Cambridge Quantum Computing: Taking The Open Source Route

(Forbes) Quantum computation is still a new field, with many potential implementation technologies. At least 20 wildly different quantum architectures are being explored, using things like superconducting, trapped ion and photonic. These models all exhibit quantum effects that can be adapted into quantum computer implementations. Obviously, these very different technologies require very different interfaces to configure and “program” them. That provides significant challenges, especially if you want to shift your quantum program onto a different platform.
CQC, which is merging with Honeywell Quantum Solutions, has developed a “quantum compiler” called TKET. TKET accepts a high-level specification language, compiles it into an intermediate form that can be optimized, and then maps the result to the desired target architecture.
Earlier this year Cambridge Quantum opened TKET to “open access,” granting use licenses to anyone while still retaining full ownership and license to the software. This week CQC completed a year-long process to fully open-source the package. Dr. Ross Duncan, head of Quantum Software, hopes this will “enable democratization of the quantum community.”

TKET has several advantages over other quantum compiler implementations:
TKET performs extensive quantum-model optimization on both the logic level and the physical quantum-node implementation level
As a result of the optimization and other factors, performance ranges from 1 to 3 orders of magnitude better than the other leading quantum compilers
TKET supports 9 different quantum architectures, vs. 3-5 for its competitors

Note: IQT-News summarizes here an article by Karl Freund, Forbes Contributor in Enterprise Tech, Founder and Principal Analyst, Cambrian-AI Research LLC.