Benchmarking and Characterization of Quantum Software Frameworks in Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) Era

Abstract

Quantum computing provides computational advantage by encompassing principles of superposition, entanglement and interference. Organizations use simulators and combination of hardware and software components as quantum computing stack to develop utility scale quantum computing applications. These stacks are being used for measurements in terms of probabilities of outcome. We have used probability of measuring the correct output as a metric of performance for benchmarking quantum computers. The outcomes are further visualized using quantum computing stacks for monitoring and correlating the results of executed jobs. Existing quantum computing stacks inherits noise and results in faulty outcomes. Due to lack of availability of fault tolerant quantum computer, development is being carried out in noisy environment. Inherent noises may result during state preparation, measurement and gates error. Development of efficient quantum computing applications require the confidence of developer to produce the same results as on simulators. For now developers lack confidence on these quantum computing stacks in producing similar results on simulators and hardware. Due to non availability of commercial quantum computers and costly access to QPUs, developers resorts to simulators for much of their initial development and testing. In this research quantum circuits for entanglement, Bell’s state measurement GHZ state measurements, Bernstein–Vazirani and Grover are executed on simulators and hardware through available cloud services. Results of these circuits were recorded and analyzed after their execution on simulators and hardware. These results can help organizations in selection of quantum computing stack and signing service level agreements (SLAs). Research highlights comparisons of available software stacks and proposes a new tool QuantViz to filter, visualize and correlate these results. Thus enabling researchers in visualizing, correlating and monitoring quantum jobs for selection and development of efficient quantum computing applications.