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IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)

A Quantum Computing Programming Language for Transparent Experiment Descriptions

Virginia Frey, Richard Rademacher, Elijah Durso-Sabina, Noah Greenberg, Nikolay Videnov, Matthew Day, Rajibul Islam, Crystal Senko

Published Oct 1, 2021• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We present a new quantum programming language called ‘Qualia’ that enables transparent programming of quantum hardware. Qualia allows seamless integration of abstraction layers such as the digital circuit layer and the analog control pulse waveform layer. Additionally, the language supports user-issued low-level hardware instructions like FPGA actions. Mid-circuit measurements and branching decision logic support real-time, adaptive programs. This flexibility allows users to write code for everything from quantum error correction to analog quantum simulation. The combination of a user-facing calibration database and a powerful symbolic algebra framework provides users with an unprecedented level of expressiveness and transparency. We display the salient characteristics of the language structure and describe how the accompanying compiler can translate programs written in any abstraction layer into precisely timed hardware commands. Qualia provides a fully transparent programming interface that allows simultaneous circuit level and hardware level control. There is no "behind-the-scenes" circuit compilation or hardware calibration. Every command is executed exactly as the the user dictates.

DOI
10.1109/qce52317.2021.00042

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We present a new quantum programming language called ‘Qualia’ that enables transparent programming of quantum hardware. Qualia allows seamless integration of abstraction layers such as the digital circuit layer and the analog control pulse waveform layer. Additionally, the language supports user-issued low-level hardware instructions like FPGA actions. Mid-circuit measurements and branching decision logic support real-time, adaptive programs. This flexibility allows users to write code for everything from quantum error correction to analog quantum simulation. The combination of a user-facing calibration database and a powerful symbolic algebra framework provides users with an unprecedented level of expressiveness and transparency. We display the salient characteristics of the language structure and describe how the accompanying compiler can translate programs written in any abstraction layer into precisely timed hardware commands. Qualia provides a fully transparent programming interface that allows simultaneous circuit level and hardware level control. There is no "behind-the-scenes" circuit compilation or hardware calibration. Every command is executed exactly as the the user dictates.
We present a new quantum programming language called "Quala" that enables true full-stack programming of quantum hardware. Quala allows seamless integration of abstraction layers such as the digital circuit layer and the analog control pulse waveform layer. Additionally, the language supports user-issued low-level hardware instructions like FPGA actions. Mid-circuit measurements and branching decision logic support real-time, adaptive programs. This flexibility allows users to write code for everything from quantum error correction to analog quantum simulation. The combination of a user-facing calibration database and a powerful symbolic algebra framework provides users with an unprecedented level of expressiveness and transparency. We display the salient characteristics of the language structure and describe how the accompanying compiler can translate programs written in any abstraction layer into precisely timed hardware commands. We intend for this language to bridge the gap between circuit-level programming and physical operations on real hardware while maintaining full transparency in each level of the stack. This eliminates the need for "behind-the-scenes" compilation and provides users with insights into the day-to-day calibration routines.
Quantum computing leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations far beyond the capabilities of classical systems, particularly in fields such as cryptography and optimization. However, current quantum programming languages often require low-level implementation, posing significant barriers for many developers due to their steep learning curve and limited abstraction. In response, we introduce Qutes, a high-level quantum programming language designed to simplify quantum algorithm development while maintaining the flexibility required for advanced applications. By abstracting complex quantum operations and allowing intuitive expressions through high-level constructs, Qutes enables users to write efficient quantum programs without extensive knowledge of quantum mechanics or circuit design. Built upon Qiskit, Qutes translates its syntax directly into executable quantum code, facilitating seamless integration with quantum hardware. This paper provides an overview of the language's architecture, core functionalities, and its ability to unify classical and quantum operations within a single framework. Additionally, we demonstrate Qutes' application in key quantum algorithms, showcasing its potential to make quantum programming more accessible and practical for a wider range of developers and researchers.
With the potential of quantum algorithms to solve intractable classical problems, quantum computing is rapidly evolving, and more algorithms are being developed and optimized. Expressing these quantum algorithms using a high-level language and making them executable on a quantum processor while abstracting away hardware details is a challenging task. First, a quantum programming language should provide an intuitive programming interface to describe those algorithms. Then a compiler has to transform the program into a quantum circuit, optimize it, and map it to the target quantum processor respecting the hardware constraints such as the supported quantum operations, the qubit connectivity, and the control electronics limitations. In this article, we propose a quantum programming framework named OpenQL, which includes a high-level quantum programming language and its associated quantum compiler. We present the programming interface of OpenQL, we describe the different layers of the compiler and how we can provide portability over different qubit technologies. Our experiments show that OpenQL allows the execution of the same high-level algorithm on two different qubit technologies, namely superconducting qubits and Si-Spin qubits. Besides the executable code, OpenQL also produces an intermediate quantum assembly code, which is technology independent and can be simulated using the QX simulator.
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Quantum computers can accelerate solving some problems which are inefficiently solved by classical computers, such as quantum chemistry simulation. To date, quantum computer engineering has focused primarily at opposite ends of the required system stack: devising high-level programming languages and compilers to describe and optimize quantum algorithms, and building reliable low-level quantum hardware. Relatively little attention has been given to using the compiler output to fully control the operations on current experimental quantum processors. Bridging this gap, we propose and build a prototype of flexible control microarchitecture, named QuMA, supporting quantum-classical mixed code for a superconducting quantum processor. The microarchitecture is based on three core elements: (i) a codeword-based event control scheme, (ii) queue-based precise event timing control, and (iii) a flexible multilevel instruction decoding mechanism for control.
Quantum computing hardware is advancing at a rapid pace, yet the lack of high-level programming abstractions remains a serious bottleneck in the development of new applications. Widely used frameworks still rely on gate-level circuit descriptions, causing the algorithm's functional intent to become lost in low-level implementation details, and hindering flexibility and reuse. While various high-level quantum programming languages have emerged in recent years - offering a significant step toward higher abstraction - many still lack support for classicallike expression syntax, and native constructs for useful quantum algorithmic idioms. This paper presents Qmod, a high-level quantum programming language designed to capture algorithmic intent in natural terms while delegating implementation decisions to automation. Qmod introduces quantum numeric variables and expressions, including digital fixed-point arithmetic tuned for compact representations and optimal resource usage. Beyond digital encoding, Qmod also supports nondigital expression modes phase and amplitude encoding - frequently exploited by quantum algorithms to achieve computational advantages. We describe the language's constructs, demonstrate practical usage examples, and outline future work on evaluating Qmod across a broader set of use cases.