An HPC-Inspired Blueprint for a Technology-Agnostic Quantum Middle Layer
2025 (English)In: Proceedings of 2025 Workshops of the International Conference on High Performance Computing, Network, Storage, and Analysis, SC 2025 Workshops, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) , 2025, p. 1860-1867Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
We present a blueprint for a quantum middle layer that supports applications across various quantum technologies. Inspired by concepts and abstractions from HPC libraries and middleware, our design is backend-neutral and context-aware. A program only needs to specify its intent once as typed data and operator descriptors. It declares what the quantum registers mean and which logical transformations are required, without committing to gates, pulses, continuous-variable routines, or anneal backend. Such execution details are carried separately in a context descriptor and can change per backend without modifying the intent artifacts. We develop a proof of concept implementation that uses JSON files for the descriptors and two backends: a gate-model path realized with IBM Qiskit Aer simulator and an annealing path realized with D-Wave Ocean’s simulated annealer. On a Max-Cut problem instance, the same typed problem runs on both backends by varying only the operator formulation (Quantum Approximated Optimization Algorithm formulation vs. Ising Hamiltonian formulation) and the context. The proposed middle layer concepts are characterized by portability, composability, and its minimal core can evolve with hardware capabilities.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) , 2025. p. 1860-1867
Keywords [en]
Execution Context, Quantum Middle Layer, Quantum Operator Descriptors, Quantum Software Architecture, Typed Quantum Data
National Category
Computer Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-377715DOI: 10.1145/3731599.3767554ISI: 001661298800201Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105023368611OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-377715DiVA, id: diva2:2045012
Conference
2025 Workshops of the International Conference on High Performance Computing, Network, Storage, and Analysis, SC 2025 Workshops, St. Louis, United States, Nov 16 2025 - Nov 21 2025
Note
Part of ISBN 9798400718717
QC 20260311
2026-03-112026-03-112026-03-11Bibliographically approved