The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has taken the first step toward popularizing quantum computing through a high-performance quantum computing emulator.

ETRI announced on the 23rd that it will operate a pilot service called 'Qground' for its internal staff using its self-developed high-performance quantum computing emulator 'QPlayer'.

This is expected to be an important opportunity to demonstrate the technological capabilities of quantum computing software.

Qground is the first result of a research and development phase that aims to develop a quantum-classical hybrid computing system technology, and provides tools that allow ordinary people to directly experience quantum programming.


ETRI's self-developed QPlayer is the result of research on 'quantum qubit error correction and logical qubit control technology' conducted since 2020, and was designed to effectively simulate changes in quantum state vectors on classical computers.

Unlike existing quantum computing emulators, QPlayer introduces a quantum state space reduction management technique to significantly reduce memory requirements and improve operating performance.

ETRI said that QPlayer surpasses IBM's commercial level of 45-qubit emulation based on multiple nodes on existing supercomputers or 35-qubit emulation on a single node.It was explained that it supports 128 physical qubits. This shows that ETRI's technological prowess is at an international level.

QPlayer outperforms existing quantum computing emulators by providing low memory requirements and fast execution times, especially for algorithms with quantum superposition within 70%. A representative application is the case of emulating the operation of six logical qubits with a code distance of 3 based on surface code on a single node.

ETRI's research results were published in the SCIE journal 'Quantum Science and Technology' and were recognized internationally for their value with two international patent applications, including a tripolar patent. In addition, they have already proven their functions and performance as the basic infrastructure for quantum encryption technology research.

Currently, QPlayer is exploring commercialization possibilities by cooperating with MegaZone Cloud, a quantum cloud platform company, and Norma, a quantum security specialist company. These collaborations demonstrate the potential for QPlayer to be widely utilized in cloud and on-premise environments.

ETRI plans to introduce additional engine cores capable of GPU-based emulation and noise-simulating emulation to expand Qground services. In addition, it plans to further develop optimal engine core operation policy selection technology based on quantum algorithm patterns into Qplayer to improve the user operating environment.

This achievement was carried out as part of the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Development of Quantum Operating System Source Technology Providing Fault-Tolerant Logical Qubit Computing Environment' project.