IBM to Install 127 Qubit Eagle Processor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

That Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) will be the first university to have an IBM System One processor on-premise and only the second, after the machine installed at the Cleveland Clinic, to have IBM installed at a non-IBM site. Installations at RPI are expected to be operational in January 2024. Although IBM has installed the processors in several international locations, currently all of these processors are housed within IBM facilities and local users, such as the University of Tokyo in Japan, access the computer via a communications link. On-premise installations are sometimes more challenging for vendors as they have to work out various operational considerations such as facility planning, maintenance, spare parts, security etc. with other parties.

This development was aided by a significant grant from Curtis R. Priem ’82, deputy chairman of the RPI Supervisory Board, for the creation of a new Curtis Priem Quantum Constellation for quantum research at RPI. Priem was a co-founder of NVIDIA in 1993 and then retired from the company in 2003. Overall, RPI will invest more than $150 million to build research capabilities into applications for quantum computing.

RPI is located in Troy, New York which is near the state capital of Albany and an area called the Capital Region. There is significant advanced technology and quantum activity nearby. GlobalFoundries has a large facility in Malta, New York and serves as the foundry for PsiQuantum and others. And there’s a very large state-of-the-art semiconductor research facility called Albany Nanotech Complex is located at SUNY (State University of New York) Poly’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering where IBM and several other major semiconductor companies are corporate partners.

For more information, you can view IBM’s press release announcing the planned deployment of these quantum processors at RPI on their website Here.

June 28, 2023