Intel showed off its Quantum SDK at IEEE Quantum Week, which was held September 18-23, 2022, in Colorado, USA. Unfortunately, the tutorial seems to be no longer available. But here is an outline of what was talked about. Intel has been historically one of the leaders of the processor space and is the only processor company to build its own quantum hardware. Nvidia is also working in the quantum simulation space, and steadily making inroads in the hybrid space.
There were two interesting takeaways from the discussion.
C++
The first takeaway is that Intel’s Quantum SDK uses the C++ programming language. It isn’t just written in C++ and it doesn’t just resemble C++, you actually use C++ to do your quantum computing. This means that you compile your code and then execute it. Consequently, your quantum-accelerated business process applications that require maximum performance, must run in real time, and so forth, will greatly outperform anything written in an interpreted language such as Python. You can find out more by reading the paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.11142.
Quantum Dots
While Intel’s Quantum SDK only has a simulator backend at the moment, called the Intel® Quantum Simulator (IQS), the roadmap for Intel’s backends is interesting. The plan is purportedly to simulate a range of qubit technologies, including quantum dots. The longer term plan is to eventually have an actual quantum dot quantum computer as a backend. That might end up becoming the first cloud-accessible quantum dot device.
Access
A beta version of the Intel Quantum SDK is currently available through Intel’s DevCloud. The easiest directions to follow are at the bottom of this article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/writing-hybrid-quantum-algorithm-using-intel-sdk-beta-ibrahim/.
Why Intel?
While the quantum computing industry uses phrases such as “quantum supremacy,” “quantum advantage,” “quantum computation advantage,” and more, Intel uses an alternative phrase: “quantum practicality.” In short, their focus is on getting quantum computers to solve real-world problems. For a company that might have made the processor that is allowing you to read this article, that makes sense.