The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has installed its first quantum computer in its data center in Tennessee.

The system is powered by a diamond-based quantum accelerator cluster developed by Quantum Brilliance, a company based in Australia and Germany specializing in the design, fabrication, and manufacturing of small, ruggedized quantum devices.

The partnership between ORNL and Quantum Brilliance was first announced in September 2024.

Housed at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), the quantum computer deployed at ORNL is a Quantum Development Kit (QDK) – a hybrid full-stack platform that integrates a quantum processing unit (QPU) alongside GPU and CPU components, allowing it to support parallel and hybrid quantum-classical workflows.

The cluster is comprised of three QDKs and features three parallelized QPUs offering a total of 6 qubits.

Unlike other quantum platforms, such as those based on superconducting technology, which require cryogenically cooled environments in which to operate, Quantum Brilliance’s diamond-based QPUs operate at room temperature. The company says it makes them more accessible and scalable for integration into standard computing environments.

The system has been named Quoll after the Australian marsupial. Researchers at ORNL will use Quoll to explore how to further integrate quantum technology into classical high-performance computing infrastructures and examine the computational power gains that could result from such an approach.

“By hosting a Quantum Brilliance system on site, we’ll be maturing the real mechanics of hybrid computing — co‑scheduling, end‑to‑end performance tuning, data and workflow orchestration, workforce development, and more — so we can eventually move HPC-quantum integration from a conceptual pilot to a fully embedded capability within leadership computing,” said OLCF program director, Ashley Barker of ORNL. “Leveraging the potential power of quantum computing in a hybrid ecosystem is important to the nation and aligns with ORNL’s mission of boosting innovation, energy, competitiveness, and national security.”

Quantum Brilliance CEO, Mark Luo, added: “Our collaboration with ORNL marks a significant milestone for Quantum Brilliance and the future of quantum computing and is the result of years of close collaboration with Travis Humble and the incredible team at ORNL. Together, we are working towards the vision of integrating our GPU-sized diamond quantum systems with ORNL’s world-class HPC infrastructure.”

Founded in Australia in 2019, Quantum Brilliance was born out of research projects undertaken at the Australian National University. The company, which has received funding from the Australian Capital Territory government, now operates in Canberra, Australia, and Stuttgart, Germany.

The optical and quantum properties of diamonds are thought to make them uniquely promising for quantum networking and quantum communications applications.