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Overview

Intel® Quantum SDK is a C++ based API that allows users to write software targeted for Intel quantum hardware. It is available as a pre-installed environment on qBraid Lab, and is free to access for all users. To cite the Intel® Quantum SDK, please reference:
Khalate, P., Wu, X.-C., Premaratne, S., Hogaboam, J., Holmes, A., Schmitz, A., Guerreschi, G. G., Zou, X. & Matsuura, A. Y., arXiv:2202.11142 (2022)

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Getting Started

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Select Image & Launch Lab

At the top of your account page, open the image drop down. Select the option named Intel Free 2vCPU 4GB, and then click Launch Lab.
launch intel
Pulling the Intel image may take 2-3 minutes the first time. The next time you launch Lab, it will load much more quickly.

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Add Python kernel

The Intel® Quantum SDK is designed to interoperate with Python software environments. To use this feature, in the right sidebar of qBraid Lab, locate and expand the Intel® Quantum SDK environment panel and click Add Kernel. This will create a new Python 3 kernel (marked IQSDK), which you will use to create and run your first notebook.
cpp intel

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Python Interface

The Intel® Quantum SDK Python Interface provides an API to run quantum algorithms using Python 3, through the intelqsdk.cbindings library. The standard approach to using the Intel® Quantum SDK is to provide a quantum_kernel as C++ source in your Python environment and then expose that kernel for operation. A second approach for interacting with Python is via the Intel® Quantum Compiler OpenQASM Bridge:
  1. Write quantum_kernel functions in C++, compile to a .so shared object file, setup the Intel® Quantum Simulator and call the intelqsdk.cbindings APIs from Python.
  2. Write quantum circuits in OpenQASM 2.0, convert that to a quantum_kernel source in C++, and use the intelqsdk.cbindings library as before, all from within Python.

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qBraid Specific Instructions

On qBraid, the Intel® Quantum SDK Python interface is installed in a dedicated virtual environment with environment ID intel_dk7c2g. Before running a notebook, make sure that the Intel® Quantum SDK kernel is active. Then, make sure it is enabled for the current notebook by selecting Python [IQSDK] in the kernel selector in the top-right of your menu bar. For terminal users, the environment path is discoverable via the qBraid CLI as follows: 
$ qbraid envs list
# installed environments:
#
default                  /opt/.qbraid/environments/qbraid_000000
intel                    /opt/.qbraid/environments/intel_dk7c2g
...
To run your Python scripts using the intelqsdk.cbindings library, active the environment: 
$ qbraid envs activate intel
$ python3 <path_to_your_script>
Or, call your script directly by specifying the full path to the python3 executable: 
$ /opt/.qbraid.environments/indel_dk7c2g/pyenv/bin/python3 <path_to_your_script>
The Intel® Quantum Compiler is also located in the same intel environment directory. 
/opt/.qbraid/environments/intel_dk7c2g/intel-quantum-compiler
The Intel® oneAPI toolkit also comes pre-installed on qBraid, and can be accessed at 
/opt/intel/oneapi

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Your First C++ Quantum Kernel

We will create and manipulate a quantum_kernel running on the Intel® Quantum Simulator directly in your notebook. This first kernel will demonstrate a simple quantum Bell state as a common and familiar quantum computing example. 
import intelqsdk.cbindings as iqsdk

compiler = "/opt/.qbraid/environments/intel_dk7c2g/intel-quantum-compiler"

num_qubits = 2

# Create the Python interpolated 2 qubit C++ Bell state source
Bell_source = f"""
#include <clang/Quantum/quintrinsics.h>

// Establish the classical and quantum kernel variables
cbit c[{num_qubits}];
qbit q[{num_qubits}];

// Our Bell state Quantum Kernel
quantum_kernel void bell()
{{
    H(q[0]);
    CNOT(q[0], q[1]);
    MeasZ(q[0], c[0]);
    MeasZ(q[1], c[1]);
}}
"""

# Create the Intel® Quantum SDK source file bell.cpp
with open("bell.cpp", "w", encoding="utf-8") as output_file:
    print(Bell_source, file=output_file)

# Generate the Intel® Quantum SDK shared object file bell.so
iqsdk.compileProgram(compiler, "bell.cpp", "-s")

# Expose and label the Intel® Quantum SDK shared object as "my_bell"
iqsdk.loadSdk("./bell.so", "my_bell")

# Setup the Intel® Quantum Simulator to execute the quantum kernel
iqs_config = iqsdk.IqsConfig()
iqs_config.num_qubits = num_qubits
iqs_config.simulation_type = "noiseless"
iqs_device = iqsdk.FullStateSimulator(iqs_config)
iqs_device.ready()

# Invoke the quantum_kernel "bell" defined in the C++ source above
iqsdk.callCppFunction("bell", "my_bell")

# Establish references to the quantum kernel qubits
qbit_ref = iqsdk.RefVec()
for i in range(num_qubits):
    qbit_ref.append( iqsdk.QbitRef("q", i, "my_bell").get_ref() )

# Print the probabilities of the quantum system
probabilities = iqs_device.getProbabilities(qbit_ref)
iqsdk.FullStateSimulator.displayProbabilities(probabilities, qbit_ref)

# Printing probability register of size 4
# |00>    : 0                             |10>    : 0
# |01>    : 0                             |11>    : 1

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OpenQASM Support

Intel® Quantum SDK provides a source-to-source converter which takes OpenQASM code and converts it into C++ for use with the Intel® Quantum SDK. This converter requires Python >= 3.10. Currently, it only processes OpenQASM 2.0 compliant code as described by the Open Quantum Assembly Language paper: arXiv:1707.03429. To translate an OpenQASM source to a C++ file, you can run the Intel® Quantum Compiler with the -B flag to generate the corresponding quantum_kernel functions in C++ source format. If you are working from the terminal CLI with a pre-existing OpenQASM file simply use the following syntax to create your C++ quantum_kernel source file: 
$ intel-quantum-compiler -B example.qasm
Working with inline OpenQASM content insert the following code into the above notebook, replacing the two sections there identified by comments starting with “Create ” and re-run: 
# Create the Python interpolated 2 qubit OpenQASM Bell state source
Bell_source = f"""
OPENQASM 2.0;
qreg q[{num_qubits}];
creg c[{num_qubits}];
h q[0];
cx q[0],q[1];
measure q[0] -> c[0];
measure q[1] -> c[1];
"""

# Create the OpenQASM 2.0 source file bell.qasm
with open("bell.qasm", "w", encoding="utf-8") as output_file:
    print(Bell_source, file=output_file)

# Create the Intel® Quantum SDK source file bell.cpp
iqsdk.compileProgram(compiler, "bell.qasm", "-B")
As a further alternative to a OpenQASM file or an inline OpenQASM source, it is also possible to start from a Qiskit quantum algorithm and transpile to OpenQASM: 
from qiskit import QuantumCircuit

# Create Qiskit bell circuit with measurement over both qubits
circuit = QuantumCircuit(2, 2)
circuit.h(0)
circuit.cx(0, 1)
circuit.measure([0, 1], [0, 1])

Bell_source = circuit.qasm()
Enjoy exploring the possibilities of quantum computing with the Intel® Quantum SDK.
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