Development partnership EPIQ

• Partners: eleQtron GmbH and Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
• Cooperation in the project "Development Partnership Ion Trap Quantum Computer in NRW" (EPIQ), resulting from the network "EIN Quantum NRW"
• Ion trap quantum computer from the Siegen start-up eleQtron
• MAGIC (MAgnetic Gradient Induced Coupling) technology: control of qubits with high-frequency waves, scalable
• Gate-based quantum computer: sequence of quantum gates manipulates the state of qubits in order to perform quantum calculations
• 2-stage expansion:
  1st stage: construction of pilot system with room temperature QPU (Quantum Processing Unit) "HiQ" with up to 30 ion trap qubits; installation at Forschungszentrum Jülich for later integration with the supercomputer JURECA-DC; integration will be based on the Modular Supercomputing Architecture of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre
  2nd stage: Expansion of gate-based end-user system with cryo-QPU "HiQ+" with up to 60 qubits; in hybrid modular user operation in JUNIQ
• Goal: modular system consisting of supercomputer and quantum computer, integrated into the Jülich user infrastructure JUNIQ of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) in hybrid high-performance and quantum computing (HPC-QC) mode for users
• First steps towards potential applications in scientific operations:
  - Optimisation tasks in industrial areas such as logistics, traffic optimisation and process engineering
  - Basic sciences: physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, materials research
  - Machine learning and training of very small artificial intelligence models

• Funding organisation: Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW)
• Funding amount: 21 million euros
• Duration: 4.5 years
• Start: 2024