Architectural Analysis of Quantum Algorithms for NISQ Hardware: FY21 Quantum System Sciences Line-Supported Program

Emerging quantum computing architectures are at the cusp of showing relevance for real-world problems. However, current quantum computing hardware platforms are not designed with a focus on the problems to be run on them. Rather they are designed from the "bottom-up," where a quantum computing architecture typically consists of a homogeneous replication of a set of low-level devices, i.e., qubit designs. Additionally, demonstrations to-date have mostly been limited to "toy" problems or problems that have little practical value. The goal of our project is to investigate the architectural trade-offs that naturally occur in the design of emerging quantum computing hardware. We study these architectures using quantum benchmarks that are implementations of quantum algorithms that have practical impact. At the core of our project is a quantum architecture simulation tool that will allow us to assess the impact that architecture design choices have on the resources and fidelity of the designs. The current target of our work is on systems that are envisioned in the next five years (systems requiring 100-200 qubits).