IBM Quantum Platform

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
<ul><li>The service was launched in May 2016 as the IBM Quantum Experience<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a> with a five-qubit quantum processor and matching simulator connected in a star shaped pattern. At this time, users could only interact with the hardware through the quantum composer GUI. Quantum circuits were also limited to the specific two-qubit gates available on the hardware.</li></ul>
<ul><li>In July 2016, IBM launched the IBM Quantum Experience community forum. This was subsequently replaced by a Slack workspace.</li></ul>
<ul><li>In January 2017, IBM made a number of additions to the IBM Quantum Experience,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a> including increasing the set of two-qubit interactions available on the five-qubit quantum processor, expanding the simulator to custom topologies up to twenty qubits, and allowing users to interact with the device and simulator using quantum assembly language code.</li></ul>
<ul><li>In March 2017, IBM released <a href="/facts/Qiskit/ND9psKTQ">Qiskit</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> to enable users to more easily write code and run experiments on the quantum processor and simulator. A user guide for beginners was also added.</li></ul>
<ul><li>In May 2017, IBM made an additional 16-qubit processor available on the IBM Quantum service.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a></li></ul>
<ul><li>In January 2018, IBM launched a quantum awards program, which it hosted on the IBM Quantum Experience.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a></li></ul>
<ul><li>In May 2019 a large overhaul of the service was made, including the addition of web-hosted Jupyter notebooks and integration with the online and interactive Qiskit textbook.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a></li></ul>
<ul><li>After a redesign in March 2021, a greater distinction was made between the composer GUI and the Jupyter notebooks. The IBM Quantum Experience name was retired in favour of the separate names IBM Quantum Composer and IBM Quantum Lab.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> Now, it's collectively called IBM Quantum Platform.</li></ul>
<h2 id="ibm-quantum-composer">IBM Quantum Composer</h2>

The Quantum Composer is a <a href="/facts/Graphic_user_interface/wBlQFWDP">graphic user interface</a> (GUI) designed by IBM to allow users to construct various <a href="/facts/Quantum_algorithm/ceJaJ6Eq">quantum algorithms</a> or run other quantum experiments. Users may see the results of their quantum algorithms by either running it on a real quantum processor or by using a simulator. Algorithms developed in the Quantum Composer are referred to as a "quantum score", in reference to the Quantum Composer resembling a musical sheet.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a>
The composer can also be used in scripting mode, where the user can write programs in the <a href="/facts/OpenQASM/N6dSzFya">OpenQASM</a>-language instead. Below is an example of a very small program, built for IBMs 5-<a href="/facts/Qubit/WveeEubw">qubit</a> computer. The program instructs the computer to generate a <a href="/facts/Quantum_state/7jbxd7Dx">quantum state</a> 
 
 
 
 
 |
 
 Ψ
 ⟩
 =
 
 
 1
 
 2
 
 
 
 
 (
 
 
 |
 
 000
 ⟩
 +
 
 |
 
 111
 ⟩
 
 )
 
 
 
 {\displaystyle |\Psi \rangle ={\frac {1}{\sqrt {2}}}\left(|000\rangle +|111\rangle \right)}
 
, a 3-qubit <a href="/facts/Greenberger%E2%80%93Horne%E2%80%93Zeilinger_state/bgcc3BsN">GHZ state</a>, which can be thought of as a variant of the <a href="/facts/Bell_state/8ubaX7xG">Bell state</a>, but with three qubits instead of two. It then measures the state, forcing it to <a href="/facts/Wave-function_collapse/f7KvbBHK">collapse</a> to one of the two possible outcomes, 
 
 
 
 
 |
 
 000
 ⟩
 
 
 {\displaystyle |000\rangle }
 
 or 
 
 
 
 
 |
 
 111
 ⟩
 
 
 {\displaystyle |111\rangle }
 
.

include "qelib1.inc"
qreg q[5]; // allocate 5 qubits (set automatically to |00000>)
creg c[5]; // allocate 5 classical bits

h q[0];                   // Hadamard-transform qubit 0
cx q[0], q[1];            // conditional pauli X-transform (ie. "CNOT") of qubits 0 and 1
                          // At this point we have a 2-qubit Bell state (|00> + |11>)/sqrt(2)

cx q[1], q[2];            // this expands entanglement to the 3rd qubit

measure q[0] -> c[0];     // this measurement collapses the entire 3-qubit state
measure q[1] -> c[1];     // therefore qubit 1 and 2 read the same value as qubit 0
measure q[2] -> c[2];

Every instruction in the QASM language is the application of a <a href="/facts/Quantum_gate/EFV5sPCU">quantum gate</a>, initialization of the chips <a href="/facts/Quantum_register/SKE6E55m">registers</a> to zero or <a href="/facts/Measurement_in_quantum_mechanics/VY7jPfP0">measurement</a> of these registers.

<h2 id="usage">Usage</h2>
<ul><li>In 2018 IBM reported that there were over 80,000 users of the IBM Quantum Experience, who have collectively run over 3 million experiments.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a></li></ul>
<ul><li>Many academic papers have been published by researchers who have conducted experiments using the service.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15">15</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16">16</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17">17</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18">18</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19">19</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20">20</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21">21</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22">22</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23">23</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24">24</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25">25</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:26" href="#fn:26">26</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:27" href="#fn:27">27</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://quantum-computing.ibm.com/">IBM Quantum Platform</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">"IBM Makes Quantum Computing Available on IBM Cloud to Accelerate Innovation". 2016-05-04. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160504214945/http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/49661.wss" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160504214945/http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/49661.wss</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">"IBM Quantum Experience Update". Archived from the original on 2019-01-29. Retrieved 2017-04-06. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190129182024/https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qstage/#/community/question?questionId=c7a17f4183104ea22ff8e3e8a95f794c" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20190129182024/https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qstage/#/community/question?questionId=c7a17f4183104ea22ff8e3e8a95f794c</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">"Quantum computing gets an API and SDK". 2017-03-06. <a href="https://developer.ibm.com/dwblog/2017/quantum-computing-api-sdk-david-lubensky/" target="_blank">https://developer.ibm.com/dwblog/2017/quantum-computing-api-sdk-david-lubensky/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">"Beta access our upgrade to the IBM QX". Archived from the original on 2019-01-31. Retrieved 2017-05-19. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190131201233/https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qx/community/question?questionId=db5f64ac99c6edc78e34932dfe593f36&channel=news" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20190131201233/https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qx/community/question?questionId=db5f64ac99c6edc78e34932dfe593f36&channel=news</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">"Now Open: Get quantum ready with new scientific prizes for professors, students and developers". IBM. 2018-01-14. <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/01/quantum-prizes/" target="_blank">https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/01/quantum-prizes/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">"IBM Unveils Beta of Next Generation Quantum Development Platform". IBM. 2021-02-10. <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/05/next-gen-ibmqx/" target="_blank">https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/05/next-gen-ibmqx/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">"Announcement of IBM Quantum Composer and Lab". 2021-03-02. <a href="https://twitter.com/jaygambetta/status/1366787131151163395" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/jaygambetta/status/1366787131151163395</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">"IBM Quantum experience". Quantum Experience. IBM. Archived from the original on 25 May 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2017. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180525063152/https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qx/tutorial?sectionId=59d2538efa783368715d988e06607b8c&pageIndex=0" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20180525063152/https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qx/tutorial?sectionId=59d2538efa783368715d988e06607b8c&pageIndex=0</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">"IBM Collaborating With Top Startups to Accelerate Quantum Computing". IBM. 2018-04-05. <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/04/ibm-startups-accelerate-quantum/" target="_blank">https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/04/ibm-startups-accelerate-quantum/</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">"QX Community papers". Archived from the original on 2019-03-22. Retrieved 2018-05-24. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190322211226/https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qx/community?channel=papers" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20190322211226/https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qx/community?channel=papers</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">"Research of the IBM Quantum Hub at the University of Melbourne". 20 April 2021. <a href="https://www.unimelb.edu.au/quantumhub#research" target="_blank">https://www.unimelb.edu.au/quantumhub#research</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">Rundle, R. P.; Tilma, T.; Samson, J. H.; Everitt, M. J. (2017). "Quantum state reconstruction made easy: a direct method for tomography". Physical Review A. 96 (2): 022117. arXiv:1605.08922. Bibcode:2017PhRvA..96b2117R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.96.022117. <a href="/wiki/ArXiv_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ArXiv_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
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<li id="fn:14">Huffman, Emilie; Mizel, Ari (29 March 2017). "Violation of noninvasive macrorealism by a superconducting qubit: Implementation of a Leggett-Garg test that addresses the clumsiness loophole". Physical Review A. 95 (3): 032131. arXiv:1609.05957. Bibcode:2017PhRvA..95c2131H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.95.032131. <a href="/wiki/ArXiv_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ArXiv_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
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</ol>

IBM Quantum Platform open-in-new

IBM Quantum Platform