Computing the impossible - new machines, new possibilities

Today, we are building the machines that can run the complex algorithms created decades ago. Quantum computers can resolve issues simultaneously, thereby multiplying computing capacity. This means that healthcare executives can test different scenarios and find complex dependencies much faster than ever before.

We are witnessing the emergence of a new class of machines which are stretching the boundaries of what computers can do. Problems once thought impossible to solve because they require computing large, complex datasets are now in the realm of the possible. And because industries are in fact defined by their most intractable problems, when these machines mature, they will ignite a cascade of disruption that will revolutionize industries, including healthcare.

Three sets of new computing machines are emerging: High-performance computers (HPCs), bio-inspired and quantum. Quantum is the pinnacle of next-generation problem solving, but HPCs, or massive parallel processing supercomputers, can also help organizations to efficiently take advantage of the swaths of data inherent to the digital world. And biology-inspired compute draws inspiration from or relies directly on natural biological processes to store data, solve problems or model complex systems in fundamentally different ways.

More and more data are being created and collected every day, and post-digital healthcare organizations want to use the insights that come from it – thus driving demands for greater computing capabilities.

Increasingly the answer to this massive data conundrum is found in HPC, or supercomputing. A combination of graphics processing units (GPUs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and other purpose-built chips are starting to push HPC capabilities to new thresholds and benchmarks previously thought to be decades away – an acceleration that is rapidly making these capabilities mission-critical for healthcare organizations everywhere.

While HPC may be more familiar, there’s another class of technology reshaping what enterprises can do. Biology-inspired compute takes advantage of the most mature systems in the world: nature. There are two subdivisions to this class: biomimicry, or systems that draw inspiration from biological processes, and bio-compute, which are systems that directly utilize biological processes to perform computational functions.

HPC and bio-inspired compute won’t be the only tools digital healthcare organizations need to execute on their future ambitions, however. While they are immensely powerful, HPC machines are still “just” classical computers, and bio-inspired compute is “just” a new approach to similar problems. The single biggest watershed moment for computing will be when quantum computers solve the healthcare problems that were considered quite literally intractable – making the impossible possible.

The problem-solving capabilities enabled by this new wave of computing may lead to the biggest technological disruptions of our time. Due to the nature of the problems at hand, when breakthroughs are made, adoption is likely to scale up rapidly and to cross-pollinate into other industries just as fast. There are obvious signs to follow to track this trend, namely, benchmarking. But it’s just as important for leaders tracking the maturity of these machines to understand exactly how to interpret that information.

As more machines use customized chips and architecture and are built to purpose, more specific benchmarking may be required to understand true top end performance and capabilities.

The impact of these machines will directly follow the emergence of skilled workers who can use them. Expertise in mathematics, physics, engineering and coding will be more important than ever before. Another survey of top-level executives revealed the belief that top factors delaying potential quantum deployments today are a shortage of trained workers as well as software and hardware availability. In that same survey, half of respondents believed that lack of quantum experts is what was stopping quantum from being even more popular.⁶

The computers that will create and fuel the next generation of industry are already being built, and enterprises need to be part of this wave or risk being swept away by it.