Today Atos in Europe announced “Atos Quantum,” an ambitious program to develop quantum computing solutions that offer unprecedented computing power, while enhancing cyber security products to face these new technologies.
The first quantum revolution, led in the early twentieth century by young Europeans of the likes of Einstein, Heisenberg, Pauli or Schrödinger, gave birth over the years to major inventions including superconductivity, transistor, laser, fiber-optic communications, MRI, and GPS,” said Thierry Breton, CEO and Chairman of Atos. “Today, taking advantage of our expertise in supercomputers and cyber security, we are fully committed to the second quantum revolution that will disrupt all of our clients’ business activities in the coming decades, from medicine to agriculture through finance and industries. It’s a real collective, human and technological adventure that opens up to us. For the one who liked the digital evolution they will love the quantum revolution.”
The Atos Quantium program was reviewed by world-renowned quantum physicists and mathematicians: Alain Aspect, professor at the Institut d’Optique Graduate School and Ecole Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay; David DiVincenzo, Alexander von Humboldt Professor, Director of the Institute for Quantum Information at RWTH Aachen University, Director of the Institute for Theoretical Nanoelectronics at the Juelich Research Center; Artur Ekert, Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford; Lee Kong Chian, Centennial Professor and Director, Centre of Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore; Daniel Estève, Research Director, CEA Saclay, head of Quantronics; Serge Haroche, Professor emeritus at the Collège de France, Nobel laureate in Physics; Cédric Villani, Professor at University of Lyon Claude Bernard, Head of the Henri Poincaré Institute CNRS/UPMC, Fields Medal laureate.
Atos Quantum targets the following developments:
- Developing a quantum simulation platform to enable researchers to test, as of now, algorithms and software for future quantum computers
- Creating an algorithm development and programming cluster to develop a portfolio of quantum applications, in particular for Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, supercomputing and cyber security
- Designing innovative computing architectures to enable applications to benefit from the colossal power provided by quantum and standard environments available on conventional supercomputers
- Developing new quantum safe cryptography algorithms to make applications inviolable by quantum methods and preserve existing safety levels that enable, amongst other things, the secure operation of the Internet, electronic business, and the protection of personal data.
Atos Quantum fits into Atos’ rich technological ecosystem. The Group already has 15 R&D centres and has created a new quantum research and development laboratory in France, near Paris, with a dedicated quantum team. Atos Quantum also benefits from the dynamics of the Group in supercomputing, numerical simulation and cyber security. To simulate quantum computing, Atos Quantum can already rely on the computing power of the Bull sequana supercomputer, launched in April 2016, and its program to achieve exaflop performance – 1 billion billion operations per second.
Quantum computation is expected in the next decades to confront the explosion of data generated by the Big Data and the Internet of Things revolution. It should also generate significant advances in deep learning and artificial intelligence. To move forward on these critical issues, Atos intends to set up several partnerships with research centers and universities worldwide.
