Hybrid Quantum–Classical Computation with Real-Time Execution: Kudos, Microsoft!

They say that great minds think alike. If so, the recent paper “Advancing hybrid quantum–classical computation with real-time execution”¹, is a great example! 

The publication by a team of researchers from Microsoft and Quantum Circuit Inc. (QCI) reassures us that our growing quantum community is heading in the direction that Quantum Machines so strongly believes in. The reason? Our number one focus - and the heart of our technology and product offering - is to provide easy-to-program hybrid quantum–classical computation with real-time execution!

Sounds familiar?

QUA, our programming language, and the Pulse Processing Unit at the core of our OPX platform, which executes QUA code in real-time, provide this exact functionality to a large and constantly-growing number of happy customers.

Diving deeper, the paper reviews “practical challenges to implementing this approach along with developments underway to address these challenges.” It then discusses some key details, including real-time branching, repeat-until-success, and real-time parametric feedback (updating gate/pulse parameters based on general real-time processing done on qubit measurements in real-time, all within coherence time). 

Here are a few examples that show how these advanced real-time capabilities are implemented using QUA and the Quantum Orchestration Platform:

1. In [[2]], an adaptive algorithm that updates the measurement basis based on previous measurements performed. In addition, the authors used a Repeat Until Success protocol for qubit reset. Read the paper here.
2. In [[3]], a multi-qubit reset is performed via a Repeat Until Success protocol. More about it here.   
3. [[4]] Demonstrating parametric feedback. You can find a similar demonstration in our GitHub repo.

We were very happy to see other distinguished quantum experts are in line with Quantum Machines’ vision. We look forward to reading more and collaborating with other teams as we continue to advance the realization of practical quantum computers.  

1. Thomas Lubinski, Cassandra Granade , Amos Anderson, Alan Geller, Martin Roetteler, Andrei Petrenko and Bettina Heim, Front. Phys., 05 August 2022
2. R. Dassonneville, R. Assouly, T. Peronnin, P. Rouchon, and B. Huard, PRA 14, October 2020
3. Xueyue Zhang, Eunjong Kim, Daniel K. Mark, Soonwon Choi, and Oskar Painter, arXiv:2206.12803 [quant-ph], June 2022
4. Will Gilbert et al, arXiv:2201.06679 [cond-mat.mes-hall], March 2022