Comparable quantum annealing architectures

Omar Shehab
Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, UMBC,
Baltimore, MD 21250 USA,
shehab1@umbc.edu
May 27, 2016

In this note, we assume the reference quantum annealing hardware to be the D-Wave quantum
annealing computer. We list a number of architectural primitives of the computer.
Primitives
Relaxation time [6], Time to relax toward thermal equilibrium [5], T1 ,s
Single-qubit decoherence/dephasing time T2 , s [3]
Physical Spin Qubits
Precision, bits
Ising connectivity per physical spin qubit
Order of coupling

Values
< 25ns [5], 2ns [4]
10 ns [3], 4ns [4]
1152
9
6
2

Table 1: Architectural primitives of the D-Wave computer

Now, we build a similar table for the qubits built by the Martinis Group which is funded by
Google. Although, initially, Martinis [8] indicated that he would like to improve the Google-NASA
D-Wave computer using his better qubits, so far no report has been published by the group. All
the publications from the Martinis group have been towards developing a gate model universal
quantum computer. So, most of the quantum annealing architectural primitives are not available
from them.
Primitives
Relaxation time, Time to relax toward thermal equilibrium, T1 ,s
Physical Spin Qubits

Values
20 50s [7]
9 [7]

Table 2: Architectural primitives of the Martinis Group device

Finally, we build the table for the progress made by the MIT Lincoln Lab. In their 2014 annual
report [1], MIT-LL claimed that they have the capability to put together and control up to 100
superconducting qubits together but they are yet to build a systematic architecture using them.

Primitives
Relaxation time, Time to relax toward thermal equilibrium, T1 ,s

Single-qubit decoherence/dephasing time T2 , s

Physical Spin Qubits

Precision, bits

Ising connectivity per physical spin qubit

Order of coupling

Values
flux
qubits
(55s), 2D transmons (35s), and
3D
transmons
(80s)[2]
flux
qubits
(
100s), 2D transmons (35s), and
3D
transmons
(154s)[2]
70000 Josephson
junctions, 2
by May 2017,
8 by May 2018,
32 by November 2018, 64
by January 2020,
100 by March
2021 [2]
7 by May 2017,
7 by May 2018,
7 by November
2018, 8 by January 2020, 10
by March 2021 [2]
2 by May 2017,
8 by May 2018,
10 by November 2018, 16 by
January 2020,
20 by March 2021
[2]
2 by May 2017,
2 by May 2018,
3 by November
2018, 4 by January 2020, 4 by
March 2021 [2]

Table 3: Architectural primitives of the MIT-LL device

The IARPA approach for a quantum annealing computer obviously has taken lessons from the
D-Wave effort. Hence, they first testbed they like to build would contain, although less qubits,
but more connectivity, higher order, better coherence time, etc. The order of coupling and the
connectivity is expected to surpass what D-Wave has right now by May 2018 while the coherence
time with the MIT-LL device is already much better than that of the D-Wave computer.

References
[1] Mit lincoln laboratory - annual report 2014. Technical report, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 2014.
[2] Broad agency announcement: Quantum enhanced optimization (qeo) - iarpa-baa-15-13. Technical report, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, February 2016.
[3] MHS Amin, CJS Truncik, and DV Averin. Role of single-qubit decoherence time in adiabatic
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EM Chapple, P Chavez, et al. Thermally assisted quantum annealing of a 16-qubit problem.
Nature communications, 4:1903, 2013.
[5] Richard Harris, MW Johnson, T Lanting, AJ Berkley, J Johansson, P Bunyk, E Tolkacheva,
E Ladizinsky, N Ladizinsky, T Oh, et al. Experimental investigation of an eight-qubit unit cell
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J Johansson, P Bunyk, et al. Quantum annealing with manufactured spins. Nature,
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[8] Stephen Nellis. Google, microsoft vie for ucsb top minds with quantum initiatives, September
2014. [Online; posted 12-September-2014].