Record on JUPITER: How far supercomputers have already come

Just a few decades ago, computers filled entire rooms yet were capable of only the most basic calculations. Today’s supercomputers may still occupy large halls, but they are technological masterpieces compared to their predecessors: precisely engineered assemblies of hardware that operate like finely tuned power stations for data. They enable calculations that would otherwise be out of reach, set new milestones, and break world records.

A team led by JARA-CSD researcher Prof. Kristel Michielsen from the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, working in collaboration with NVIDIA, has now achieved another major milestone in computing technology. On JUPITER, Europe’s first exascale system, they have for the first time successfully simulated a universal 50-qubit quantum computer entirely on classical hardware. This new world record highlights just how rapidly supercomputing and quantum research are advancing.

The simulation is a striking demonstration of the fast-paced development of supercomputing technologies and the increasingly close integration between classical and quantum computing. Cutting-edge memory technologies, optimised algorithms, and the unique architecture of the system made this breakthrough possible.

Further details are available on the website of Forschungszentrum Jülich: https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/news/archive/press-release/2025/new-record-on-jupiter-simulating-a-50-qubit-quantum-computer