Software and Systems
Motivation
With the steady progress of fundamental knowledge in quantum and neuromorphic computing, it is becoming increasingly important not only to conduct application-oriented research, but also to translate this knowledge into concrete, real-world applications. To this end, the Systems and Software department is building the bridge from the development of new components and prototypes to application-oriented systems for users. Co-development of hardware and software is essential for this.
Fundamentals
The Systems and Software focus area is primarily concerned with system-oriented technology development. On the one hand, this involves the development of low-level software for ongoing research at the institute and the development of user interfaces for external users in order to create an infrastructure in which application-oriented solutions can be created and made more widely accessible.
Secondly, the development of new, physically or biologically inspired computer models whose properties and limits can be tested on a large scale under different environmental conditions by generating digital twins (of components or materials). Wherever possible, we try to exploit the few similarities between the fundamentally different functionalities of quantum computing and neuromorphic computing. These software simulations complement the experimental and theoretical basic research in our other key areas.
Infrastructures & cooperations
In the development of our software and model systems, we are supported above all by the unique combination of infrastructures and expertise at Forschungszentrum Jülich:
- the Jülich Supercomputing Center (JSC), by providing computing power
- the Central Institute of Engineering, Electronics and Analytics (ZEA; in particular ZEA-2), in hardware development and technical implementation
Aims:
- Aligning the results of basic materials research, quantum computing and neuromorphic computing at PGI towards application-oriented and industry-relevant solutions
- Development of software simulations of the proposed quantum computing and neuromorphic computing building blocks (new materials, devices, circuits, architectures), i.e. digital twins, to investigate their properties and limitations under different environmental conditions and at large scale
- Vertical integration (co-design) of software and theory from the material domain, quantum computing and neuromorphic computing building blocks with computational models and algorithms
- Delivering outstanding advances in fundamental research to the research community and society through tools and user interfaces for third-party users
- Development of low-level software (firmware, controller, drivers) to operate and interface with quantum computing and neuromorphic computing systems.
- Enable simulations of novel quantum phenomena (e.g., quantum many-body systems) and large-scale biological neural networks using the developed quantum computing and neuromorphic computing systems-and-software; such systems-and-software tools will advance quantum materials, neuromorphic computing materials, and computational neuroscience
- Develop application-level standards and evaluation to provide feedback to the lower pillars and quantify success