Quantum computing systems maker D-Wave Quantum Inc. today announced the launch of a new commercial hybrid quantum computing system that can solve problems for practical commercial applications by supporting 2 million variables and constraints, double the number of its previous solutions.

The announcement, which took place at the company’s Qubits 2024 user conference, revealed that its new system also demonstrated up to 10 times the capacity of D-Wave’s other solvers, according to the company’s benchmarking.

The Burnaby, Canada-based D-Wave is an early trailblazer in the field of quantum computing and introduced the world’s first commercial-use quantum computer in 2011. Now it builds full-stack solutions for companies to tackle real-world practical commercial problems using quantum computers.

It also provides companies solutions by combining classical and quantum computers for what it calls “hybrid solvers.” These are computing systems that take problems as far as they will go with traditional computing, determine which parts will benefit from quantum computing and spin those out.

The new solution is now available on D-Wave’s Leap quantum cloud service, which provides real-time access to the company’s Advantage quantum computer and its full-stack platform for programming solutions.

Murray Thom, vice president of quantum tech evangelism, told SiliconANGLE in an interview that this combination and D-Wave’s early entry into the quantum industry mean that it already has been rolling out practical applications for commercial business for years. Users don’t need Ph.D.s or science degrees to build solutions on its systems to get real applicable results.

“There are people talking about revolutionary applications for quantum computing, and certainly those folks who have very early-stage technology products, they’re talking about revolutionary applications because they’re a long way away from it,” said Thom. “So, they’re like, the application has to be big who weren’t the journey they need to take. Fortunately for our customers, we’ve passed that journey already.”

Thom said prime examples include handling logistics and tracking for large companies such as grocery delivery, which have complex network effects taking place across teams in real time.

“Pattison Food Group has 11 grocery brands in the western North American region and during the pandemic, at-home driver delivery was really important for their groceries,” Thom explained. “We worked with them to develop and optimize the scheduling of those at-home delivery drivers and that application saved them 80% of the time it took them to produce those schedules.”

Though classical computers excel at optimizing predictable routes for deliveries, they can struggle when faced with real-world disruptions such as driver absences or accidents. These unforeseen events create branching possibilities that can overwhelm traditional optimization methods.

That’s where quantum computers come into play with their ability to explore multiple solutions simultaneously using parallel processing and handle inherent uncertainties with probabilistic solving. This makes quantum computing ideal for tackling these complex scenarios.

D-Wave doesn’t just want to provide a great solution for companies to be able to tackle complex problems. It also wants to make it simple for them to describe their problems and invent new ways to tackle them using the solver.

“We’re focused on making it easier for people to build applications with this technology,” said Thom. “And that’s the focus of this new nonlinear programming solver that we’re releasing. So, it’s got a more powerful way to kind of represent problems.”

As a result, developers can quickly represent the problem in a way that can be resolved by a quantum solution. Especially with the larger number of variables and constraints, the new quantum solver is capable of handling larger versions of real-world problems. D-Wave also provides access to expert guidance to help developers better describe their problems in a way that be represented in quantum instructions.

Image: SiliconANGLE/Microsoft Designer