ORCA launches PT-3 photonic quantum computer at Digital Realty in London

[AlexaBliss]

ORCA Computing has launched PT-3, its latest photonic quantum computer, and it is already running at Digital Realty's Innovation Lab in London. Quantum Zeitgeist's report is based on ORCA's press release. Business users can access the machine through Digital Realty, which makes it one of the more accessible commercial quantum systems in the UK

The practical details are impressive. PT-3 fits into two standard data centre racks, draws about 6 kW of power, can be up and running within hours of installation and can be upgraded on site. That is a very different proposition from machines that need a dedicated lab and weeks of setup

ORCA showed off two demonstrations. In the first, it extended NVIDIA's Proteína protein design model and ran it alongside PT-3, using 64 photons across 128 qumodes plus 32 NVIDIA Hopper GPUs. ORCA says this improved the identification of new protein structures by 20 percent compared with classical baselines

The second test was an energy problem. Working with JIJ, bp and the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre, ORCA tackled a power scheduling benchmark with 25,755 variables. The hybrid workflow finished in about an hour, more than 12 times faster than ORCA's previous system, and a white paper says the results were competitive with commercial solvers and beat them with longer run times

These are company claims, so independent benchmarks will matter. Still, a rack mounted quantum computer sitting in a commercial data centre, working alongside GPUs on real problems, is exactly the kind of practical progress the industry needs. Chief executive Richard Murray describes the NVIDIA integration as a first step towards hybrid quantum supercomputing

Is rack mounted photonics the most practical route to quantum in data centres? And how much weight do you give to the protein design result?

ORCA Computing Launches PT-3, The First Quantum Computer Built For Commercial Quantum Advantagequantumzeitgeist.com

[Matrix71]

Upgradable on site is underrated. Quantum hardware improves quickly, and nobody wants to replace a whole machine every two years

Swapping parts in the rack is a smart business model. Customers also hate long downtime. Swapping modules in hours rather than weeks keeps users happy

[Nadir Outlaw]

How does PT-3 compare with Xanadu's approach? Both are photonic, but the architectures are quite different. It would be interesting to see them benchmarked on the same problem. Xanadu is chasing fault tolerance through GKP states, while ORCA focuses on near term hybrid work. They may not even compete directly for years