IBM to Open Europe's First Quantum Data Center in Germany by 2024: A Milestone in Germany's Quantum Technology Strategy

2023-06-07 16:42:58

US digital services company IBM announced on Tuesday (June 6) its intention to open Europe’s first quantum data center in Germany, which should be operational in 2024.

The IBM center will be opened in Ehningen, in southwestern Germany, to help companies, research institutes and government institutions gain access to cutting-edge quantum computing.

The data center will be equipped with several IBM-owned quantum information systems. It will also be equipped with processors of more than 100 quantum bits (known as “qubits”, these are the elementary units carrying quantum information) which will allow users of the quantum cloud in the European region to deploy quantum systems and process data from their customers only in Europe.

“The construction of the quantum data center combined with the zoning of the cloud over the European region will allow European users to exploit the potential of quantum computing to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges”said Jay Gambetta, vice president of IBM Quantum.

Along with the new physical hardware, IBM is also announcing new software to improve the routing of quantum computer streams.

To enable efficient execution of its software across different application layers and to comply with various data sharing legal situations regarding the quantum cloud, IBM has introduced a “Multichannel Scheduler(multi-channel planner).

This software layer sits between the user and the cloud services to separate the different regions of the quantum cloud. It should be deployed for the opening of the center in Ehningen.

IBM Europe

Ehningen is already home to an IBM Campus, inaugurated in 2009. It brings together other branches of IBM Deutschland GmbH and already hosts the company’s main data center.

In 2021, still in Ehningen, IBM also launched Europe’s first quantum computer, which at the time was considered a milestone on the way to Germany’s technological sovereignty.

More than 60 organizations across Europe are currently using physical hardware and quantum software from the IBM Quantum Network through virtualization techniques, enabled by the cloud.

Customers include Bosch, German Armed Forces University, Federal Alliance of Credit Mutuel, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), E.ON, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and many others. still others.

These organizations explore the potential uses of quantum computing in the fields of materials science, high energy physics, energy transition, sustainable development and finance.

According to IBM, the European region of its quantum cloud aims to strengthen collaboration between leading European companies, universities and government agencies. IBM thus hopes to advance quantum computing in Europe and contribute to the training of manpower in this field.

Germany’s quantum technology strategy

This first project for a European quantum cloud region is part of Germany’s quantum technology strategy.

In mid-May, the German government presented a new strategy to the Bundestag, the “Action Plan for Quantum Technologies” (Action plan for quantum technologies), with the goal of Germany taking a leading position in quantum technologies and catching up with China and the United States.

Aspiring to achieve technological sovereignty, the German plan aims to harness the potential of quantum technologies and address societal challenges in the fields of climate research, energy, health, mobility and security.

The forty-page document sets milestones that should see Germany achieve a technological leap by 2026.

“For a sustainable and technologically sovereign Germany, it is essential to identify future technologies and their potential as early as possible, to create excellent framework conditions for their future development and use and to actively contribute to the ‘developing a technological leap’can we read in the action plan.

The international race in the field of quantum supercomputers is both commercial and strategic. These devices have considerable computing power, much higher than current computers, and have, moreover, the particularity of being able to decipher the encryption technologies currently used.