Nvidia Expands Open Source CUDA-Q Platform for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

Nvidia has announced an expansion of the Nvidia CUDA-Q open source platform for fault-tolerant quantum computing. As part of this expansion, Nvidia launched CUDA-Q Logical, which serves as an orchestration layer providing a programmable and verifiable approach to developing applications for fault-tolerant quantum computers. Fault-tolerant quantum processors equipped with logical qubits are necessary for practical quantum computing, allowing systems to overcome errors inherent in physical qubits so they can execute larger computations required for applications like drug discovery, financial modeling, and materials development.

Developing applications for these systems has traditionally been a time-consuming codesign challenge because changes to algorithms, error-correction codes, or hardware architectures can alter required resources. With CUDA-Q Logical, researchers can design and orchestrate components for fault-tolerant quantum computing applications, switching between options to identify optimal system configurations. Timothy Costa, vice president and general manager of quantum at Nvidia, stated that quantum computing is maturing into an era of logical qubits, and researchers need an open and customizable platform capable of representing all aspects of a fault-tolerant system.

CUDA-Q Logical is already seeing adoption by quantum processing unit makers and national laboratories including Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Infleqtion, IQM Quantum Computers, QCDesign Quantum Motion, and Sandia National Laboratories. Iceberg Quantum utilized CUDA-Q Logical to model its fault-tolerant architecture for Diraq's qubits, demonstrating how 1,000 logical qubits can be created with 150,000 physical qubits. In early work, Fermilab researchers used CUDA-Q Logical to validate prior results and evaluate physical qubits, runtimes, and resource requirements across different error-correction approaches. This transformed system designs into a repeatable workflow, accelerating algorithm development from five months down to three weeks.

Additionally, Sandia National Laboratories developed QUOPS, a new independent cross-platform benchmark that measures the progress quantum computing systems make toward utility-scale applications. Sandia shared early results reporting initial QUOPS benchmarks for QPUs from Google, IBM, and Quantinuum, with a QUOPS reference implementation made available in Nvidia CUDA-Q. Other companies are also integrating quantum processors with GPU supercomputing using Nvidia NVQLink, an open system architecture for tightly coupling quantum processors with GPU supercomputers, while the broader ecosystem continues to adopt Nvidia accelerated computing through CUDA-Q and related technologies.