Moving a quantum compiler from Python to Rust
Over the last decade, quantum computing has moved from a niche research field to an industry already showing signs of advantage over classical methods in certain areas. Input quantum programs must be compiled for specific hardware, which is severely constrained compared to classical hardware, constantly evolving its instructions sets, and even a fixed processor requires frequent recompilation due to fluctuating calibrations of the individual instructions.
Qiskit is one of the oldest and most used quantum compilers. It is fully open source, originating nine years ago, firmly in the research era of quantum computing. In this talk, we will walk through the history of Qiskit's transition from a Python-space project borne out of research work, into a highly performant Rust-first production-grade compiler and research platform, taking a look at some of the challenges of quantum compilation and how a steady transition to Rust eased them.
