The strong tailwind of national policy, the growth strategy of the public and private sectors that started in the post "Tomitake" is now running-
The torrent of the AI / IoT era has brought about a dramatic evolution in virtual space. Metaverse, where humans can enjoy communication in the real world in a three-dimensional space built inside a computer, is in the limelight, and IT companies are positioning such parallel worlds as the next main battlefield one after another. With the rise of digital economies such as crypto assets and NFTs, which are the foundations of business, the next-generation computing field is in the spotlight in the hardware domain on the same time axis.
Quantum computers are the pioneers of this next-generation computing, and the world is rushing into research and development with the public and private sectors. The Kishida administration has made clear its positive attitude toward policy support in this field as one of the important issues of "new capitalism," and it seems that the stock market will once again be enthusiastic about related stocks.
● Jumping power that cannot be found in the history of "01"
Conventional computers are based on the universal concept of digital that the operating principle is "0 or 1", and this does not change even if it is a supercomputer with outstanding computing power. .. As a concrete principle, the binary system is adopted in which all the numerical values are represented by "0" and "1", with the transistors arranged side by side and not switched on as "0" and as switched on as "1". ing. The tremendous progress in computing power was also a history built by the accumulation of this daunting "01 (Zero One)". However, the concept of quantum computers is fundamentally different. By using the superposition state that one quantum is "0 and also 1", it creates a tremendous performance that lightly jumps over the history that human beings have accumulated in "01" so far. succeeded in.
Quantum computers can derive correct answers in minutes for computational problems that take about 10,000 years with state-of-the-art supercomputers. This became a hot topic when it was announced in 2019 that it had achieved "quantum transcendence" by conducting a demonstration experiment with the quantum processor "Sycamore" originally developed by Google's research team. A little over a year later, a paper published in the scientific journal Science revealed that a quantum computer developed by a research team at the University of Science and Technology of China achieved 10 billion times more computing power than Google's Sycamore. (The reporter is Xinhua News Agency), and the competition for quantum computers is becoming sharper.
● Google and IBM
Quantum computers, which are two of the best, have completely different computational approaches from conventional computers, but what exactly are the differences? In the maze, for example, traditional computers scrutinize all options in turn. No matter how much the supercomputer evolves, it will still compete for speed in the same dimension, and there is no shortcut in the process of finding a goal. Quantum computers, on the other hand, have a bird's-eye view and can be said to be a technique that gradually approaches a definite answer from the clouds that hit the ground. If it is a maze, run multiple routes in parallel at the same time, cut off the branches and leaves (excluding the dead-end road), and narrow down the routes that lead to the goal. The larger the maze, the more advantageous this quantum computer will be.
In the field of quantum computers, we specialize in combinatorial optimization problems with the "quantum gate method," which is an extension of computer logic circuits (upward compatibility) that performs calculations by substituting quantum gates for conventional computer logic gates. The "quantum annealing method" of the quantum algorithm is roughly divided into these two. Simply put, the quantum gate method is included in the digital category, and the quantum annealing method is included in the analog category.
In the quantum gate method, Google and IBM in the United States are the two best, and they are by far the best in the world. Both companies adopt the "superconducting type" that creates an extremely low-temperature state and uses a superconducting substance as a qubit, but in addition to this, a large cooler is used by utilizing atoms and molecules in an ionic state as a qubit. Google achieved "quantum transcendence" in 2019 and opened a quantum data center last year. On the other hand, IBM embarked on the first commercialization of its own development in 2019 and has already provided services provided in the cloud. The company is also active in exchanges with Japan, has technical cooperation with the University of Tokyo, and is the first in Asia to bring an actual quantum computer into Japan. The quantum annealing method is a domestic technology proposed by Professor Hidetoshi Nishimori (at that time) of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1998. NEC < 6701 > [TSE P] was a pioneer in Japan, and Canada in 2011. D-Wave has been attracting attention because it succeeded in commercializing it for the first time in the world.
● Japan's "seriousness" begins at "Post-Tomitake"
In the world ranking for competing for supercomputer speed announced in May this year, "Tomitake" developed by RIKEN and Fujitsu < 6702 > [TSE P] It is fresh in my memory that I was deprived of the top spot by the US "frontier" and settled in second place. As Japan is under pressure to formulate a "post-Tomitake" strategy, cooperation with quantum computers is also being sought.
Prime Minister Kishida's "New Form of Capitalism" has set out a policy of clarifying national strategies in the field of science and technology that are directly linked to national interests, and quantum computers are included in the priority investment items. The "Quantum Technology Innovation Strategy" was once promoted under the Abe administration, but this trend is being followed, and efforts toward social implementation of quantum technology are being promoted in collaboration with leading private companies. In Japan, the key is the movement of NEC, which aims to develop quantum annealing, and Fujitsu, which is the male of digital annealing.
NEC has a track record of demonstrating the operation of qubits for the first time in the world in 1999. The company is also known for its close relationship with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The current situation is that errors occur frequently in the quantum gate method, and it will take some time before it can be put into practical use. The situation is under development. Speaking of quantum annealing, Canada's D-Wave company is famous, but NEC has invested 10 million dollars in this D-Wave company and has established a collaborative system in technology and software development.
On the other hand, as is well known in the supercomputer "Tomitake", Fujitsu has strong cooperation with RIKEN. Digital annealing is a pseudo-annealing method that uses a conventional computer and has already been commercialized for four years, and the number of contracts is increasing in Japan and overseas. In March of this year, it announced that it had developed the world's fastest simulator using the same processor as "Tomitake," and is preparing for a full-scale popularization period with a high-performance pseudo-quantum computer.
Amid the battle for AI supremacy between the United States and China, Japan is becoming more and more behind the United States and China due to the retreat of "Tomitake," but quantum computers, which are the rightmost wing of next-generation computing,, Where I want to make a comeback even if it isn't. The most important thing in investing in science and technology, which is considered to be the policy outline of the Kishida administration, is not the next-generation growth fields such as autonomous driving and regenerative medicine, but the ultra-high speed of arithmetic processing to bring innovation to them. There is no doubt that the development of quantum computers will play a key role as the infrastructure for that. In the stock market as well, there is a high possibility that the review of related stocks that will be developed independently, including major IT companies such as NEC and Fujitsu, will proceed in the medium term.
, which is expected to play an active role in the new quantum era, has a high track record in software acceleration solutions for client companies, and is actively entering the quantum computer field of quantum annealing. There is. It has been collaborating with D-Wave of Canada from early on. Business performance is also excellent due to the strong performance of high-speed solutions and the expansion of the SaaS business. Operating profit for the fiscal year ending September 2010 has increased significantly from the previous forecast of 1.1 billion yen to 1.6 billion yen (up 65% from the previous fiscal year).
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