Toshiba Brings SQBM+™, its Quantum-Inspired Optimization Solution,
to Microsoft Azure Marketplace

February 6, 2024
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Digital Solutions), an industry leader in applying quantum-inspired solutions to complex real-world problems, today launched SQBM+ for Azure, a version of its SQBM+ software customized for the Azure Marketplace operated by Microsoft Corporation.

SQBM+ for Azure joins the version already available on Amazon Web Services, and underlines Toshiba Digital Solutions’ determination to make SQBM+ available to customers working in different IT environments.

Optimization software quickly finds optimal solutions among an immense number of options. SQBM+ is derived from the Simulated Bifurcation Machine, a combinatorial optimization solver built on the quantum-inspired Simulated Bifurcation Algorithm developed by Toshiba Corporation. It runs on standard computers and finds high-precision, approximate solutions (high-quality solutions) to complex, large-scale problems in a short time. 

The commercial launch of SQBM+ allowed Toshiba Group and its partners to verify the practicality of SQBM+ and the effectiveness of applying quasi-quantum computing to high-speed, high-frequency stock trading¹, computational drug discovery², energy management, and materials development. Toshiba Digital Solutions aims to leverage SQBM+ across numerous fields, and to contribute to the resolution of complicated problems.


Key Features of SQBM+ for Azure
1．Provided as an Azure Virtual Machine

• Starting to use SQBM+ is quick and easy, as the preconfigured Azure virtual machine launches an instance of the software. There is no need to install SQBM+.
• The SQBM+ instance is exclusive to the user and quickly processes all requests. As it is an exclusive copy, users have full control of the resource and its capabilities, including auto-scale, redundancy, and start/stop.
• Can be embedded in the customer’s system to reduce network overhead.

2．SQBM+ Version 2³ supports 10 million variables and improves scale, speed, and accuracy

• SQBM+ Version 2 supports a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) solver capable of handling QUBO problems with up to 10 million variables.
• An improved algorithm speeds up the search for an approximate solution and improves accuracy.
• Toshiba Digital Solutions has enhanced SQBM+’s capabilities by offering extended functions and solvers to improve usability and overall performance.
  -       PUBO⁴ solver: A solver that supports cubic and quartic problems.
  -       QPLIB⁵ solver: For linearly constrained quadratic binary programming problems. 

3．Availability on Azure Marketplace
Azure Marketplace is an online store for certified, optimized solutions built on or for Azure, and is intended for IT professionals and developers. Azure Marketplace is the premier destination for your software needs - certified and optimized to run on Azure.


Pricing of SQBM+ for Azure
Two plans are available for SQBM+ for Azure: Learn & Development is designed for learning, evaluation, and development purposes; Business Standard is tailored for business operations. 

1:    Toshiba News Release (December 2023): The world’s first demonstration of systems that execute unprecedented stock trading strategies based on computationally hard quadratic discrete optimization by using quantum-inspired computer, Toshiba’s simulated bifurcation machine:
https://www.global.toshiba/ww/technology/corporate/rdc/rd/topics/23/2312-03.html

2:    Toshiba Digital Solutions News Release (June 2022): Toshiba and Revorf Advance Computational Drug Discovery Evaluation with Quantum-Inspired SQBM+™ Optimization Solution
https://www.global.toshiba/ww/company/digitalsolution/news/2022/0627.html

3:    Toshiba Digital Solutions News Release (November 2023): Toshiba’s New Version of Quantum-Inspired SQBM+™ Optimization Solution Supports 10 Million Variables:
https://www.global.toshiba/ww/news/digitalsolution/2023/11/news-20231127-01.html

4:    PUBO: Polynomial Unconstrained Boolean Optimization.

5:    ©2017-2023 by Zuse Institute Berlin and GAMS.
Documentation： https://qplib.zib.de/
For information about the author, refer to the link above.
QPLIB is licensed under CC-BY 4.0. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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