Metriq Featured Task Highlight: Quantum Volume

Metriq is an open source platform for tracking and sharing benchmarks in quantum technologies. A metric “task” compares performance of “methods” across the same workload of interest. Metriq’s mission is to make transparent, accessible benchmarks available to everyone in the quantum computing community.

We are excited to highlight recent developments in quantum technology research for you, powered by the Metriq platform! This month’s task is Quantum Volume!

Quantum Volume

Task description

Quantum volume expresses the maximum size (quantum circuit depth “n” times number of qubits “n”) of square quantum circuits that can be implemented to at least 2/3 heavy output generation rate by a quantum computer, where “heavy outputs” are all outputs with ideal probability above median for the ideal circuit.

Analysis

According to submissions and results to Metriq, as hardware manufacturers announce their own quantum volume results, the state-of-the-art in quantum volume across the field seems to be growing exponentially, which is heuristically equivalent to linear growth in viable qubits.

New developments

Recent results from Quantum Volume in Practice: What Users Can Expect from NISQ Devices highlight the differences between self-report and announcement by hardware manufacturers, presumably under the optimal calibration and scheduling conditions, versus the lower effective quantum volumes that end-users are likely to achieve in practice in user-facing queues for cloud access to native quantum hardware.