Lockheed Martin has signed an agreement for the purchase of a quantum computing system from D-Wave Systems.
The quantum computing system from D-Wave would be useful in solving some of the complex computation problems at Lockheed. The agreement was a multi-year contract, which covered system maintenance and the related professional services of the computing system.
The computing system from D-Wave exploits the physics of quantum mechanics to solve problems that seem difficult to solve using conventional method. By using quantum mechanics it is possible to arrive at the solution quickly and at a low cost. Challenging problems include verification and validation of software, financial risk analysis, object recognition, compressed sensing and bioinformatics. The architecture developed by D-Wave is highly optimized to solve such problems.
Vern Brownell, the CEO of D-Wave, was positive that the agreement would be instrumental in tackling difficult computations. An article on quantum annealing research by D-Wave was published in a British scientific journal, Nature.
Source: http://www.dwavesys.com/