Annealing-based quantum devices
Quantum annealing is a process to solve optimization problems, based on the idea of simulated annealing. Quantum annealing is used to solve a class of problems that are called Ising or quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO). Simply put, these are problems that have a sum based on binary variables and products of pairs of the same variables along with coefficients on each term, and the goal is to find a combination of values that will provide the minimum sum. We will return to this in Chapter 5, Using Quantum Annealers – Developing a QUBO Function and Using Constraints. For now, it is important to realize that Amazon Braket provides D-Wave devices that use quantum annealing as a method to solve specific optimization problems, and these are inherently different from gate-based quantum computers.
Introducing D-Wave quantum devices
D-Wave Systems Inc., a privately held company, was created based on the concept of quantum annealing...
