Glimpses of Quantum Programming Future
Happy birthday, Richard Feynman, born today in 1918. Remembering your words…
Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you if you go into it deeply enough. — Richard Feynman
Though there have been other options, including functional programming variants like QML and Quantum Lambda Calculus, gate-level programming has been the default quantum programming model thus far, with Qiskit, Cirq and TKET being prime examples. Other, higher-order models were expected, and in recent months, new classes of entrants have begun to appear. We’ll take them at increasing levels of abstraction, from MIT’s Twist to Quantastica’s Quantum Algorithm Generator.
Earlier this year MIT introduced Twist, the first quantum programming language to treat entanglement as a first-class construct. This is significant because keeping track of which qubits are entangled with which other qubits is a complex problem with lots of subtleties. It is easy to think that a qubit is unentangled when it isn’t, and vice versa. Twist uses static type-checking as a first pass to determine entanglement, but some determinations can only be made at runtime, such as evaluating interactions of controlled gates. In other cases, qubits can become unentangled in that their state can be separated in certain cases. When an entangled qubit is manipulated inadvertently, it also affects the state of the paired qubit, which results in a high probability of program malfunction and inaccuracies. A blog post will follow taking a closer look at Twist and comparing it to other similar approaches outside of quantum.
Classiq provides a high-level visual framework for quantum algorithm design (QAD) that lets users work at a high-level of abstraction via function models. It is platform agnostic so can work with any gate-based QC, most major quantum cloud providers and can output its code in various quantum languages including Qiskit, Q#, Cirq, QIR and others. Additionally, it allows third-parties to add models to their marketplace without exposing their IP. Classiq just announced a $25K coding competition for quantum circuits.
Quantum Flytrap brings quantum into no-code territory with promise of a no-code IDE (integrated development environment) for Quantum Computing. Though a demo of the IDE must be requested, one can see a Virtual Lab in action as well as find one’s way to some wonderful papers.
Lastly, Quantastica’s Quantum Algorithm Generator goes full automation by taking classical data as input, transforming it into wave functions encoded as state vectors, then producing a quantum circuit based on the instruction set you select. On the site, there are videos, a python API you can install to try the generator, or the early access generator you have to request access to.
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Related Links
MIT Twist
Meet Twist: MIT’s Quantum Programming Language
A new language for quantum computing
Twist: Sound Reasoning for Purity and Entanglement in Quantum Programs
Classiq Quantum Algorithm Design
What Is Quantum Algorithm Design?
Quantum Flytrap
Quantum Games and Interactive Tools for Quantum Technologies Outreach and Education
Quantastica Quantum Algorithm Generator
Generating Quantum Algorithms by Harshit Gupta
Scattering in the Ising Model with the Quantum Lanczos Algorithm