The QIR Alliance, an international effort to enhance platform interoperability and enhance the work of quantum computing developers, has announced a milestone in the industry-wide effort to accelerate adoption. KPMG, Microsoft, and Quantinuum have joined forces to enhance the quantum developer ecosystem by creating a new tutorial for quantum cloud users. In order to equip its clients with the necessary knowledge for the quantum era, KPMG collaborated with the Azure Quantum group and Quantinuum scientists to develop a novel approach to writing quantum algorithms.
This collaboration resulted in a tutorial published on Azure, which enables developers to leverage quantum hardware designs efficiently. This tutorial is the first third-party tutorial published on the Azure cloud platform. The project involved Q#, Quantinuum’s H1 computer, and a novel quantum specification containing profiles for each quantum hardware type. The tutorial will aid other quantum teams in utilizing this new specification.
Microsoft plays a key role in the growing quantum ecosystem by providing access to various quantum computing systems via Azure Quantum. Additionally, the company is a founding member of the QIR Alliance. This collaborative initiative aims to enhance the portability of quantum computing source code across different hardware systems and modalities, making it more useful for engineers and developers.
The alliance has introduced an interoperable specification for quantum programs, including a hardware profile optimized for Quantinuum’s H-Series quantum computers. Moreover, it enables cross-compiling quantum and classical workflows, promoting hybrid use cases.
Quantinuum Joins QIR as Steering Member to Support Open-Source Quantum Ecosystem Tools
Quantinuum, also a major player in quantum computing, is pleased to join the QIR as a steering member alongside other key partners like Nvidia, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Quantum Circuits Inc., and Rigetti Computing. The company is committed to supporting various open-source ecosystem tools. It has developed open-source software development kits and compilers, including TKET, designed for general-purpose quantum computing, and lambeq, which facilitates quantum natural language processing.
Joining Microsoft Azure Quantum and KPMG, Quantinuum became a co-founding member of the QIR. The project involved Microsoft’s Q# language, designed specifically for quantum computing, and offers a high level of abstraction. Quantinuum’s System Model H1, powered by Honeywell, was also part of the project. This collaboration resulted in the development of hybrid algorithms that integrate classical and quantum operations seamlessly. The use of Q# language simplifies the design of these algorithms and provides a significant advantage for developers.
KPMG’s Quantum Team collaborates with Quantinuum’s H-Series to Harness its Unique Features and Achieve Breakthrough Computation Power
KPMG’s quantum team aimed to convert an existing algorithm to Q# and leverage the unique features of Quantinuum’s H-Series, such as qubit reuse, all-to-all connectivity, and mid-circuit measurement. The H-Series is a first-generation trapped-ion-based quantum computer constructed using the quantum charge-coupled device (QCCD) architecture. KPMG utilized the H1-1 QPU, which consists of 20 fully connected qubits, to achieve its goal. H1-1 recently set a new record in the industry with a Quantum Volume of 32,768, demonstrating a significant leap in computation power.
The use of quantum programming language Q# and the Quantum Intermediate Representation (QIR) allowed the team at KPMG, led by Michael Egan, to leverage the unique capabilities of Quantinuum’s H-Series quantum computer, including measurement-conditioned program flow control and classical calculations within runtime while abstracting from hardware-specific instructions.
Nathan Rhodes from the KPMG team documented the project in a tutorial that provides a step-by-step guide on using the KPMG code and the specific features of QIR, Q#, and the H-Series. This tutorial marks the first instance of third-party code being made available to end-users on Microsoft’s Azure portal.
Using Q# and the H1 QPU to Solve an Estimation Problem with Promising Applications
The team used an algorithm to solve an estimation problem with promising applications in traffic flow, network optimization, and energy generation. They used Q# and QIR toolset to compile the algorithm into quantum circuits, achieving a fidelity of 0.92. The H1 QPU’s capabilities, including qubit reuse, mid-circuit measurement, and classical computation, were crucial to the project.
The project highlighted the significance of businesses exploring quantum computing, enabling them to detect any potential IT complications early and comprehend the development environment, along with how quantum computing integrates with existing workflows and processes.
As the quantum computing industry advances worldwide, collaborative endeavours such as QIR will be pivotal in uniting industrial partners seeking innovative solutions to complex issues, skilled developers, engineers, researchers, and quantum hardware and software companies that will continue to provide profound scientific and engineering knowledge and expertise.
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