Toshiba’s new algorithm, and a fistful of GPUs, can outpace a quantum computer
Toshiba's Corporate Research and Development Center has spearheaded a major breakthrough in combinatorial optimisation. Bear with me here. The new algorithm drastically increases the ability of classical PCs to tackle large-scale problems such as drug development, financing, and identifying efficient solutions for traversing the world. Sound familiar? Those are tasks often deemed so complex they require a computer of the quantum variety to be completed at any speed.
And that’s just the thing with Toshiba’s optimised algorithm, it delivers some 10x the performance of current, albeit embryonic, quantum methods while utilising classical mechanics - the same ones applied within standard digital computers. It’s called the Simulated Bifurcation Algorithm and it harnesses bifurcation phenomena, adiabatic processes, and ergodic processes to produce accurate results. All without resorting to the tricky quantum alternative, though that at least is easier to say.
Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) utilising the algorithm are able to figure out a highly accurate solution to a all-to-all connected 2000-node MAX-CUT problem in 0.5ms. That sure sounds good on paper. But to put that into perspective - or layman’s terms that I can begin to understand - that equates to 10x the performance of a laser-based quantum coherent Ising machine (CIM) - a machine held to be one of today's fastest at this kind of thing (via Phys).
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