OPEN DIRECTIONS IN QUANTUM SOFTWARE STACK: FROM NISQ to QUANTUM UTILITY

Abstract

Improvement in Quantum Computing (QC) performance will allow us to solve a wide range of complex problems that classical computers of today can’t handle. Nowadays we feel closer to achieving a state of Quantum Utility (QU) than ever before. Importance for both academia and business to understand the current state of technology and tooling, their extensibility points along with perspective optimization algorithms are on the verge. The purpose of the article is to provide a structured analysis of existing progress in QC. It serves a purpose of a guide on where significant progress is expected in the upcoming years, outlines details about tooling to start doing experiments, and introduces Quantum Computing Optimisation Middleware (QCOM) reference architecture as a backbone around which new building blocks are expected to be added in the upcoming years e.g. industry-specific enterprise connectors. The article reviews only the software stack, not considering opportunities for hardware as they seem to be much further away. This should help scientists and engineers to define a mental model of how to move forward to reach both mid and long-term goals toward QU.

Keywords: quantum computing, quantum utility, quantum algorithm performance, Quantum Computing Optimisation Middleware, error correction, qubit mapping.