How Does Quantum Software Harness the Power of Quantum Computing?

Esperanza Cuenca Gómez

Published Feb 17, 2021

"For specific tasks, quantum computers promise to unlock processing power much superior to traditional, classical, computers."

Dario Gil – Director of IBM Research

Much of the news about quantum computing nowadays seems to focus on quantum hardware and sometimes, it looks like the role of quantum software is, in a way, overlooked. However, quantum software is a crucial component for making quantum computing a reality.

In this article, I briefly summarize three ways in which quantum software can harness the power of quantum computing:

The first way is that to operate any computer we need software. What it is more, not any software, but critically programming languages as intuitive as possible. Tim Polk from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in Washington brilliantly summarized this fact: “it doesn’t help to have a quantum computer if no one knows how to program it”. And I add: or if there is no way to program it. Software, then, offers a path to solve problems.
In addition to programming languages, we also need algorithms – that is sequences of steps to address problems when operating the computer. Quantum algorithms must be developed under a radically different paradigm at several levels - different logic, different mathematics, and so on. This paradigm is being developed at the same time as the algorithms themselves.
Quantum software also intersects with quantum cryptography, as quantum cryptography is comprised by protocols and algorithms which need software to be implemented, as well as computers to be run. Here, we can see the important role quantum software plays in this field too.

Currently, we can see different options for quantum software packages and languages, for example Qiskit from IBM, Q# from Microsoft, Amazon Bracket from Amazon Web Services, t|ket⟩™ by Cambridge Quantum Computing and Orchestra from Zapata Computing, to name a few. These companies are making key contributions to harness the power of quantum computing. In the future, it is likely that many others will be making very significant contributions too.

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Dr. Victoria Shokri 2y

Thank you this article was amazing

1 Reaction

Nitin Gupta 5y

Good to see discussions moving towards leveraging quantum computing from an application perspective...... The quantum race is on, with profound implications, given the huge processing power - one of them being that current encryption technologies - as we see them would become redundant; and would need to be rewritten...