Efforts to build quantum computers using ion-traps have demonstrated all elementary qubit operations necessary for scalable implementation. Modular architectures have been proposed to construct modest size quantum computers with up to 104- 106qubits using technologies that are available today (MUSIQC architecture). Concrete scheduling procedure to execute a given quantum algorithm on such a hardware is a significant task, but existing quantum CAD tools generally do not account for the underlying connectivity of the qubits or the limitation on the hardware resources available for the scheduling. We present a scheduler and performance simulator that fully accounts for these resource constraints, capable of estimating the execution time and error performances of executing a quantum circuit on the hardware. We outline the construction of tool components, and describe the process of mapping the qubits to ions and scheduling the physical gates in the MUSIQC architecture. Using this tool, we quantify the trade-off between hardware resource constraints and performance of the computer and show that at an expense of x fold increase in latency, a minimum of 1.6x resource reduction is possible for executing a three-qubit Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm encoded using Steane code.
Efforts to build quantum computers using ion-traps have demonstrated all elementary qubit operations necessary for scalable implementation. Modular architectures have been proposed to construct modest size quantum computers with up to 104- 106qubits using technologies that are available today (MUSIQC architecture). Concrete scheduling procedure to execute a given quantum algorithm on such a hardware is a significant task, but existing quantum CAD tools generally do not account for the underlying connectivity of the qubits or the limitation on the hardware resources available for the scheduling. We present a scheduler and performance simulator that fully accounts for these resource constraints, capable of estimating the execution time and error performances of executing a quantum circuit on the hardware. We outline the construction of tool components, and describe the process of mapping the qubits to ions and scheduling the physical gates in the MUSIQC architecture. Using this tool, we quantify the trade-off between hardware resource constraints and performance of the computer and show that at an expense of x fold increase in latency, a minimum of 1.6x resource reduction is possible for executing a three-qubit Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm encoded using Steane code.
The challenge of building scalable quantum computer lies in striking appropriate balance between designing a reliable system architecture from large number of faulty computational resources and improving the physical quality of system components. The detailed investigation of performance variation with physics of the components and the system architecture requires adequate performance simulation tool. In this thesis we demonstrate a software tool capable of (1) mapping and scheduling the quantum circuit on a realistic quantum hardware architecture with physical resource constraints, (2) evaluating the performance metrics such as the execution time and the success probability of the algorithm execution, and (3) analyzing the constituents of these metrics and visualizing resource utilization to identify system components which crucially define the overall performance. Using this versatile tool, we explore vast design space for modular quantum computer architecture based on trapped ions. We find that while success probability is uniformly determined by the fidelity of physical quantum operation, the execution time is a function of system resources invested at various layers of design hierarchy. At physical level, the number of lasers performing quantum gates, impact the latency of the fault-tolerant circuit blocks execution. When these blocks are used to construct meaningful arithmetic circuit such as quantum adders, the number of ancilla qubits for complicated non-clifford gates and entanglement resources to establish long-distance communication channels, become major performance limiting factors. Next, in order to factorize large integers, these adders are assembled into modular exponentiation circuit comprising bulk of Shor's algorithm. At this stage, the overall scaling of resource-constraint performance with the size of problem, describes the effectiveness of chosen design. By matching the resource investment with the pace of advancement in hardware technology, we find optimal designs for different types of quantum adders. Conclusively, we show that 2,048-bit Shor's algorithm can be reliably executed within the resource budget of 1.5 million qubits.
The hardware technology characterized by the device parameters (DPs) often drives the architectural optimization in a novel computer design such as the quantum computer. We highlight the role of DPs by quantifying the performance of a fully error-corrected 1024-bit quantum carry look-ahead adder on a modular, reconfigurable architecture based on trapped ions. We develop a simulation tool that estimates the performance and resource requirements for running a quantum circuit on various quantum architectures as a function of the underlying DPs. Using this tool, we found that (1) the latency of the adder circuit execution due to slow entanglement generation process for qubit communication can be adequately eliminated with a small increase in entangling qubits, and (2) the failure probability of the circuit is ultimately determined by the qubit coherence time, which needs to be improved in order to reliably execute the adders comprising core of the Shor's algorithm.
The optimal design of a fault-tolerant quantum computer involves finding an appropriate balance between the burden of large-scale integration of noisy components and the load of improving the reliability of hardware technology. This balance can be evaluated by quantitatively modeling the execution of quantum logic operations on a realistic quantum hardware containing limited computational resources. In this work, we report a complete performance simulation software tool capable of (1) searching the hardware design space by varying resource architecture and technology parameters, (2) synthesizing and scheduling a fault-tolerant quantum algorithm within the hardware constraints, (3) quantifying the performance metrics such as the execution time and the failure probability of the algorithm, and (4) analyzing the breakdown of these metrics to highlight the performance bottlenecks and visualizing resource utilization to evaluate the adequacy of the chosen design. Using this tool, we investigate a vast design space for implementing key building blocks of Shor’s algorithm to factor a 1,024-bit number with a baseline budget of 1.5 million qubits. We show that a trapped-ion quantum computer designed with twice as many qubits and one-tenth of the baseline infidelity of the communication channel can factor a 2,048-bit integer in less than 5 months.
The hardware technology characterized by the device parameters (DPs) often drives the architectural optimization in a novel computer design such as the quantum computer. We highlight the role of DPs by quantifying the performance of a fully error-corrected 1024-bit quantum carry look-ahead adder on a modular, reconfigurable architecture based on trapped ions. We develop a simulation tool that estimates the performance and resource requirements for running a quantum circuit on various quantum architectures as a function of the underlying DPs. Using this tool, we found that (1) the latency of the adder circuit execution due to slow entanglement generation process for qubit communication can be adequately eliminated with a small increase in entangling qubits, and (2) the failure probability of the circuit is ultimately determined by the qubit coherence time, which needs to be improved in order to reliably execute the adders comprising core of the Shor's algorithm.
Proposing an architecture that effectively compensates for physical hardware inefficiencies through redundant resources is a key challenge in quantum computer design. Although the representation of quantum systems is currently limited to tens of qubits, scaling existing small scale laboratory systems into large scale quantum computers capable of solving meaningful practical problems remains a primary research objective. Focusing on this issue, this paper proposes a scalable architecture for quantum information processors. Physical design, one of the two main processes in quantum computer design, transforms a circuit netlist into a technology specific layout. Quantum mapping comprising partitioning, placement, scheduling, and routing is an essential part of this process, and these stages are inherently interdependent. In this research, considering the dependencies between these stages, we present an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) model for qubit partitioning and placement, determining the optimal module and physical location for each qubit. Furthermore, we propose a heuristic approach for the placement and scheduling of quantum operators on a scalable, modular, universal ion trap quantum computer (MUSIQC), aiming to minimize circuit execution delay. Qubit routing is performed using a greedy strategy. For evaluation, the proposed method was applied to both Ripple-Carry Adder and Carry-Lookahead Adder circuits. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces the average circuit delay by approximately 58.98% for Ripple-Carry Adder circuits and 33% for Carry-Lookahead Adder circuits compared to the best existing method. These results underscore the effectiveness of our integrated framework, where ILP-based partitioning optimizes for dominant operational costs, while our subsequent resource-aware scheduler actively manages parallelism and contention to achieve the minimal overall circuit execution delay.
Quantum computers can solve certain problems more efficiently compared to conventional classical methods. In the endeavor to build a quantum computer, several competing platforms have emerged that can implement certain quantum algorithms using a few qubits. However, the demonstrations so far have been done usually by tailoring the hardware to meet the requirements of a particular algorithm implemented for a limited number of instances. Although such proof of principal implementations are important to verify the working of algorithms on a physical system, they further need to have the potential to serve as a general purpose quantum computer allowing the flexibility required for running multiple algorithms and be scaled up to host more qubits. Here we demonstrate a small programmable quantum computer based on five trapped atomic ions each of which serves as a qubit. By optically resolving each ion we can individually address them in order to perform a complete set of single-qubit and fully connected two-qubit quantum gates and alsoperform efficient individual qubit measurements. We implement a computation architecture that accepts an algorithm from a user interface in the form of a standard logic gate sequence and decomposes it into fundamental quantum operations that are native to the hardware using a set of compilation instructions that are defined within the software. These operations are then effected through a pattern of laser pulses that perform coherent rotations on targeted qubits in the chain. The architecture implemented in the experiment therefore gives us unprecedented flexibility in the programming of any quantum algorithm while staying blind to the underlying hardware. As a demonstration we implement the Deutsch-Jozsa and Bernstein-Vazirani algorithms on the five-qubit processor and achieve average success rates of 95 and 90 percent, respectively. We also implement a five-qubit coherent quantum Fourier transform and examine its performance in the period finding and phase estimation protocol. We find fidelities of 84 and 62 percent, respectively. While maintaining the same computation architecture the system can be scaled to more ions using resources that scale favorably (O(N^2)) with the number of qubits N.