Europe Integrates Quantum Computer with HPC

The LUMI-Q consortium is a nine-country effort involving Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. The quantum computer itself is being supplied by IQM Quantum Computers and will be installed at the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center in Ostrava, Czechia, with a planned investment of up to EUR 7 million. The integration target, LUMI, is Europe's fastest supercomputer and is located at CSC's data center in Kajaani, Finland. This HPE Cray EX system, one of the greenest in the world, uses 100% hydroelectric energy and its waste heat is repurposed for local district heating. Its architecture is based on AMD EPYC CPUs and AMD Radeon Instinct GPUs. This project is part of a broader strategy by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), a legal and funding entity created in 2018. The EuroHPC JU is deploying a family of quantum computers across Europe, aiming to tightly couple them with existing supercomputers to pioneer hybrid classical-quantum workflows. This isn't the first such integration for the technology providers. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and IQM previously connected a 50-qubit quantum computer to the same LUMI supercomputer. The partners have an established roadmap, with plans to deliver 150-qubit and 300-qubit systems to be integrated with Finland's national HPC infrastructure in 2026 and 2027. The project's findings are intended to directly inform international standards development for quantum computing. Key bodies in this domain include ISO/IEC JTC 1/WG 14, a working group on Quantum Information Technology established in June 2020, and the newer ISO/IEC JTC 3, formed in January 2024 to accelerate the creation of a framework for international quantum standards.