While compiling a computer program may generally permit translating a computer program from a source language to a destination language, in some instances compiling permits translating a high level language such as a language understood for example by computer programmers into a lower level language which may be directly executed by a computer.
Computer program compiling has been well studied for classical computers for many years. The known computing methods however may not apply in the context of quantum computing.
The invention is defined by the appended independent claims. Additional features and advantages of the concepts herein disclosed are set forth in the description which follows.
The present disclosure describes a quantum computing compiling method comprising:
In some examples, the quantum compiling method further comprises, prior to the identifying, proceeding with SWAP insertion on a source quantum circuit in order to obtain the specific quantum circuit.
In some examples, the quantum compiling method further comprises compiling one or more additional sections of the specific quantum circuit on one or more additional subsystems of the plurality, the one or more additional subsystems being connected to the first subsystem directly or indirectly.
In some examples, the one or more additional subsystems are connected to the first subsystem directly or indirectly through one or more additional junctions; whereby the method further comprises coding the passing of a qubit through the one or more additional junctions in order to compile the one or more additional sections.
In some examples, each subsystem comprises locations, whereby each location permits:
In some examples, each subsystem of the plurality comprises a specialized location, whereby:
In some examples, the specific location is a laser interaction zone, LIZ.
In some examples the specific location comprises 2 qubits, whereby the 2 qubits are submitted to more than one quantum gate successively at the specific location.
In some examples each subsystem comprises locations, whereby each location may either be empty, comprise one qubit, or comprise 2 qubits.
In some examples each junction between N subsystems comprises N locations, whereby each subsystem of the N subsystems comprises one of the N locations, whereby N is a natural integer greater than 1.
In some examples each one of the N locations has a single neighbor location on a same subsystem.
In some examples, coding the passing of a qubit through a junction comprises coding the passing of the qubit from a source location of the junction comprised on a source subsystem to a destination location on a destination subsystem, whereby the destination location is empty prior to passing the qubit, and whereby the source and destination subsystems are comprised in the plurality of interconnected qubit subsystems.
In some examples, the method further comprises coding a parallel processing of different sections on different subsystems of the plurality prior to the passing of a qubit through a junction.
The present disclosure also describes a computer system comprising a processor configured to perform any one of the methods hereby disclosed.
The present disclosure also describes a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out any one of the methods hereby disclosed.
This disclosure relates to quantum computing. Quantum computing is a non-classical computing technology relying on the use of qubits as unit of memory. More specifically, this disclosure relates to a compiling method for quantum computing. Compiling permits translating a first representation of a computer program into a second representation. In this disclosure, compiling permits translating a higher level representation such as a quantum circuit comprising quantum gates to be applied qubits into a lower level representation. A higher level representation should be understood as being more likely to be directly understood by a human being, while a lower level representation should be understood as being more suitable for implementation onto a computing system, in this case a quantum computer. An example of such a quantum computing system is a trapped ion quantum computing system. An example of a low level representation for a trapped ion quantum computing system would describe the movement of specific ions within the trapped ion system. Such a description of movement at the system level is called a shuttling schedule. Example low level representations should take limitations of a system into account. In particular, example low level representations should take hardware limitations of a system into account. The methods according to this disclosure may also for example be applied to quantum systems based on quantum dots, whereby qubits may be physically displaced from a circuit to another, or be displaced within a same register from a location to another.
A subsystem of a plurality of interconnected qubit subsystems according to this disclosure should be understood as a quantum subsystem comprising a plurality of qubits and a plurality of locations, whereby each qubit may move from one location of a subsystem to a neighbor location of the same subsystem when submitted to a first physical phenomenon, subsystems being interconnected whereby a qubit may move from a location in one of the connected subsystems to another location in another of the connected subsystems when submitted to a second physical phenomenon. In some examples, the first phenomenon and the second phenomenon are of the same nature but the second phenomenon corresponds to a second energy level applied to a qubit for a passing from a first to a second subsystem through a junction, the second energy level being at least double of a first energy level corresponding to the first phenomenon for moving a qubit from one location to another neighbor location in a same subsystem. In some examples, the first phenomenon and the second phenomenon are of the same nature but the second phenomenon corresponds to a second energy level applied to a qubit for a passing from a first to a second subsystem through a junction, the second energy level being at least triple of a first energy level corresponding to the first phenomenon for moving a qubit from one location to another neighbor location in a same subsystem. In an example, the subsystems are Paul traps, the first phenomenon and the second phenomenon being the application of an electrical field or electrical voltage to one or more ions corresponding to one or more qubits, the first phenomenon corresponding for example to the application of a pseudopotential or energy level of less than 0.7 meV (mili electron volt, 1 meV being about 1,602177×10−22 Joule) and the second phenomenon corresponding for example to a pseudopotential or energy level of more than 0.14 meV. In some examples, the second phenomenon is differing from the first physical phenomenon. In some examples, the first phenomenon is of an electrical nature and the second phenomenon is a surface acoustic wave. In some examples, qubits move from a location to another in a given subsystem by application of an electrical field, and qubits move from a first subsystem to a second subsystem through a junction by application of surface acoustic waves.
While a single subsystem, taken on its own, may permit qubit movement within the subsystem of a limited number of qubits and permit executing, after compilation, a quantum computer program on such a single subsystem using some or all of the limited number of qubits, some such single subsystems may not permit executing other quantum computer programs requiring a number of qubits higher than the limited number of qubits available on such a single subsystem. In such cases, a solution is to run the program on another subsystem having a higher number of qubits. The current state of quantum computing is however such that any single subsystem offers a limited number of qubits, thereby limiting the possibility to run complex quantum computing programs. The example methods according to this disclosure relate to a plurality of such subsystems, whereby such subsystems are interconnected, whereby each one of such interconnected subsystems may move at least one qubit to at least another one of such subsystems. While moving a qubit within a subsystem takes place using a subsystem mechanism, moving a qubit from one interconnected subsystem to another interconnected subsystem takes place using another mechanism differing from the subsystem mechanism, whereby the subsystems, while being interconnected, are separated from each other, such separation between interconnected subsystems requiring vanquishing a certain barrier between interconnected subsystems which is higher than a barrier between different locations of a given subsystem. Using interconnected subsystems according to this disclosure thereby permits executing quantum computer programs which otherwise may not be executable using a single subsystem, for example because the single subsystem would not offer a sufficient number of qubits. The example methods according to this disclosure permit compiling a quantum computer program in order to prepare an execution of such a program using interconnected subsystems.
The threshold corresponding to a maximum number of qubits available for processing in any one subsystem of a plurality of interconnected qubit subsystems corresponds to a threshold at or below which a quantum computer program requiring for its execution a number of different qubits equal or lower than the threshold may be executed using a subsystem holding such maximum number of qubits, and thereby not requiring executing the quantum computer program using different interconnected subsystems as per this disclosure. One should note that is a quantum computer program may be executed on different subsystem without exchange of qubits between the subsystems, such a quantum computer program is considered as several independent quantum computer programs according to this disclosure. In other words, the example methods according to this disclosure apply to compiling a quantum computer program which comprises quantum gates applied to qubits, whereby each quantum gate of the program applies to at least one qubit which was submitted to at least another quantum gate of the program.
Indeed, the example method 10 comprises as illustrated in block 12 identifying a total number of qubits submitted to a specific quantum circuit, whereby the total number of qubits exceeds the threshold. Such a specific quantum circuit would then not be executable on a single subsystem comprising a maximum number of qubits equal of lower to the threshold. The threshold is a positive natural integer having a value of 2 or more. In cases of quantum circuits for which a relatively large number of qubits is to be submitted, the number of qubits submitted to the specific quantum circuit should be equal to or lower than a total number of qubits available for processing in all of the subsystems of the plurality of interconnected subsystems, in order to be processed or executed using the subsystems of the plurality of interconnected subsystems. In some cases, a specific quantum circuit may be compiled on a selection or subset of interconnected subsystems of the plurality of interconnected subsystems, particularly if the total number of qubits submitted to the specific quantum circuit is above the threshold but does not require as many qubits as offered using all interconnected subsystems of the plurality. The interconnected subsystems of the plurality may each hold a same number of qubit positions. The interconnected subsystems of the plurality may hold different numbers of qubit positions.
Block 13 of the example method 10 illustrates the compiling of a first section of the specific quantum circuit on a first subsystem of the plurality by successively selecting quantum gates from the specific quantum circuit. The successive selection may follow a reading order of the specific quantum circuit, for example top to bottom or left to right. Due to the fact that the total number of qubits submitted to the specific quantum circuit exceeds the threshold, the first subsystem will not permit compiling the entire specific quantum circuit. The first subsystem may be chosen in a number of different ways. In an example, the first subsystem is a subsystem having the same or more qubits available than any other subsystem of the plurality in order to possibly reduce a total number of subsystems used for the compiling. In an example, the first subsystem is a subsystem having less qubits available than any other subsystem of the plurality, for example to aim at freeing up subsystems having more qubits available for executing another quantum circuit. In an example, the first subsystem is a subsystem having more connections to other subsystems available than any other subsystem of the plurality, for example to aim at facilitating the use of further subsystems of the plurality to complete the compiling. Due to the fact that the number of qubits submitted to the specific quantum circuit exceeds the number of qubits which may be processed on the first subsystem, at some point of the successively selecting quantum gates from the specific quantum circuit a junction quantum gate will be reached which cannot be processed due to such processing of the junction quantum gate involving a qubit which is not available as part of the first subsystem, whereby such junction quantum gate is to be applied to qubits assigned to different subsystems. In some examples, such a junction quantum gate is involving at least two qubits, whereby at least one such qubit is originally located in the first subsystem, and at least one other such qubit is originally located in a second subsystem connected to the first subsystem. The term “originally” in this context should be understood as reflecting a situation prior to the situation illustrated in block 14 of example method 10.
Block 14 of the example method 10 illustrates coding the passing of a qubit from the first subsystem to a second subsystem of the plurality through a junction connecting the first subsystem to the second subsystem if a selected quantum gate is to be applied to qubits assigned to different subsystems. Such coding of the passing of a qubit from the first subsystem to a second subsystem of the plurality takes place through a junction connecting the first and the second subsystems which are thereby directly connected by this junction. The passing of a qubit permits executing a quantum gate such as the junction quantum gate which could not be processed using only qubits available on the first subsystem as a single subsystem. The passing of such qubit will thereby enable compiling the junction quantum gate on the second subsystem, using the qubit passing from the first subsystem to the second subsystem and one or more qubits located on the second subsystem prior to the passing of the qubit from the first subsystem to the second subsystem. The junction connecting the first and the second subsystem permits passing a qubit from the first to the second subsystem. The passing of a qubit from a first to a second subsystem employs a physical mechanism differing from a physical mechanism used to move a qubit from one location of a subsystem to another location of the same subsystem.
Another example method 20 according to this disclosure is illustrated in
Another example method 30 according to this disclosure is illustrated in
Example method 30 may in some cases further comprise block 32 whereby the one or more additional subsystems are connected to the first subsystem directly or indirectly through one or more additional junctions; whereby the method further comprises coding the passing of a qubit through the one or more additional junctions in order to compile the one or more additional sections. In other cases, some or all of the one or more additional subsystems may be connected to both of the first and to the second subsystem by the one same junction connecting the first and the second subsystem, for example when such first, second and some or all one or more additional subsystems radiate around the same one junction in a star shape configuration, whereby additional sections may be compiled according to block 31 without coding the passing of a qubit through one or more additional junctions, but possibly passing coding the passing of a qubit through the same one junction from which the subsystems radiate.
In some examples, each junction between N subsystems comprises N locations, whereby each subsystem of the N subsystems comprises one of the N locations, whereby N is a natural integer greater than 1. In the example of junction 45, N=3. In the example of junction 46, N=2. In some examples, each one of the N locations has a single neighbor location on a same subsystem. This is for example the case for subsystems which are linear and do not branch off. In such subsystems, each location has at least one neighbor location and at most two neighbor locations. In some subsystems (not illustrated), a junction may have more than one neighbor location in the same subsystem.
In some examples, coding the passing of a qubit through a junction comprises coding the passing of the qubit from a source location of the junction comprised on a source subsystem to a destination location on a destination subsystem, whereby the destination location is empty prior to passing the qubit, and whereby the source and destination subsystems are comprised in the plurality of interconnected qubit subsystems. This is for example the case when coding the passing of the qubit from subsystem 42 to subsystem 43 as illustrated in
Another example method 40 according to this disclosure is illustrated in
An example trapped ion quantum subsystem 100 is represented in
The method refers to a quantum circuit. A quantum circuit should be understood as a representation of the application of quantum gates on one or more qubits. Quantum gates are transformations applied to one of more qubits. In other words, quantum gates are basic quantum circuit operation. Example of quantum gates comprise Hadamar gates, SWAP gates, CNOT gates, Controlled-Z gates or Pauli gates.
In some representations of quantum circuits, qubits are represented along different lines, each line representing one qubit. A quantum gate operating on a qubit is placed onto the line corresponding to the qubit. In some cases, a quantum gate involves more than one qubit, in which case such quantum gate may not only be placed on the line corresponding to one of such qubits, be will also be linked by a segment to another line corresponding to another of such qubit to which the quantum gat will be applied. An example quantum circuit 200 is represented on
In order to apply a given gate such as gates represented in
An example of hardware limitation is that in some quantum computing hardware subsystems, only some specific locations may permit executing some specific quantum gates. In an example, a location such as location 103 is a Laser Interaction Zone or LIZ as illustrated in
In some examples, the subsystem comprises locations, whereby each location may either be empty, comprise one qubit, or comprise 2 qubits. In some example, the shuttling comprises locations, whereby none of the locations of the shuttling may comprise at a given moment 3 qubits or more.
Such example limitations render the compiling particularly complex. It is an objective of the method according to this disclosure to solve issues related to such a complex compiling process.
The method according to this disclosure comprises in some examples ordering quantum gates of a nearest neighbor quantum circuit. A nearest neighbor quantum circuit is a quantum circuit for which gates operate on qubits which are nearest neighbors. A nearest neighbor quantum circuit may be provided as such, or may be produced based on a quantum circuit which applies quantum gates to qubits which may not be nearest neighbors. If a quantum circuit is provided in order to proceed with a method according to this disclosure is not a nearest neighbor quantum circuit, the method may in some cases comprise, prior to the ordering, proceeding with SWAP insertion on a source quantum circuit in order to obtain a nearest neighbor quantum circuit. SWAP insertion may for example comprise inserting one or more SWAP quantum gates permitting approximating a qubit to another qubit in order to turn a quantum circuit which comprises quantum gates applied to qubits which are not nearest neighbors into an equivalent nearest neighbor quantum circuit. An equivalent quantum circuit is a quantum circuit which will provide the same final results as a given original quantum circuit. The quantum circuit illustrated in
An example of nearest neighbor quantum circuit is illustrated in
In the following description, examples of compiling a quantum circuit section on a given subsystem will be explained. Such a quantum circuit section on a given subsystem may take place for example in any one of blocks 12, 15 or 31 of example methods 10, 20 or 30.
An example method according to this disclosure comprises, in some examples of compiling a section of a quantum circuit on a subsystem, ordering quantum gates of a nearest neighbor quantum circuit in function of dependencies between the quantum gates. Ordering the quantum gates in function of dependencies implies that for example quantum gate 222 of
An example method according to this disclosure comprises, in some examples of compiling a section of a quantum circuit on a subsystem, ordering quantum gates of a nearest neighbor quantum circuit in function of dependencies between the quantum gates to obtain a quantum gates hierarchical order, the hierarchical order comprising a succession of front lines comprising multiple respective quantum gates of the nearest neighbor quantum circuit. The hierarchical order should be understood as an order to proceed with operating quantum gates when taking dependencies into account. While such a hierarchical order could in very simple cases, form a linear hierarchical order without branching, in most cases the hierarchical order with comprise branching, the branching leading to the possibility to choose between different gates. Such stages in the hierarchical order comprising different choices as to executing a next gate correspond to a front line. Front lines 801-809 comprising multiple respective quantum gates of the nearest quantum circuit are represented in
An example method according to this disclosure comprises, in some examples of compiling a section of a quantum circuit on a subsystem, successively selecting, for each front line, and following the hierarchical order, a shuttling for each respective quantum gate of the front line. An example of shuttling is illustrated in
Another example of shuttling is illustrated in Figured 10D to 10G, whereby two qubits which originally were away from the LIZ in
A further example of shuttling is illustrated in Figured 10H to 10G, whereby 2 qubits originally together in a LIZ as per
As mentioned above, a shuttling may be selected for each respective quantum gate of the front line. Because each front line comprises multiple respective quantum gates, a choice should be made. Indeed, according to the example method hereby described, the shuttling selection is, for each front line, based on a predefined constraint. Such predefined constraint permits selecting in which order of quantum gate shuttling should be built for a given front line. It is indeed an objective of this example method to determine a specific path to build a shuttling corresponding to a quantum circuit section on a quantum subsystem when numerous paths are otherwise available.
In other words, if a user is provided with a quantum circuit section C and with hardware H corresponding to a quantum computing subsystem, numerous shuttling or shuttling schedule possibilities may exist to implement the quantum circuit section using the quantum computing subsystem. If a set Sc(H) of all possible shuttling schedules is defined which are equivalent to circuit section C taking into account the characteristics or limitations of hardware subsystem H, an example resolution of the technical problem may be formulated as solving:
where function ƒ is a function from Sc(H) towards . Finding a shuttling schedule close to a global optimal point may be permitted by this example method.
In some examples, the constraint is a dimensional constraint. Using a dimensional constraint may permit taking dimensional limitations of a quantum computing subsystem into account. Dimensional limitations may for example comprise a maximum number of locations. Different quantum subsystems may have different dimensional constraints. In some examples, the dimensional constraint applies to a trapped ion quantum computer subsystem. Example of dimensional constraints which may apply to a trapped ion quantum subsystem comprises a limited number of locations and a limited number of qubits.
In some examples, the constraint comprises reducing a number of SWAPs. Reducing a number of SWPAs may permit gaining time when proceeding with the execution of a quantum program. Reducing a number of SWAPs should be understood as reducing the number of time where two qubits located on a same location are swapped.
In some examples, the constraint comprises reducing a total distance covered by qubits. Again in this case, an advantage of reducing such distance may lead to a gain of time when executing a compiled quantum program by way of a shuttling according to the methods hereby disclosed. The total distance may be calculated by cumulatively adding all the movements of all the qubits required to complete the execution of a shuttling. In the example of
In some examples, the constraint comprises reducing a total number of successive states of a shuttling schedule, again aiming at reducing the time taken to execute a shuttling schedule of a quantum circuit section on a subsystem. In the example of
One should note that the predefined constraint may comprise a plurality of sub constraints, for example following a rule or priorities. For example, a constraint may comprise a main priority reducing a number of SWAPS, followed by a second priority of reducing a total distance covered by qubits. Following such a predefined constraint permits selecting which quantum gate may be selected for building a shuttling schedule.
In the example PERT diagram illustrated in
In the case of front line 801: This front line 801 placed after applying SWAP gate 812 represented on
In the case of front line 802, this front line is used to decide whether the phase 1 illustrated by 813 (Ctrl-PH acting on qubits 1 and 2) or the phase 2 illustrated by 814 (Ctrl-PH acting on qubits 0 and 3) is applied. Since no gate has been applied on the qubit 3 when this front line 802 is met, the qubit 3 happens to have been moved away from the LIZ (the LIZ being a high interaction zone, if a qubit is unused, this qubit will be likely have been moved away from the LIZ during earlier steps). Applying first the gate 814 phase 2 would therefore relatively increase the total distance of the partial schedule and phase 1 corresponding to 813 is applied instead, as illustrated in
In some examples whereby, prior to the ordering, the method comprises proceeding with SWAP insertion on a source quantum circuit in order to obtain the nearest neighbor quantum circuit, the predefined constraint is also taken into account to proceed with SWAP insertion.
An example quantum computing compiling method 1100 which may be used for compiling a quantum circuit section on a quantum subsystem according to either one of, for example, blocks 13 or 15 of example method 10, is illustrated in
Another example quantum computing compiling method 1100 which may be used for compiling a quantum circuit section on a quantum subsystem according to either one of, for example, blocks 13 or 15 of example method 10, is illustrated in
A computer readable storage according to this disclosure may be any electronic, magnetic, optical or other physical storage device that stores executable instructions. The computer readable storage may be, for example, Random Access Memory (RAM), an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), a storage drive, and optical disk, and the like. As described hereby, the computer readable storage may be encoded with executable instructions according to the methods hereby described.
Storage or memory may include any electronic, magnetic, optical or other physical storage device that stores executable instructions as described hereby.
In an example, the shuttling schedule illustrated in
In an example, a quantum circuit illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
A first section 151 of the quantum circuit of
The compiling of section 151 is followed in this example by coding the passing of qubit q3 from subsystem 161 through junction 165 to subsystem 162 in order to compile a second section 152 of the quantum circuit of
Second section 152 of the quantum circuit of
During phase 172, section 153 of the quantum circuit illustrated in
A section 154 of the quantum circuit of
From phase 173 to phase 174 as illustrated in
In phase 174, various quantum gates pertaining to both quantum circuit sections 155 and 156 of
From phase 174 to phase 175 as illustrated in
From phase 175 to phase 176 as illustrated in
From phase 176 to phase 177 as illustrated in
From phase 177 to phase 178 as illustrated in
From phase 178 to phase 179 as illustrated in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20305262.6 | Mar 2020 | EP | regional |