Birds of a Feather

IEEE Quantum-HPC Working Group

Authors: Venkatesh Kannan (Irish Centre for High‑End Computing (ICHEC)), Laura Schulz (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre), Martin Schulz (Technical University Munich), Scott Pakin (Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)), Travis Humble (Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL))

Abstract: The IEEE Quantum-HPC Working Group BoF is the second community-building session targeting academic and enterprise stakeholders in HPC and hybrid HPC-QCS (Quantum Computing and Simulation). Launched at IEEE Quantum Week 2023, the Quantum-HPC Working Group addresses the challenges and opportunities of interfacing HPC and QCS through a full-stack approach across infrastructure, system software, programming tools and use cases. The BoF brings together attendees who are interested in the role of QCS in the HPC ecosystem to chart a sustainable path forward to interface the two technologies by collaborating on the focus areas and technical working structure of Quantum-HPC.

Long Description: The technology to design and engineer quantum computing and simulation (QCS) systems is still maturing to achieve reliable and scalable QCS systems for practical applications. There are notable efforts underway to interface QCS and HPC systems, with the primary objective towards leveraging QCS systems as accelerators for HPC systems and applications. Other objectives include the use of HPC systems for operational control and error correction of QCS systems. The requirements to interface HPC and QCS systems cover the full stack: (1) hardware infrastructure deployment and operation; (2) networking and interconnectivity; (3) system software interoperability; (4) application programming and workflow integration; (5) hybrid use-case identification, demonstration and evaluation; (6) interdisciplinary knowledge transfer and skills development

The Quantum-HPC Working Group recently has been formed within the IEEE Quantum Initiative to systematically define and address open challenges in these requirements by bringing together experts and stakeholders from the relevant disciplines. The Quantum-HPC Working Group is a community composed of the many stakeholders who are also the target audience of the BoF at SC, including: (1) representatives of HPC centres (involved in the interfacing and service provision of HPC and QCS systems); (2) quantum technology developers (involved in the engineering and development of quantum computing, simulation and communication systems); (3) computer system architects, administrators and electrical engineers (driving the host and control side of HPC and QCS systems); (4) HPC and QCS software developers (involved in system software, runtime and programming tools); (5) HPC and QCS application developers and use-case owners.

The Quantum-HPC Working Group officially launched at IEEE Quantum Week 2023 with an on-boarding event for stakeholders from the QCS and hybrid HPC-QCS communities. This proposed BoF will bring a similar opportunity to the complementary stakeholders at SC23 in the HPC-centric and hybrid HPC-QCS communities. In this session we will discuss the focus areas of the working group, its technical working structure defined as a hub-spoke model, planned activities, and framework for engagement and growth. The session will engage the audience through an initial presentation of the working group from the Quantum-HPC co-chairs followed by roundtable discussions on its focus areas that will be moderated by the co-chairs.

The BoF will also expand the international membership of the IEEE working group, including topical experts, to position Quantum-HPC as a sustainable framework for structured discussions and developments towards community-driven interoperable standards and white papers for developing solutions to deploy, operate and use hybrid HPC-QCS systems, tools and applications.

The Quantum-HPC Working Group incubated through this BoF is establishing a roadmap of activities and events for community-building as well as technical work at future SC conferences to engage with an HPC-focused audience, at IEEE Quantum Week to engage with a QCS-focused audience, and at dedicated workshops to unify the HPC and QCS communities across academic research and enterprise organisations.

Website: https://quantum.ieee.org/