Pasqal Inaugurates Italy’s First Neutral-Atom Quantum Computer at CINECA Supercomputing Center

Pasqal has officially launched its SOL quantum computer at the DAMA Technopole in Bologna, Italy, marking the installation of the country's first operational neutral-atom quantum platform. Hosted by the CINECA supercomputing consortium and co-funded by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and the Italian Ministry of University and Research, this system serves as Pasqal's third federated installation in Europe, joining similar deployments in France and Germany.

The SOL platform is powered by Pasqal's Orion quantum processing unit (QPU), which utilizes 140 qubits trapped and controlled via optical tweezers. This technology allows for precise manipulation of individual atoms in multi-dimensional grids using Rydberg states. The system is tightly integrated with CINECA's Leonardo pre-exascale supercomputer to enable hybrid quantum-classical workflows, specifically targeting complex tasks like combinatorial optimization, machine learning modeling, and quantum chemistry simulations.

To support seamless integration with high-performance computing environments, Pasqal has implemented a full-stack software suite including the Quantum Resource Management Interface (QRMI). This middleware allows the QPU to interact natively with standard supercomputing schedulers like Slurm. Furthermore, the environment supports hybrid processing architectures such as NVIDIA's CUDA-Q and IBM's Qiskit, facilitating advanced computational research as Pasqal continues its commercial expansion.

Source: quantumcomputingreport.com
Publication date: 12.06.2026
Author: Mohamed Abdel-Kareem