IonQ, one of the leading quantum computing firms that is expecting to go public announced today that its platform has been fully integrated with Qiskit, an open-source Python package for programming quantum computers. The integration will see IonQ"s 11 qubit quantum computer linked to the Qiskit backend.
What this means is that you should now be able to run programs written in Qiskit directly on IonQ"s quantum hardware without writing ancillary code. To help developers, IonQ has released an open source provider library that you can find on GitHub and the Python Package Index. The only thing required to do is to change the entry in code that points to the backend and link it to IonQ"s platform. However, just like any other cloud/quantum computing service provider, you will need an account to supply you with the necessary credentials to access the backend. The following image shows how you can create a maximally entangled Bell state using Qiskit and run it on IonQ"s quantum computer.
“IonQ is excited to make our quantum computers and APIs easily accessible to the Qiskit community,” said Peter Chapman, CEO & President of IonQ. “Open source has already revolutionized traditional software development. With this integration, we’re bringing the world one step closer to the first generation of widely-applicable quantum applications.”
The integration stems from the Qiskit Partner Program, which is a select group of quantum service providers officially verified with Qiskit compatibility. Currently, only IBM Quantum and IonQ are on this list. With today"s announcement, IonQ"s hardware will be available to over 275,000 enterprises, government, and academic institutions worldwide, allowing them to use quantum computers for practical, academic, and commercial use cases.