Quantum computing inside the supercomputer: IBM opens Qiskit to Fortran, C++ and Julia
IBM is linking its Qiskit quantum software directly to the programming languages of classical high-performance computing, letting researchers use quantum circuits without going through Python.
Symbolic image · Photo: IBM Research / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
IBM Quantum has released new interfaces for its open-source Qiskit software that go beyond the Python programming language. Through a C API, Qiskit's Rust-based core can now be called directly from Fortran, C++ and Julia. Researchers can thus build, transpile and run quantum circuits inside classical supercomputer codes – without an intermediate Python interpreter and its performance overhead. The bindings build on version 2.0 of Qiskit.
Fortran and C++ in particular are widely used in science. Possible applications cited include established simulation codes in chemistry, materials science and molecular dynamics, among them Quantum ESPRESSO, VASP, LAMMPS and GROMACS. All three bindings use the same underlying library and are therefore interoperable without any data conversion. IBM is targeting the combination of quantum computers and classical high-performance systems, which the company calls quantum-centric supercomputing. Typical applications include simulating physical systems and optimisation methods.