Designing quantum chips incorporates traditional microwave engineering in addition to advanced low-temperature physics. This makes a classical electromagnetic modeling tool like ARTEMIS, which was developed as part of the DOE’s Exascale Computing Project initiative, a natural choice for this type of modeling.

A large simulation for a tiny chip

Not every quantum chip simulation calls for so much computing capacity, but modeling the miniscule details of this tiny, extremely complex chip required nearly all of Perlmutter’s power. The researchers used almost all of its 7,168 NVIDIA GPUs over a period of 24 hours to capture the structure and function of a multi-layered chip measuring just 10 millimeters square and 0.3 millimeters thick, with etchings just one micron wide.