Layered architecture for quantum computing

TL;DR

This paper proposes a layered quantum computer architecture focusing on optical control of quantum dots, enabling independent subsystem design and resource analysis for fault-tolerant quantum algorithms, with potential to solve complex problems within days.

Contribution

It introduces a new layered architecture for quantum computing based on quantum dots and surface code error correction, with detailed resource analysis and practical implementation insights.

Findings

Quantum dot architecture can perform fault-tolerant quantum algorithms within days.

Layered design allows independent subsystem optimization.

Surface code error correction is effectively integrated into the architecture.

Abstract

We develop a layered quantum computer architecture, which is a systematic framework for tackling the individual challenges of developing a quantum computer while constructing a cohesive device design. We discuss many of the prominent techniques for implementing circuit-model quantum computing and introduce several new methods, with an emphasis on employing surface code quantum error correction. In doing so, we propose a new quantum computer architecture based on optical control of quantum dots. The timescales of physical hardware operations and logical, error-corrected quantum gates differ by several orders of magnitude. By dividing functionality into layers, we can design and analyze subsystems independently, demonstrating the value of our layered architectural approach. Using this concrete hardware platform, we provide resource analysis for executing fault-tolerant quantum algorithms for integer factoring and quantum simulation, finding that the quantum dot architecture we study could solve such problems on the timescale of days.