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arXiv:2408.03076

Solving QUBO on the Loihi 2 Neuromorphic Processor

A.R. De Pierro, Philipp Stratmann, G. A. Fonseca Guerra, Sumedh R. Risbud, Timothy M. Shea, Ashish Rao Mangalore, Andreas Wild

Published Aug 6, 2024• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this article, we describe an algorithm for solving Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization problems on the Intel Loihi 2 neuromorphic processor. The solver is based on a hardware-aware fine-grained parallel simulated annealing algorithm developed for Intel's neuromorphic research chip Loihi 2. Preliminary results show that our approach can generate feasible solutions in as little as 1 ms and up to 37x more energy efficient compared to two baseline solvers running on a CPU. These advantages could be especially relevant for size-, weight-, and power-constrained edge computing applications.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2408.03076

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Recent advancements in quantum computing have demonstrated significant potential for solving combinatorial optimization problems, like the quadratic knapsack problem, a constrained binary optimization problem. However, current quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms often require transforming these constrained problems into an unconstrained form, known as Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO). Such transformations can significantly impact the algorithms’ speed and efficiency. In this study, we evaluate five existing transformation methods and propose four novel approaches. We assess all nine methods using Simulated Annealing and find that three of our approaches outperform existing methods in terms of execution time and the quality and quantity of feasible solutions found. Additionally, we tested these transformations on quantum annealers, which were unable to solve even small problem instances, due to limitations in connectivity and error rates. However, our results highlight the advantages of the new approaches, which reduce the total number of variables in the QUBO representation. This is a critical factor for enhanced performance on emerging quantum hardware, since it also reduces the required number of qubits and the embedding chain lengths.
Recent advancements in quantum computing have demonstrated significant potential for solving combinatorial optimization problems, like the quadratic knapsack problem, a constrained binary optimization problem. However, current quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms often require transforming these constrained problems into an unconstrained form, known as Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO). Such transformations can significantly impact the algorithms’ speed and efficiency. In this study, we evaluate five existing transformation methods and propose four novel approaches. We assess all nine methods using Simulated Annealing and find that three of our approaches outperform existing methods in terms of execution time and the quality and quantity of feasible solutions found. Additionally, we tested these transformations on quantum annealers, which were unable to solve even small problem instances, due to limitations in connectivity and error rates. However, our results highlight the advantages of the new approaches, which reduce the total number of variables in the QUBO representation. This is a critical factor for enhanced performance on emerging quantum hardware, since it also reduces the required number of qubits and the embedding chain lengths.
Recent advances in quantum computing have shown great potential for solving combinatorial optimization problems. A notable example is the quadratic knapsack problem, a constrained binary optimization problem. However, current quantum-inspired algorithms require Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) formulations. Transforming constrained optimization into QUBO impacts the algorithms' speed and efficiency. In this study, we evaluate five existing transformation methods and propose four novel approaches. We assess them by using Simulated Annealing (SA), and find that three of our approaches outperform existing methods in terms of execution time as well as quality and quantity of feasible solutions found. Also, we tested these transformations on a quantum annealer, which was unable to solve even small instances, due to limitations in connectivity and error rates. In general, our results highlight the advantages of the new approaches, which reduce the number of variables in the QUBO representation.
The main contribution of this paper is to present a simple exhaustive search algorithm for the quadratic unconstraint binary optimization (QUBO) problem. It computes the values of the objective function E(X) for all n-bit input vector X in O(2n) time. Since Ω(2n) time is necessary to output E(X) for all 2nvectors X, this sequential algorithm is optimal. We also present a work-time optimal parallel algorithm running O(log n) time using 2n/ log n processors on the CREW-PRAM. This parallel algorithm is work optimal, because the total number of computational operations is equal to the running time of the optimal sequential algorithm. Also, it is time optimal because any parallel algorithm using any large number of processors takes at least Ω(log n) time for evaluating E(X). Further, we have implemented this parallel algorithm to run on the GPU. The experimental results on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080Ti GPU show that our GPU implementation runs more than 1000 times faster than the sequential algorithm running on Intel Corei7-8700K CPU(3.70GHz) for the QUBO with nbit vector whenever n ≥ 33. We also compare our exhaustive search parallel algorithm with several non-exhaustive search approaches for solving the QUBO including D-Wave 2000Q quantum annealer, simulated annealing algorithm, and Gurobi optimizer.