Connectivity between qubits in a quantum computer may be as important as clock speed and gate fidelity when it comes time to build large-scale quantum computers. We run several quantum algorithms on two 5-qubit programmable quantum computers: our fully-connected ion trap system, and the IBM Quantum Experience superconducting system. The performance is seen to mirror the connectivity of the systems, with the ion trap system out-performing the superconducting system on all results, but particularly when the algorithm demands more connections. This first comparison of algorithms on different platforms shows the power of having a programmable and reconfigurable system, which will be critical to successfully adapt to new quantum algorithms as they are discovered.
- “Experimental Comparison of Two Quantum Computing Architectures,” N. M. Linke, D. Maslov, M. Roetteler, S. Debnath, C. Figgatt, K. A. Landsman, K. Wright, C. Monroe, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 114, 13 (2017). [News Release]
- “Comparison of Cloud-Based Ion Trap and Superconducting Quantum Computer Architectures,” S. Blinov, B. Wu, and C. Monroe, AVS Quantum Sci. 3, 033801 (2021)
