Israeli quantum software company Classiq joined NVIDIA and Rolls-Royce to design and simulate the world’s largest quantum computing circuit for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which deals with complex numerical simulations of fluid and gas phenomena.

Rolls-Royce plans to use the new circuit for modeling the performance of jet engine designs in simulations using both classical and quantum computing methods. The goal is to increase the efficiency of jet engines as they are adapted to use sustainably generated fuel.

Rolls-Royce and Classiq designed the CFD circuit using Classiq’s synthesis engine and then simulated it using NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs. The speed and scale of the process was made possible by NVIDIA cuQuantum, a software development kit that includes optimized libraries and tools to speed up quantum computing workflows.

The new CFD circuit measures 10 million layers deep with 39 qubits, whereas today’s quantum computers only support circuits a few layers deep.

“Applying both classical and quantum computing methods directly to the challenge of designing jet engines will help us accelerate our processes and perform more sophisticated calculations,” said Leigh Lapworth, computational science fellow at Rolls-Royce.

“We’re honored to work with Rolls-Royce on a sophisticated quantum solution to an important industrial challenge,” said Shai Lev, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Classiq. “The Classiq platform enables Professor Lapworth’s team of experts to reach state-of-the-art results using a novel algorithmic approach.”

Ian Buck, vice president of hyperscale and HPC at NVIDIA, said, “Designing jet engines, which are one of the most complicated devices on earth, is expensive and computationally challenging. NVIDIA’s quantum computing platform gives Rolls-Royce a potential path to tackle these problems head on while accelerating its research and future development of more efficient jet engines.”