D-Wave Systems Announces Multi-Year Agreement With Lockheed Martin

D-Wave Systems Inc., the world's first quantum computing company, today announced that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Lockheed Martin

to upgrade the company's 512-qubit D-Wave Two™ quantum computer to the new D-Wave 2X™ system with 1,000+ qubits. This represents the second system upgrade since Lockheed Martin became D-Wave's first customer in 2011 with the purchase of a 128-qubit D-Wave One™ system. The agreement includes the system, maintenance and associated professional services. "Our mission is to solve complex challenges, advance scientific discovery and deliver innovative solutions to our customers, which requires expertise in the most advanced technologies," said Greg Tallant, Lockheed Martin fellow and lead for the University of Southern California-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computation Center (QCC). "Through our continued investment in D-Wave technology, we are able to push the boundaries of quantum computing and apply the latest technologies to address the real-world problems being faced by our customers." For quantum computing, the performance gain over traditional computing is most evident in exceedingly complex computational problems. This could be in areas such as validating the performance of software or vehicle planning and scheduling. With the new D-Wave system, Lockheed Martin researchers will be able to explore solutions for significantly larger computational problems with improved accuracy and execution time. "Lockheed Martin has been a key partner of D-Wave for many years, and their continued commitment is an affirmation of our work," said D-Wave CEO Vern Brownell. "With the new system, they will be able to work on significantly larger computing problems and continue to be at the forefront of the future of computing." The new system will be hosted at the University of Southern California-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computation Center, which first began exploring the power of quantum computing with the D-Wave One, the world's first quantum computer. "Quantum computing may help solve some of the most complex technical, commercial and scientific problems that we face in our world today," said Bob Lucas, operational director of the QCC. "At the QCC, we are bringing together industry and the academy to advance our knowledge and expertise around solving these problems in ways that are faster and more efficient than ever before." The installation of the D-Wave 2X system will be completed in January 2016.