Over the last years there has been significant progress in the development of quantum computers. It has been demonstrated that they can accelerate the solution of various problems exponentially compared to today's classical computers, harnessing the properties of superposition and entanglement, two resources that have no classical analog. Since quantum computer platforms that are currently available comprise only a few tenths of qubits, as well as the access to a fabricated quantum computer is time limited for the majority of researchers, the use of quantum simulators is essential in developing and testing new quantum algorithms. Taking inspiration from previous work on developing a novel quantum simulator based on memristor crossbar circuits, in this work, a framework that automates the circuit design of emulated quantum gates is presented. The proposed design framework deals with the generation and programming of memristor crossbar configuration that incorporates the desirable quantum circuit, leading to a technology agnostic design tool. To such a degree, various quantum gates can be efficiently emulated on memristor crossbar configurations for various types of memristive devices, aiming to assist and accelerate the fabrication process of a memristor based quantum simulator.
Over the last years there has been significant progress in the development of quantum computers. It has been demonstrated that they can accelerate the solution of various problems exponentially compared to today's classical computers, harnessing the properties of superposition and entanglement, two resources that have no classical analog. Since quantum computer platforms that are currently available comprise only a few tenths of qubits, as well as the access to a fabricated quantum computer is time limited for the majority of researchers, the use of quantum simulators is essential in developing and testing new quantum algorithms. Taking inspiration from previous work on developing a novel quantum simulator based on memristor crossbar circuits, in this work, a framework that automates the circuit design of emulated quantum gates is presented. The proposed design framework deals with the generation and programming of memristor crossbar configuration that incorporates the desirable quantum circuit, leading to a technology agnostic design tool. To such a degree, various quantum gates can be efficiently emulated on memristor crossbar configurations for various types of memristive devices, aiming to assist and accelerate the fabrication process of a memristor based quantum simulator.
There is a growing interest in quantum computers and quantum algorithm development. It has been proved that ideal quantum computers, with zero error rates and large decoherence times, can solve problems that are intractable for today’s classical computers. Quantum computers use two resources, superposition and entanglement, that have no classical analog. Since quantum computer platforms that are currently available comprise only a few dozen of qubits, the use of quantum simulators is essential in developing and testing new quantum algorithms. We present a novel quantum simulator based on memristor crossbar circuits and use them to simulate well-known quantum algorithms, namely the Deutsch and Grover quantum algorithms. In quantum computing the dominant algebraic operations are matrix-vector multiplications. The execution time grows exponentially with the simulated number of qubits, causing an exponential slowdown in quantum algorithm execution using classical computers. In this work, we show that the inherent characteristics of memristor arrays can be used to overcome this problem and that memristor arrays can be used not only as independent quantum simulators but also as a part of a quantum computer stack where classical computers accelerators are connected. Our memristive crossbar circuits are re-configurable and can be programmed to simulate any quantum algorithm.
Quantum computing is a compelling new technology that is becoming increasingly practical as time progresses. Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems of great complexity and magnitude across many different industries, utilizing appropriate quantum algorithms. Given the evolving stage of quantum computing, characterized by a limited number of operational quantum computers that demand extensive cooling, face decoherence issues, and incur significant fabrication costs, there exists a pronounced need for quantum computer simulators. In this work, a reconfigurable closed-loop CBRAM crossbar system has been developed for the execution and acceleration of quantum algorithm simulation, leveraging analog in-memory computing. The circuit supports a universal set of quantum gates representation, and through its reprogramming capabilities and feedback loop, can compute any quantum algorithm. To demonstrate its functionality, the 3-qubit Grover algorithm is executed on the proposed circuit. Building on the extensive circuit simulation, a comparative analysis of power and speed between the proposed nanoelectronic circuit and conventional hardware has been conducted, demonstrating the high efficiency and performance gains, followed by a scalability analysis. Furthermore, a framework has been developed that supports the design of custom closed-loop memristive crossbars through a graphical user interface (GUI), providing the user with the capability to execute quantum algorithms and examine the programming and computations of the circuit, assisting with the realization of a hardware prototype.
One of the most promising and powerful candidates for future computing is the notion of universal quantum computer. A vital advance towards this direction is the development of quantum simulators and their possible implementation either as standalone quantum systems or as compatible software for classical computers with pros and cons. On the other hand, memristive computing has been proposed recently as a tentative unconventional computing scheme promoting the idea of information storage and processing in the same nanoelectronic device. In this paper we present a memristive quantum computing simulator by coupling quantum simulation principles with memristor aspects and enabling us to tackle the existing difficulties on qubit representation in conventional computing systems. For doing so, we utilize the memristances of identical memristors to represent in 3D the qubit state while its corresponding evolution is defined by the memristors input voltages. In particular, we introduce an appropriate correspondence among the aforementioned memristor voltages and the general qubit state rotation, i.e., the one-qubit quantum gates, and as such we reproduce the rotations imposed by the action of quantum gates in the 3D memristance space. Moreover, we also define the action of the CNOT two-qubit gate and simulate entanglement between two qubits paving the way towards the establishment of a universal set for quantum computing. Our results show that, memristor circuits can simulate effectively quantum computations.
Development of quantum simulators is a major step towards the universal quantum computer. Quantum simulators are quantum systems that can perform specific quantum computations, or software packages that can reproduce most of the aspects of a general universal quantum computer on a general purpose classical computer. Development of quantum simulators using digital circuits, such as FPGAs is very difficult, mainly because the unit of quantum information, the qubit, has an infinite number of states, whereas the classical bit has only two. On the other hand, analog circuits comprising R, L and C elements have no internal state variables that can be used to reproduce and store qubit states. Here we take the first step towards the development of a new quantum simulator using memristors. The qubit state is mapped to a 3D space spanned by the memristances of three identical memristors. The qubit state evolution is reproduced by the input voltages applied to the memristors. We define the correspondence between the general qubit state rotation, i.e. the one-qubit quantum gates, and memristor input voltage variations and reproduce the rotations imposed by the action of quantum gates in the 3D memristance space. Our results show that, at least in principle, qubits and one-qubit quantum gates can be simulated by memristors.
Quantum computing and quantum computers are a major part of the second quantum revolution. Existing quantum algorithms can natively solve complex problems, such as the prime number factorization and searching of unstructured databases, in a fast and efficient way. The main obstacle towards building large and efficient quantum computers is decoherence, which produces errors that have to be continuously corrected using quantum error correcting codes. Beyond the realisation of quantum computing systems with actual quantum hardware, quantum algorithms have been developed based on quantum logic gates that can be described and utilised by classical computers and proper interfaces based on linear algebra operations. Furthermore, memristive grids have been proposed as novel nanoscale and low-power hardware accelerators for the time-consuming matrix-vector multiplication and tensor products. In this work, given that for quantum computations simulation, the matrix-vector multiplication is the dominant algebraic operation, we utilize the unprecedented characteristics of memristive grids to implement circuit-level quantum computations. Since all quantum computations can be mapped to quantum circuits, memristive grids can also be used as efficient quantum simulators, as classical/quantum interfaces and also as accelerators in mixed classical-quantum computing systems.
Quantum computer technology harnesses the features of quantum physics for revolutionizing information processing and computing. As such, quantum computers use physical quantum gates that process information unitarily, even though the final computing steps might be measurement-based or non-unitary. The applications of quantum computers cover diverse areas, reaching from well-known quantum algorithms to quantum machine learning and quantum neural networks. The last of these is of particular interest by belonging to the promising field of artificial intelligence. However, quantum neural networks are technologically challenging as the underlying computation requires non-unitary operations for mimicking the behavior of neurons. A landmark development for classical neural networks was the realization of memory-resistors, or "memristors". These are passive circuit elements that keep a memory of their past states in the form of a resistive hysteresis and thus provide access to nonlinear gate operations. The quest for realising a quantum memristor led to a few proposals, all of which face limited technological practicality. Here we introduce and experimentally demonstrate a novel quantum-optical memristor that is based on integrated photonics and acts on single photons. We characterize its memristive behavior and underline the practical potential of our device by numerically simulating instances of quantum reservoir computing, where we predict an advantage in the use of our quantum memristor over classical architectures. Given recent progress in the realization of photonic circuits for neural networks applications, our device could become a building block of immediate and near-term quantum neuromorphic architectures.