A Survey on Integrating Quantum Computers into High Performance Computing Systems

TL;DR

This survey reviews the current state of integrating quantum computers into high performance computing systems, highlighting hardware, software, and standardization challenges for hybrid quantum-classical architectures.

Contribution

It provides a structured literature review categorizing existing research and emphasizes the need for standardization to advance hybrid quantum-HPC systems.

Findings

Diverse tools enable hybrid quantum-classical systems

Development of hardware and software architectures for integration

Need for standard interfaces and methods

Abstract

Quantum computers use quantum mechanical phenomena to perform conventionally intractable calculations for specific problems. Despite being universal machines, quantum computers are not expected to replace classical computers, but rather, to complement them and form hybrid systems. This makes integrating quantum computers into high performance computing (HPC) systems an increasingly relevant topic. We present a structured literature review on the integration aspect. We methodologically search literature databases and manually evaluate 107 publications. These publications are divided into seven categories that describe the state of the art in each category. After a brief quantitative analysis of the literature, this survey deals with the hardware architecture of hybrid quantum-classical systems, as well as the software stack. We observe the development of a wide range of tools enabling hybrid systems and emphasize the need for future standardization of interfaces and methods to foster synergy.