Luxembourg, 14 February 2024 – The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has announced a tender for the installation of a new quantum computer LUMI-Q, which will be located in the Czech Republic and integrated with the supercomputer KAROLINA. The National Supercomputing Center IT4Innovations, which is part of the VSB - Technical University of Ostrava, will thus become the home of the first Czech quantum computer.
LUMI-Q will be a digital quantum computer based on superconducting qubits in a star-shaped topology providing one-to-all qubit connectivity. The star-shape topology minimises the number of so-called swap operations, which enables the execution of very complex quantum algorithms. LUMI-Q will offer at least 20 physical qubits.
The system will be hosted and operated by IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center (IT4I) in Ostrava, Czechia and integrated into the EuroHPC supercomputer KAROLINA.
LUMI-Q will be available to a wide range of European users, from the scientific community to industry and the public sector. The upcoming quantum computing infrastructure will support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe, adding new capabilities to the European supercomputing infrastructure.
The system's total cost is EUR 7 million and will be co-funded by the EuroHPC JU and the LUMI-Q consortium. The LUMI-Q consortium is a true pan-European collaboration effort with 9 European countries involved: Czechia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
"Not only the Czech scientific community will have access to our quantum computer through the national e-infrastructure e-INFRA CZ, but also all members of the consortium. Since 50% of the cost of the LUMI-Q quantum computer is covered by the EuroHPC JU, users from all over Europe will also have access to it. Last but not least, our goal is to make quantum computing available to industrial companies," says Branislav Jansík, Director of Supercomputing Services at IT4Innovations and coordinator of the LUMI-Q consortium.
The closing date for submission of an application to tender is 2 April 2024 at 16:00.
LUMI-Q consortium
The LUMI-Q consortium will provide a European-wide quantum computing environment integrated with the EuroHPC infrastructure. The proposed concept allows the integration of the targeted EuroHPC quantum computer into multiple EuroHPC supercomputers, including KAROLINA in Czechia, LUMI in Finland, and EHPCPL in Poland. The LUMI-Q consortium brings together 9 European countries: Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.
LUMI-Q consortium partners:
- Coordinator: VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, Czechia
- CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland
- VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland
- Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
- Danish e-Infrastructure Consortium (DeiC), Denmark
- Akademickie Centrum Komputerowe Cyfronet AGH, Poland
- Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Poland
- Sigma2 AS, Norway
- Simula Research Lab, Norway
- SINTEF AS, Norway
- University of Hasselt, Belgium
- TNO Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, the Netherlands
- SURF BV, the Netherlands