their quantum technologies” and that customers and hardware providers can design quantum algorithms using the Braket developer toolkit. They can also access a library of prebuilt algorithms and execute either low-level quantum circuits or fully managed hybrid algorithms, as well as selecting between software simulators running in AWS Elastic Cloud Compute and quantum hardware.
In addition to running quantum algorithms, customers can use Braket to run hybrid algorithms, which combine quantum and classical computing systems to overcome limitations inherent in today’s quantum technology. They’re also given access to Amazon’s Quantum Solutions Lab, which aims to connect users with quantum computing experts — including from 1Qbit, Rahko, Rigetti, QC Ware, QSimulate, Xanadu, and Zapata — to identify ways to apply quantum computing inside their organizations.
Amazon says Volkswagen has tested Braket to gain an “in-depth understanding of the meaningful use of quantum computing in a corporate environment.” Other early adopters include multinational power company Enel, biotechnology organization Amgen, the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing, quantum machine learning startup Rahko, Qu & Co, and the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology.
Amazon Braket is available today in US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California), and US West (Oregon) AWS Regions, with more regions planned.
Braket competes with Microsoft’s Azure Quantum, a service that offers select partners access to three prototype quantum computers from IonQ, Honeywell, and QCI. But Azure Quantum is still in preview. And other rival offerings from Google and IBM only deliver compute from single, proprietary quantum processors and machines.
In a sign of its commitment to quantum computing research, Amazon unveiled the AWS Center for Quantum Computing last December. The Caltech-based laboratory aims to “boost innovation in science and industry” by connecting Amazon researchers and engineers with academic institutions to develop more powerful quantum computing hardware and identify novel quantum applications.
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