ORCA launches PT-3 photonic quantum computer

Author: Joe Peck

ORCA Computing, a London-based developer of photonic quantum computers for data centres, has launched PT-3, a photonic quantum computer designed to deliver commercial quantum advantage.

The first system is operational at Digital Realty’s Innovation Lab in London, where it runs alongside NVIDIA accelerated computing.

ORCA says PT-3 works alongside graphics processing units (GPUs) to increase the expressivity of AI models, helping them learn from limited training data and identify candidates for new drugs and materials.

The system has generated results using a hybrid quantum-classical extension of NVIDIA’s Proteína generative protein-design model. Trained using 32 NVIDIA Hopper GPUs and a PT-3 system operating with 64 photons in 128 qumodes, the model improved the ratio of useful proteins by 20% compared with a classical baseline. It also generated novel proteins with a different mix of secondary structures.

These results build on earlier work using ORCA’s PT-2 system with the Technical University of Denmark, which produced around twice as many strong peptide binders as classical AI, validated in laboratory testing, and generated 49% more valid, unique molecules on the QM9 benchmark.

Faster optimisation workflows

PT-3 is also being used for industrial optimisation, including energy scheduling. In work involving JIJ and the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre, the system ran a hybrid quantum-classical workflow for a 25,755-variable unit commitment problem in about an hour. ORCA says this is more than 12 times faster than its predecessor at the same solution quality.

The associated whitepaper found that the hybrid solver produced results competitive with a commercial optimisation solver and, with additional runtime, found the best solutions among the methods tested.

Richard Murray, co-founder and CEO of ORCA Computing, comments, “By integrating our photonic quantum computer with NVIDIA accelerated computing, we have taken a critical first step in the future of hybrid quantum supercomputing.

“The PT-3 is already delivering results in AI for science and industrial optimisation, from protein design to energy scheduling. Through Digital Realty, enterprise users can now put it to work on their most challenging workloads, and customers are trialling use cases in life sciences, defence, energy, and logistics.”

Sam Stanwyck, Director of Quantum Product at NVIDIA, adds, “With the PT-3, ORCA is bringing photonic quantum computing and NVIDIA accelerated computing together in a system researchers can use to develop and test new applications.

“The value of a computing platform is in what researchers build on it. ORCA’s extension of NVIDIA’s Proteína model to generate a different range of protein structures with improved designability is a great example of what can be accomplished when these tools come together.”

Séamus Dunne, Managing Director, UK and Ireland at Digital Realty, says, “Our partnership with ORCA reflects a shared ambition to make quantum computing practical for business.

“Hosting the PT-3 in the DRIL gives us a real-world environment to explore how quantum can deliver value today, and it’s a significant step towards commercial quantum advantage at scale.”