Many optimization and machine learning algorithms are commonly described as graph problems. For example, graphical models are often used to analyze the flow of traffic between cities or the transmission of information between neurons in an artificial neural network.

D-Wave quantum processing units (QPUs) solve graphifical models—specifically, Ising minimization problems on a physical working graph made up of qubits and couplers. The new virtual graphs feature of the D-Wave 2000Q system provides users with improved embedding performance wrapped in a simplified interface. We describe the key enabling processor technologies and provide a simple example with performance results enabled by this new feature in the D-Wave 2000Q system. DOWNLOAD.