A quantum-classical cloud platform optimized for variational hybrid algorithms

Abstract In order to support near-term applications of quantum computing, a new compute paradigm has emerged—the quantum-classical cloud—in which quantum computers (QPUs) work in tandem with classical computers (CPUs) via a shared cloud infrastructure. In this work, we enumerate the architectural requirements of a quantum-classical cloud platform, and present a framework for benchmarking its runtime performance. In addition, we walk through two platform-level enhancements, parametric compilation and active qubit reset, that specifically optimize a quantum-classical architecture to support variational hybrid algorithms, the most promising applications of near-term quantum hardware. Finally, we show that integrating these two features into the Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services platform results in considerable improvements to the latencies that govern algorithm runtime.