Acquisitions Shake Up the HPC Middleware Landscape

IBM's recent announcement of their new Q System One universal quantum computer is yet another milestone in the firm's long-term commitment to transitioning quantum computing (QC) hardware from one-off research status into a capable commercial offering. Although the new Q System One, as announced, does not demonstrate any significant advances in current quantum computing capability, as measured by the number of qubits per system, it does show that IBM can design and manufacture a system that, at the right price, could be attractive to a wide range of users looking to integrate quantum computing into their overall R&D process.

Major government buyers we interviewed consistently named Cray as one of the handful of global supercomputer makers capable of true innovation at the system architecture level. These vendors maintain their ability to stay at the forefront of the HPC market by continually reinventing themselves and their products. Cray's capture of the $600 million CORAL 2 contract to deliver the 1.5-exaflops Frontier supercomputer to ORNL in 2021 is the company's latest demonstration of its ability to mutate in response to the evolving HPC market environment.