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It's soon time for US DoE SBIR/STTR applications

12/3/2019

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The team at the DoE has released topics for Phase 1, Release 2, Version 3 SBIR/STTR funding.  We are looking into topic 36 (Quantum Information Sciences).
https://twitter.com/chicago_quantum/status/1201639444484366336
https://twitter.com/chicago_quantum/status/1201572898315603969
The key topics are around Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF), the cold components around the quantum computer, and quantum networking.  

​Altaf.carim@science.doe.gov is the point of contact for Topic 36.
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How to reach us at Research Gate and Github (links)

11/18/2019

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Jeffrey Cohen on ResearchGate
Github: for Chicago Quantum
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So much to share...been busy

11/14/2019

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We have created an overlapping set of social media assets to share knowledge. 

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Medium, ResearchGate, and more.

​We help clients understand quantum computing and quantum technologies, visualize what is possible in their business, and help them create their quantum advantage through their quantum use case.
We published two articles via Medium:
https://medium.com/@cohen.sourcing

We published about a dozen YouTube videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVyHAGzpYkVsqZ3RM4oQspg/

We also published 2 eBooks (on this site in Use Cases and Platforms).
We earned our first revenue, and the team is working on running certain programs and algorithms.  Our team's expertise continues to grow.


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Thoughts on Quantum Materials Corp (QTMM)

10/10/2019

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Written by Jeffrey Cohen, President, US Advanced Computing Infrastructure, Inc.

While writing a pitch for quantum computing and our firm to a potential partner, looked for related startups to learn from.  Quantum computing is not production-ready.  Governments, universities and industry are still developing the technology.

A related technology is quantum dots.  These are very useful in that they convert light to electricity, and electricity to light in very specific frequencies (read colors).  This firm has made some seemingly unrelated, but clever announcements lately about their shift to new markets including blockchain, product tags (e.g., RF tags but cheaper and tamper proof).  They have also filed sever SEC documents, so I thought I would take a look.

1) Company overview from early 2019 shows the stress of being a startup (See SEC Filing here).  How something like a lawsuit from a previous lender can distract and disturb the ongoing operations.  How the promise of a new technology takes time, patience, tenacity and a willingness to play the long-term game.

2) A January 2018 interview with CEO Stephen Squires, found here, gives a solid overview of the company, the technology, and the vision to a non-scientist.   

3) The company looks like it is losing about $7M to $8M this year, down from over $9M last year, and is starting to see some revenues (~ $1M) from a manufacturing partnership in India.

Why post this?  It is a reminder that a new quantum technology that could have far-reaching impacts in both lighting, consumer displays, and possibly quantum computing takes time to develop and commercialize.  It starts with a vision, humble beginnings, tenacity and hard work.  It starts with humble beginnings.  One firm, focusing on lowering the cost of production and application of quantum dots in LED displays by 50% to 80%, is on a long journey.  They figured out that they could spray the dots right on the LED bulbs instead of on a firm that is then integrated into the display.  The film is expensive. 

Is this a fairly priced stock?  Not sure...after a few hours of homework there is much to consider.  For example, SEC filings show a delay in releasing their most recent 10Q and 10K.  There is that lawsuit the CEO mentioned.  Seeking Alpha entry shows about $3M in debt, and near-zero revenue.  52 week range is $.02 to $.06.  This is a near zero revenue bet on a future investment. 

Nanoco Group PLC is a competitor that we blogged about earlier...how are they doing?

Here is a picture of the 5 year stock price chart for QTMM (thank you Yahoo Finance):
Picture
US Advanced Computing Infrastructure Inc., nor Jeffrey Cohen, nor any related persons have a position in QTMM, nor are we receiving compensation for writing this BLOG entry.  This is not investment advice. 
​This is a discussion of a quantum technology startup running a marathon to commercialization success.
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What are we tweeting @Chicago_Quantum?

9/4/2019

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Picture
Words we tweeted most frequently from July 1 - Sept 4 2019:
​161 quantum
46 Thank
41 computing
31 like
31 will
30 just
27 Great
23 article
23 PQC
22 energy
21 can
20 QuantumComputing
20 Jeff
19 Chicago
18 classical
17 model
17 use
16 via
15 restrictions
15 NIST
14 theoretical
14 Cohen
13 efficiency
13 published
13 scale
13 10x
12 security
12 startup
12 read
11 Congratulations
11 technology
11 computers
11 business
11 scale-up
11 maths
11 need
11 time
10 supercomputers
10 system
10 first
10 work

​Thank you www.wordclouds.com.  
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Quantum Computers are more energy efficient

8/28/2019

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Article posted on Medium
Just published. I was Tweeting about something I want to be true, but my colleagues disagreed. So, here is the math and model to scale a quantum computing system.

​It shows that today’s quantum computers are 10x more energy efficient than classical supercomputers, ceteris paribus.

당신의 의견에 감사드립니다. 한국 온라인 게임 '플래시 사이트'는 아직 TLS 1.3 보안 프로토콜을 사용합니까? BTW, 나는 Niantic 게임을한다.

Thank you for your comment.  Do Korean online gaming 'flash sites' use TLS 1.3 security protocol yet?  BTW, I play Niantic games.
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The challenge of converting quantum computing into business language

7/2/2019

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For our first client, we will create a multi-dimensional space in which to pull random samples in a quasi-monte carlo simulation.  We will use classical computing for ETL and to create the vectors (one per dimension), then use a quantum computer for the 'hard parts.'  Then, we will feed the answers into classical computers...and ultimately a Microsoft Word document.

It is relatively easy (based on decades of training and experience) to understand business requirements, and challenging to figure out the mathematical approach.  However, it is very challenging to figure out how to explain what we are doing...in plain business language.

This is my challenge today...thoughts welcome.
Regards, Jeffrey Cohen
chicago_quantum_newsletter_-_july_2019.pdf
File Size: 1455 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Response to the BLOG Post (July 11, 2019)
Jeffrey Cohen, President, US Advanced Computing Infrastructure, Inc.


On July 2, 2019, the founder blogged about the challenge of converting quantum computing into business language.  He discussed our first beta client, a pizza chain, and how we were going to optimize pizza delivery.  It was full of jargon and clever math terms like ‘quasi-Monte Carlo simulation,’ vectors, dimensions, and even ETL (extract, transform and load) the data.  We could have discussed stochastic sampling if we liked.


This is not helpful in most business or social contexts.  People ask about the business and ‘hey, what’s quantum’ and expect an answer they can relate to.

Sean, an office colleague, asked about the business yesterday.  We spoke about generalities (sales, revenue, hiring, marketing, collaboration, etc.) and then our current client challenge.  Here is how I explained the work.

Do you gamble with cards?  Games like poker or blackjack?  “Sure”, he said.  You know the computer games where you practice hands at home?  If you win 400 out of 500 hands you feel ready to go to the casino and bet real money, but it usually does not work out that way when you go.  That is because today’s computers and phones are not good at being random.

Quantum computers work super-fast with probabilities and lots of choices.  They can also be very random, like the nature it is based on.  He said, “So, when you measure it, it’s over, right?  Like Schroedinger’s Cat?”  Yes, when you ask for the answer, you get the best answer at that moment…a real number.  To be sure, you can ask it to repeat the problem and take the most common answer.  That answer is what you use.

So, you do the up-front calculations and preparation on a regular computer, then call the quantum computer, then go back to regular computers (or write a report) to use the answer.

Back to winning at cards.  So, imagine we could deal truly random cards.  If you won 400 out of 500 hands, you would be more confident heading to the casino (which we believe is random).  This made sense to him.  Run an analysis many times, using truly random input, and take the most common answer.  For pizza delivery, we would also look at the distribution of answers to understand our confidence with the operational, mathematical model we built based on truly random samples of their data.

As an aside, post-quantum security requires large amounts of random numbers to create keys to encrypt communications.  This is why we see firms pair up quantum key distribution (QKD) and quantum random number generators (QRNG).

Key take-aways:
  • Quantum computers are truly random (based on nature), which gives more independent results.
  • Quantum computers look at many probabilities and choices, then stop and give you an independent answer.  Repeat often enough and you build confidence in the answer.
  • We do all data preparation work on a classical computer (like a Linux server), then call the quantum computer for the computationally hard work.
  • In casino gambling, once we know the best cards, draws, and bets to make in a truly random casino game, we then have to think whether our casino experience is random.

​Hope you enjoyed this BLOG post.
Jeffrey Cohen
@Chicago_Quantum (Twitter)
Https://www.chicagoquantum.com
+1.312.515.7333 (cell)

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Preview of Lawrence Livermore Lab's 'El Capitan' future exascale computer

6/10/2019

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The third of three new exa-scale computers set to be purchased and built by Secretary Rick Perry and the Department of Energy.

Robin Goldstone, a solution architect at LLNL, gave an interview at the Red Hat Summit 2019.  She suggested el capitan will be 10x the performance of Sierra (which is 125 petaflops, and "so El Capitan's targeted to be 1.2, maybe 1.5 exaFLOPS, or even more. Again, that's peak performance, it doesn't necessarily translate into what our applications can get out of the platform."  In concept, we can use this to "push a workload through 10 times faster or we can look at a simulation that's 10 times more resolved" (better detail).

There will be an El Capitan Center of Excellence at LLNL (deployment and production use from 2023 - 2038).  It should focus on AI and machine learning, and advancing the goal of intelligent simulation or cognitive computing. 

El Capitan (ATS-4) is the successor to Sierra, and will be succeeded by (ATS-6) in 2027-2028 timeframe.

In March 2019's DoE FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification: 
Highlights of the FY 2020 Budget:
  • Support the development of exascale computing and associated software and applications, including non-recurring engineering development for the exascale system, ATS-4/El Capitan.
FY 2021 - FY 2024 Key Computational Systems and Software Environment Milestones:
  • ATS-3/Crossroads acceptance, FY 2021
  • Exascale computing environment, FY 2022
  • ATS-4/El Capitan acceptance, FY 2023
  • Develop advanced machine learning techniques for nuclear weapons complex applications.

LLNL needs more computing capability to achieve and advance its mission.  "More computing capability is needed." (Original in bold.)

Good one pagers on the DoE Exascale Computing Project (ECP) (thank you Rick Stevens, Argonne National Laboratory & The University of Chicago):


​

Picture
Picture
Sources:
https://video.cube365.net/v/Plqw-LotHfo
 https://asc.llnl.gov/content/assets/docs/ElCap_IntelligentSimCOE_whitepaper.pdf
https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/supercomputers/ats-4
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2019/04/f62/doe-fy2020-budget-volume-1.pdf
http://www.sci.utah.edu/~chris/Rick-Stevens-DSCI-Lecture-2019.pdf
​https://exascale.llnl.gov/
https://www.exascaleproject.org/
​
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Exascale 'Frontier' at ORNL @ 1.5 quintillion operations/second; production in 2022; $600M contract.  Quantum supremacy just became 50% harder.

6/10/2019

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By Jeffrey Cohen, @chicago_quantum, Founder of Chicago Quantum. June 10, 2019
Seven facts about Frontier (from the sources):  
- Weighs over a million pounds
- Performance equals the world's top 160 fastest supercomputers.
- Performance of 1.5 exaflops, equals 1.5 quintillion operations per second, equals 1.5 x billion x billion operations per second.
- Partnership between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), U.S. Department of Energy, Cray and AMD, with a Cray contract including $6oom for a CoE, early delivery systems, the main Frontier system, and multi-year system support.
- Cray Programming Environment (Cray PE) will be enhanced in 3 ways:  enhanced high-level software development environment, integrated with AMD technology with Cray Slingshot to take better advantage of the hardware, and integrated with a full machine-learning software stack.
- Establish a Center of Excellence by Cray and Oak Ridge National Lab
Frontier will be based on Cray's architecture, AMD's CPU and GPU technologies.
- Lawrence Livermore Lab will have an exascale computer too (pre-announced), and Argonne National Lab's Aurora @ 1.0 exaflops was recently announced (Intel and Cray for $500M).
Sources: 
https://www.cray.com/resources/how-frontier-measures-up
https://www.cray.com/blog/doe-and-cray-announce-exascale-supercomputer-frontier/#comment-757096
http://investors.cray.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=98390&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2397457

​
Implications:  While Energy Secretary Rick Perry discusses how we will 'win' the race to develop quantum computers, he is ensuring the U.S. has access to exascale classical computing too.
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Quantum Xchange & Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)...entangled photonic communications over long distances

5/30/2019

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Start watching this video, here: https://youtu.be/KnxLoScPCcQ, or here: https://quantumxc.com/watch-quantum-xchanges-tedx-talk/ at 5:39:45 to hear John Prisco, CEO of Quantum Xchange, discuss how QKD works, why we need it, and the general context of encryption.

I took away three key points:  1) the Chinese government has a 1,240 mile QKD link between Beijing and Shanghai, showing this can happen over land...over long distances, 2) they also have a satellite link that uses QKD, showing this can happen through space, and 3) Quantum Xchange has their link in the Holland Tunnel (and in fiber cables around the East Coast).  I read somewhere else that the US can now do this via an airplane and ground station, allowing for secure communications to aircraft.

OK, so the video only covered points 1 and 2.  I learned the 3rd point today from a news article that @Quantum_Xchange tweeted.  Here is Quantum Xchange's website:  https://quantumxc.com/

So, how does it work?  We entangle photons (each is '1' or '0' and together those bits make up a quantum inspired algorithm key) and send them down the link.  If somebody tries to look at them, they lose their entanglement and change.  They show someone looked (tamper apparent).  It is like Schroedinger's Cat...if someone looks the wave function collapses, and quantum values collapse to classical ones.

Pretty cool stuff.  Photonics based networking.  Speed of light, slowed by repeaters and other equipment. 

I am still waiting for data teleportation and instantaneous communication of states between photons and electrons (if I do something here, it immediately determines the value there...and there could be very far away).   
Thank you for reading. 

​Jeffrey Cohen, May 30, 2019, Founder & CEO of Chicago Quantum, a division of US Advanced Computing Infrastructure, Inc.
Another update on June 6, 2019.  I just posted yesterday about British Telecom (BT) going live with their 125km QKD network in England in March 2019 on this website.  I tweeted on it @chicago_quantum. 

Looks like BT has been working on this since 1993 (when they sent their first quantum encrypted message).  
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    Strategic IT Management Consultant with a strong interest in Quantum Computing.  Consulting for 29 years  and this looks as interesting as cloud computing was in 2010.

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