ORCA launches PT-3 quantum computer for business use

ORCA Computing has launched the PT-3 quantum computer, which it describes as the first quantum system built for commercial quantum advantage.

The first PT-3 is operating at the Digital Realty Innovation Lab in London alongside NVIDIA-accelerated computing. It is already being used for protein design and energy optimisation, two areas that combine quantum and classical systems in a single workflow.

The launch marks the latest step for the London-based quantum computing company, which focuses on photonic systems. Unlike quantum computers that require extreme cooling, the PT-3 operates at room temperature, uses 6 kW across two standard racks and can be installed within hours, according to ORCA.

ORCA says the PT-3 is modular and can be upgraded in the field, allowing customers to increase performance over time without replacing the full system. It has positioned that feature as central to its effort to move quantum computing beyond demonstration projects and into regular use within existing data centre infrastructure.

Protein design

One of the main results highlighted by ORCA involves a hybrid quantum-classical extension of NVIDIA's Proteína model for protein design. The model was trained on 32 NVIDIA Hopper GPUs working with a PT-3 configured with 64 photons in 128 qumodes, according to the company.

ORCA says the hybrid 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, suggesting the quantum component broadened the range of structures identified by the model.

The company links those findings to a wider problem in AI for science, where limited training data can restrict model performance. It says its approach is designed to increase the expressivity of AI models so they can learn more from smaller datasets and produce more varied candidates in areas such as drug and materials discovery.

Those claims build on earlier work from ORCA's PT-2 system. In collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark, ORCA says PT-2 produced about twice as many strong peptide binders as classical AI in work later validated in the laboratory. It also says PT-2 generated 49% more valid, unique molecules on the QM9 benchmark, a common dataset in quantum chemistry and molecular machine learning.

Energy scheduling

ORCA says the PT-3 has also been applied to industrial optimisation, including energy scheduling. It points to work with JIJ, bp and the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre on the unit commitment problem, a benchmark used to test methods for scheduling electricity generation.

On a 25,755-variable benchmark, ORCA says PT-3 ran the hybrid quantum-classical workflow in about an hour. That was more than 12 times faster than its predecessor at the same solution quality, according to the company.

In tests described by ORCA, the hybrid solver delivered results that were competitive on solution quality with a leading commercial optimisation solver. The company adds that, given more runtime, the hybrid approach found the best solutions of any method tested.

"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. The PT-3 is built to scale: it upgrades in the field, so customers who start today keep building on the same system," said Richard Murray, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, ORCA Computing.

NVIDIA says the work shows how quantum systems can be connected to existing AI computing environments for application development and testing.

"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," said Sam Stanwyck, Director of Quantum Product, NVIDIA.

Digital Realty says hosting the machine in its London innovation lab gives businesses a setting in which to assess whether quantum tools can be used on present-day workloads.

"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," said Séamus Dunne, Managing Director, UK & Ireland, Digital Realty.