What are companies doing with D-Wave’s quantum hardware?

While many companies are now offering access to general-purpose quantum computers, they are not currently being used to solve real-world problems due to issues with qubit count and quality. Most of their users are either running research projects or just getting experience with programming on the systems in the hope that a future computer will be useful.

The quantum systems that are being used commercially are not general purpose computers.

A quantum annealer is offered by D- Wave. The hardware uses quantum effects to reach energetic ground states for the system. This end state is used to represent the solution to a problem. Annealers are not able to solve the full range of mathematical problems that general-purpose quantum computers can. They can be used to solve more than one problem.

The systems can suffer from errors, but they are usually left with a solution that is close to an optimal one.

It hasn't been proven that quantum annealers can beat traditional computers. Compared to general-purpose quantum computers, they have a high number of bits and good connections. They are being used to solve real-world problems.

Drug searches

One of the companies that relies on D-Wave's hardware is POLARISqb, which works in the field of drug discovery. In the pharmaceutical industry, it is common to identify a disease caused by inappropriate activity of a proteins, then find a molecule that alters the function in a way that heals the disease.

If you know the three-dimensional structure of theprotein and which parts are needed for its functions, you can use computer modeling to see how well drug Molecules stick to that part. It's still cheaper to model a molecule than it is to test it on a cell. It is part of POLARISqb's process and comes after using a quantum annealer.

Shahar Keinan told Ars that POLARISqb uses a quantum computer to find the best molecule. The concept of "best" is much more than just a molecule.

Keinan said that they are looking for more than just a single property of a molecule. The molecule can't be too big or too small, but it can't be toosoluble There are hydrogen bond donors and acceptors that the molecule has to have. It has to be easy to synthesise.