Dependable Classical-Quantum Computer Systems Engineering

TL;DR

This paper discusses engineering principles and challenges for creating dependable hybrid HPC-Quantum systems, emphasizing resilience, failure analysis, and co-design to ensure reliable quantum-enhanced computing.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for dependable HPC-QC systems, integrating quantum computing with classical HPC and addressing unique dependability challenges.

Findings

Identifies integration challenges of HPC and QC

Proposes a framework for resilient hybrid systems

Highlights the need for new performance-reliability metrics

Abstract

Quantum Computing (QC) offers the potential to enhance traditional High-Performance Computing (HPC) workloads by leveraging the unique properties of quantum computers, leading to the emergence of a new paradigm: HPC-QC. While this integration presents new opportunities, it also brings novel challenges, particularly in ensuring the dependability of such hybrid systems. This paper aims to identify integration challenges, anticipate failures, and foster a diverse co-design for HPC-QC systems by bringing together QC, cloud computing, HPC, and network security. The focus of this emerging inter-disciplinary effort is to develop engineering principles that ensure the dependability of hybrid systems, aiming for a more prescriptive co-design cycle. Our framework will help to prevent design pitfalls and accelerate the maturation of the QC technology ecosystem. Key aspects include building resilient HPC-QC systems, analyzing the applicability of conventional techniques to the quantum domain, and exploring the complexity of scaling in such hybrid systems. This underscores the need for performance-reliability metrics specific to this new computational paradigm.