Amazon today announced the general availability of Amazon Braket, a fully managed Amazon Web Services (AWS) product that provides a development environment for exploring and designing new quantum algorithms. Customers can tap on Braket – launched last December in preview – to test and solve algorithms on simulated quantum computers running in the cloud to help control implementation, and then run these algorithms on quantum processors in D-Wave, IonQ, and Rigetti systems.
In theory, Quantum Computing has the potential to solve problems beyond the reach of classical computers by using the laws of quantum mechanics to build powerful tools for information processing. Scientific discoveries that emerge from it could transform energy storage, chemical engineering, medicine discovery, optimization of financial portfolios, machine learning, and more. But making progress in the field requires internal expertise, access to quantum hardware, as a combination of both. Amazon claims that managing quantum infrastructure could help facilitate research and education in quantum technologies and accelerate breakthroughs in the future.
Using Jupyter notebooks and existing AWS services, Braket users can assess current and upcoming capabilities, including quantitative annealing, ion trap devices, and superconducting chips. Amazon says partners were “chosen for their quantum technologies” and that both customers (such as Boeing) and hardware providers can design quantum algorithms with the Braket developers toolkit. Alternatively, they can choose from a library of advanced algorithms, and are given the choice to run low-level quantum circuits as fully managed hybrid algorithms and choose between software simulators running in AWS Elastic Cloud Compute and quantum hardware.
In addition to executing quantum algorithms, customers can use Braket to implement hybrid algorithms that combine quantum and classical computer systems to overcome limitations inherent in current quantum technology. They also provided access to Amazon’s Quantum Solutions Lab, which aims to connect users with experts in quantum computing – including those of 1Qbit, Rahko, Rigetti, QC Ware, QSimulate, Xanadu, and Zapata – to identify ways to quantum Computing in their organizations.
Beyond Boeing, Amazon says Volkswagen Braket has sought to “gain a deeper understanding of the meaningful use of quantum computing in a business environment.” Other early adopters include multinational power company Enel, biotechnology organization Amgen, the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing, start-up of quantum machine learning Rahko, Qu & Co, and the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology.
Amazon Braket is available today in US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California), and AWS Regions in West West (Oregon), with more regions planned for the future.
Braket competes with Microsoft’s Azure Quantum, a service that offers selected partners access to three prototype quantum computers from IonQ, Honeywell, and QCI. But Azure Quantum remains in preview. And other rival offerings from Google and IBM only provide computing of single, proprietary quantum processors and machines.
As a sign of its commitment to quantum computing research, last December Amazon unveiled the AWS Center for Quantum Computing. The Caltech-based laboratory aims to ‘stimulate innovation in science and industry’ by bringing together Amazon researchers and engineers with academic institutions to develop more powerful quantum computing hardware and identify new quantum applications.
