Quantum simulation is a leading application of quantum computing, but scaling to chemically relevant problems requires modular architectures composed of interconnected quantum processing units. In such systems, inter-core quantum communication becomes a major performance bottleneck. In this work, we present COSMA, a communication-aware compilation framework for fermionic simulation kernels targeting modular quantum architectures. Our approach jointly optimizes fermion-to-qubit mapping, Pauli scheduling, and qubit allocation to minimize inter-core state transfers. Evaluated on molecular benchmarks, COSMA achieves up to $2.5\times$ reduction in communication cost compared to state-of-the-art baselines, with a median improvement of $1.7\times$. These results demonstrate that cross-layer co-design is essential for efficient and scalable quantum simulation on multi-core quantum hardware.
Quantum simulation is a leading application of quantum computing, but scaling to chemically relevant problems requires modular architectures composed of interconnected quantum processing units. In such systems, inter-core quantum communication becomes a major performance bottleneck. In this work, we present COSMA, a communication-aware compilation framework for fermionic simulation kernels targeting modular quantum architectures. Our approach jointly optimizes fermion-to-qubit mapping, Pauli scheduling, and qubit allocation to minimize inter-core state transfers. Evaluated on molecular benchmarks, COSMA achieves up to 2.5× reduction in communication cost compared to state-of-the-art baselines, with a median improvement of 1.7×. These results demonstrate that cross-layer co-design is essential for efficient and scalable quantum simulation on multi-core quantum hardware.
Modular quantum computing architectures are a promising alternative to monolithic QPU (Quantum Processing Unit) designs for scaling up quantum devices. They refer to a set of interconnected QPUs or cores consisting of tightly coupled quantum bits that can communicate via quantum-coherent and classical links. In multi-core architectures, it is crucial to minimize the amount of communication between cores when executing an algorithm. Therefore, mapping a quantum circuit onto a modular architecture involves finding an optimal assignment of logical qubits (qubits in the quantum circuit) to different cores with the aim to minimize the number of expensive inter-core operations while adhering to given hardware constraints. In this paper, we propose for the first time a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) technique to encode the problem and the solution for both qubit allocation and inter-core communication costs in binary decision variables. To this end, the quantum circuit is split into slices, and qubit assignment is formulated as a graph partitioning problem for each circuit slice. The costly inter-core communication is reduced by penalizing inter-core qubit communications. The final solution is obtained by minimizing the overall cost across all circuit slices. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we conduct a detailed analysis using a representative set of benchmarks having a high number of qubits on two different multi-core architectures. Our method showed promising results and performed exceptionally well with very dense and highly-parallelized circuits that require on average 0.78 inter-core communications per two-qubit gate.
As quantum computing scales toward practical workloads, future systems are expected to move beyond single monolithic processors toward modular architectures that connect multiple QPUs. Different platforms realize this modularity through different communication models: superconducting systems rely on real-time classical links and dynamic-circuit coordination, trapped-ion systems use photonic interconnects for remote entanglement, and neutral-atom systems provide strong intra-core connectivity with proposed optical links for inter-core communication. This heterogeneity makes communication-aware scheduling essential for shared modular quantum cloud environments.
We present InterQ, a communication-aware scheduler for modular QPU architectures with heterogeneous communication models. InterQ jointly considers qubit capacity, placement, parallel execution, and communication-driven dependencies across distributed subcircuits, while enabling adaptive circuit cutting to reduce makespan while balancing fidelity and communication overhead. The framework distinguishes classical-link execution, where measurement and feedforward impose synchronization constraints, from quantum-link execution, where entanglement distribution and state transfer determine coordination cost.
Using a unified simulation framework to compare superconducting, trapped-ion, and neutral-atom modular systems, InterQ shows how communication models and scheduler-driven cutting decisions affect throughput, latency, and fidelity. Across evaluated workloads, InterQ exposes an architecture-dependent tradeoff: neutral-atom modular QPUs achieve the highest fidelity, superconducting systems minimize runtime, and trapped-ion systems provide a balanced intermediate profile across fidelity and makespan.
The scalability of quantum computing is constrained by the physical and architectural limitations of monolithic quantum processors. Modular multi-core quantum architectures, which interconnect multiple quantum cores (QCs) via classical and quantum-coherent links, offer a promising alternative to address these challenges. However, transitioning to a modular architecture introduces communication overhead, where classical communication plays a crucial role in executing quantum algorithms by transmitting measurement outcomes and synchronizing operations across QCs. Understanding the impact of classical communication on execution time is therefore essential for optimizing system performance. In this work, we introduce qcomm , an open-source simulator designed to evaluate the role of classical communication in modular quantum computing architectures. qcomm provides a high-level execution and timing model that captures the interplay between quantum gate execution, entanglement distribution, teleportation protocols, and classical communication latency. We conduct an extensive experimental analysis to quantify the impact of classical communication bandwidth, interconnect types, and quantum circuit mapping strategies on overall execution time. Furthermore, we assess classical communication overhead when executing real quantum benchmarks mapped onto a cryogenically-controlled multi-core quantum system. Our results show that, while classical communication is generally not the dominant contributor to execution time, its impact becomes increasingly relevant in optimized scenarios—such as improved quantum technology, large-scale interconnects, or communication-aware circuit mappings. These findings provide useful insights for the design of scalable modular quantum architectures and highlight the importance of evaluating classical communication as a performance-limiting factor in future systems.
Modular quantum processor architectures are envisioned as a promising solution for the scalability of quantum computing systems beyond the Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) era. Based upon interconnecting tens to hundreds of quantum processors (i.e cores) via quantum coherent and classical links, this approach unravels the pressing limitations of densely qubit-packed monolithic processors, mainly by mitigating the requirements of qubit control and enhancing qubit isolation. Therefore, this new architectural design enables executing large-scale algorithms in a distributed manner. In order to assess the performance and optimize such architectures, it is crucial to analyze the quantum state transfers occurring via inter-core communication networks, referred to as inter-core qubit traffic. This would provide insights to improve the software and hardware stack for multi-core quantum computers. To this aim, we present a characterization of the spatio-temporal inter-core qubit traffic for different large-scale quantum algorithms. The programs are compiled on an all-to-all connected multi-core architecture that supports up to around 1000 qubits. We characterize the qubit traffic based on multiple performance metrics to assess the computational process and the communication overhead. Based on the showcased results, we conclude on the parallelization and scalability of presented algorithms, qualitatively evaluate the resource requirements as we scale circuit sizes, and lay the foundations of application-oriented benchmarking of large-scale multi-core architectures.
Modular architectures are a promising approach to scaling quantum computers beyond the limits of monolithic designs. However, non-local communications between different quantum processors might significantly impact overall system performance. In this work, we investigate the role of the network infrastructure in modular quantum computing architectures, focusing on coherence loss due to communication constraints. We analyze the impact of classical network latency on quantum teleportation and identify conditions under which it becomes a bottleneck. Additionally, we study different network topologies and assess how communication resources affect the number and parallelization of inter-core communications. Finally, we conduct a full-stack evaluation of the architecture under varying communication parameters, demonstrating how these factors influence the overall system performance. The results show that classical communication does not become a bottleneck for systems exceeding one million qubits, given current technology assumptions, even with modest clock frequencies and parallel wired interconnects. Additionally, increasing quantum communication resources generally shortens execution time, although it may introduce additional communication overhead. The optimal number of quantum links between QCores depends on both the algorithm being executed and the chosen inter-core topology. Our findings offer valuable guidance for designing modular architectures, enabling scalable quantum computing.
To address the scalability challenges of quantum computing, the industry is shifting from monolithic architectures to modular quantum systems. By interconnecting multiple quantum processing units (QPUs) through communication links, modular quantum systems can scale to much higher number of qubits. However, the delay of inter-QPU operations is an order of magnitude greater than that of intra-QPU operations. To minimize the final circuit latency, a well-considered initial assignment of logical qubits in the circuit to QPUs in the system and careful insertion of inter-QPU operations are required. In this paper, we propose a timing-aware end-to-end circuit compilation framework for modular quantum systems. In the placement stage, a dependency- and interaction-aware assignment strategy is developed to assign logical qubits that interact early and frequently to nearby QPUs. In the routing stage, we optimize the insertion of inter-QPU operations and multiple intra-QPU operations to enable the execution of the gates. The selection of both inter- and intra-QPU operations is based on their circuit latency overhead, which is estimated using the operation delay and the available idle time of operand qubits that can cover the delay, as well as their benefit to subsequent gates. Our experiments assumed a realistic modular quantum system consisting of three interconnected QPUs with a total of 1,386 physical qubits. We evaluated our framework using two benchmark sets consisting of reversible arithmetic circuits and algorithmic circuits, with up to 1,300 qubits and over 800,000 two-qubit gates. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach outperformed the state-of-the-art compilation approach for modular quantum systems with over 73.8% and 46.9% reduction in final circuit latency and number of inserted inter-QPU operations, respectively. In addition, this advantage is preserved on a larger modular quantum system with four QPUs arranged in a square topology.