American researchers from Columbia University have presented a new computing technology, that allows several people to run programs on a quantum computer simultaneously.
The system, called HyperQ, is a kind of virtual technology that balances workloads by dividing the physical hardware of a quantum computer into several isolated virtual machines, whose tasks are distributed by a virtual scheduler.
According to the developers of the technology from Columbia University, this scheduler combines several quantum virtual machines to run simultaneously on different computers. The end result is a full-fledged quantum computer, capable of supporting multiple applications, used by multiple people.
“HyperQ brings cloud virtualization to quantum computing. It allows a single machine to run multiple programs simultaneously without interference and without waiting in a queue”, — explains the professor of computer science at Columbia University Jason Nye.
Typical quantum computers based on gates are more expensive than their binary counterparts. Pros data Quantum Zeitgeist, costs of research and development of small-sized quantum computing system amount to between $10 and $15 million. This does not include maintenance costs, which amount to more than $1 million annually, as well as the cost of developing software and the applications themselves.
However, despite the high costs, most quantum computers are able to support only single-user mode due to the internal interconnectedness of qubits. The American researchers were inspired by virtualization technology, which is the basis for cloud services such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. In a classic virtual machine computing environment, the software layer called hypervisor or virtual machine monitor, distributes unused resources among individual virtual machines that operate independently of each other.
However, in a quantum environment, developers have to take into account the “noise” in quantum signals that can propagate throughout the system. HyperQ solves this problem by isolating each quantum system with a so-called “buffer” of qubits that remain inactive. This avoids crosstalk.
“Previous developments required specialized compilers and knowing in advance which programs would work together. Our approach works dynamically with existing quantum programming tools, which is much more flexible and practical for real-world applications”, — says the study’s lead author Runzhou Tao.
Quantum programs are usually executed using a predictable set of qubits. HyperQ determines the optimal time intervals for each user request and allocates resources both in time and space, determining which cubes are needed for each request and how long they will be active.
Previous systems for managing such virtual machines required users to form a queue, and the system could pre-compile their requests before execution. HyperQ makes it easier to use by allowing you to compile programs independently for quantum virtual machines of different sizes.
The team tested its HyperQ software layer on the IBM Brisbane quantum computer — a 127-qubit gate-based system built on the Eagle chipset. According to the study, HyperQ reduced the average user wait time by up to 40 times, reducing project turnaround time from “days to several hours”. In addition, it enabled increase the number of quantum programsup to ten times.
Source: LiveScience
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