Quantum computers have demonstrated utility in simulating quantum systems beyond brute-force classical approaches. As the community builds on these demonstrations to explore using quantum computing for applied research, algorithms and workflows have emerged that require leveraging both quantum computers and classical high-performance computing (HPC) systems to scale applications, especially in chemistry and materials, beyond what either system can simulate alone. Today, these disparate systems operate in isolation, forcing users to manually orchestrate workloads, coordinate job scheduling, and transfer data between systems -- a cumbersome process that hinders productivity and severely limits rapid algorithmic exploration. These challenges motivate the need for flexible and high-performance Quantum-Centric Supercomputing (QCSC) systems that integrate Quantum Processing Units (QPUs), Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), and Central Processing Units (CPUs) to accelerate discovery of such algorithms across applications. These systems will be co-designed across quantum and classical HPC infrastructure, middleware, and application layers to accelerate the adoption of quantum computing for solving critical computational problems. We envision QCSC evolution through three distinct phases: (1) quantum systems as specialized compute offload engines within existing HPC complexes; (2) heterogeneous quantum and classical HPC systems coupled through advanced middleware, enabling seamless execution of hybrid quantum-classical algorithms; and (3) fully co-designed heterogeneous quantum-HPC systems for hybrid computational workflows. This article presents a reference architecture and roadmap for these QCSC systems.

翻译：量子计算机已展现出在模拟量子系统方面超越经典暴力计算方法的优势。随着学界在这些演示基础上探索将量子计算应用于实际研究，已涌现出需要同时利用量子计算机与经典高性能计算（HPC）系统的算法与工作流程，以将应用（尤其在化学与材料领域）扩展至任一系统单独无法模拟的规模。当前，这些异构系统独立运行，迫使用户手动编排任务、协调作业调度并在系统间传输数据——这一繁琐流程阻碍了工作效率，并严重限制了快速算法探索。这些挑战催生了对于灵活且高性能的量子中心超级计算（QCSC）系统的需求，此类系统需集成量子处理单元（QPU）、图形处理单元（GPU）与中央处理单元（CPU），以加速跨应用领域的此类算法发现。这些系统将在量子与经典HPC基础设施、中间件及应用层进行协同设计，以加速量子计算在解决关键计算问题方面的应用。我们设想QCSC将经历三个不同阶段的演进：（1）量子系统作为现有HPC集群内的专用计算卸载引擎；（2）通过先进中间件耦合的异构量子与经典HPC系统，实现混合量子-经典算法的无缝执行；（3）为混合计算工作流程完全协同设计的异构量子-HPC系统。本文提出了此类QCSC系统的参考架构与发展路线图。