Programming languages and compiler design for realistic quantum hardware

Area of Science:

• Quantum Information Science
• Computer Science
• Quantum Computing Software Engineering

Background:

• Quantum computing algorithms show promise, and hardware fabrication is advancing.
• A significant gap persists between the resource requirements of quantum algorithms and near-term quantum hardware capabilities.
• Existing classical computing software paradigms are insufficient for the unique constraints of quantum computing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the hardware-software gap in quantum computing.
• To investigate the development of quantum computing toolflows and abstraction layers.
• To define requirements for software that translates and optimizes quantum applications for nascent quantum hardware.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of the differences in information flow between classical and quantum computing software layers.
• Identification of necessary physical details to be exposed by quantum toolflows.
• Exploration of abstraction layer strategies suitable for resource-constrained quantum environments.

Main Results:

• Quantum computing software must expose more physical details between layers compared to classical systems.
• The challenge lies in designing abstractions that balance exposing critical information with hiding unnecessary complexity.
• Novel approaches to quantum toolflows and abstraction layers are required to enable practical quantum computation.

Conclusions:

• Bridging the quantum hardware-software gap is critical for realizing the potential of quantum computing.
• Specialized quantum toolflows and carefully designed abstraction layers are essential.
• Future research should focus on developing these quantum-specific software solutions.