A Software Development Kit and Translation Layer for Executing Intel 8080 Assembler on a Quantum Computer (August 2022)

Abstract

One of the major obstacles to the adoption of quantum computing is the requirement to define quantum circuits at the quantum gate level. Many programmers are familiar with high-level or lowlevel programming languages but not quantum gates nor the low-level quantum logic required to derive useful results from quantum computers. The steep learning curve involved when progressing from quantum gates to complex simulations such as Shor's algorithm has proven too much for many developers. The purpose of this paper and the software presented within, addresses this challenge by providing a Software Development Kit (SDK), translation layer, emulator and a framework of techniques for executing Intel 8080/Z80 assembler on a quantum computer, i.e. all salient points of CPU execution, logic, arithmetic and bitwise manipulation will be executed on the quantum computer using quantum circuits. This provides a novel means of displaying the equivalency and interoperability of quantum and classical computers. Developers and researchers can use the SDK to write code in Intel 8080/Z80 assembler which is executed locally via traditional emulation and remotely on a quantum computer in parallel. The emulator features side-by-side code execution with visibility of the running quantum circuit and re-usable/overridable methods. This enables programmers to learn, reuse and contrast techniques for performing any traditional CPU based technique/instruction on a quantum computer; e.g. a programmer may know how to multiply and perform checks on a classical CPU but is not able to perform the same tasks in a quantum implementation, this SDK allows the programmer to pick and choose the methods they would like to use to fulfil their requirements. The SDK makes use of open-source software, specifically Python and Qiskit for the emulation, translation, API calls and execution of user supplied code or binaries.

An optimization of traditional CPU emulation techniques for execution on a quantum computer

“…This paper extends the capability of our previous work [1] which described an SDK that includes a fully instruction and cycle-accurate intel 8080/z80 emulator [2]. The emulator executes all salient parts of execution on a quantum computer using quantum circuits and showed how the capabilities of such quantum computers can be extended with traditional logic functions.…”

“…all execution can be performed utilizing less than 32 qubits. This is a marked improvement in e ciency compared to the "in silicon" method described in the author's previous paper [1]. Overall performance is still heavily bound by the number of qubits available, the delays involved in the remote API based approach and the queueing method of accessing IBMs quantum computers.…”

“…Method 2 -Executing the circuit entirely in the quantum domain Previous work that presented the Qx86 SDK showed that the baseline approach is logically accurate but extremely slow [1]. This shortfall is mostly due to the API-based method of accessing IBMs' quantum computers [6] as each circuit/logic gate must join a queue for execution.…”

“…As described in our previous paper, qubit entanglement using a Hadamard (Fig. 6) gate [1] offers an interesting parallel with a latch circuit.…”

A Survey on Available Tools and Technologies Enabling Quantum Computing

“…Intel Quantum Simulator: The Intel Quantum Simulator, known as qHiPSTER (Quantum High Performance Software Testing Environment), represents a robust and adept quantum circuit simulator. It deviates from traditional matrixbased methodologies and harnesses the computational capabilities of multi-core and multi-node architectures [64]. Unlike conventional methods, the simulator adopts an allencompassing approach to representing qubit states, thus eliminating the requirement for explicit matrix expressions denoting gates and quantum operations.…”