Making quantum computing a reality will require much more than overcoming the hardware limitations that currently rule the discussion. There’s also a need for specialized software that can unleash the technology’s full processing power, which is what IBM Corp. has set out to tackle.

The company today released a set of tools that aim to help developers learn how to write applications for the quantum computers of tomorrow. The first addition is a publicly accessible programming interface for Quantum Experience, the cloud-based quantum computing service that IBM unveiled last March. It’s powered by experimental equipment (pictured) that is housed in a fridge cooled to nearly absolute zero, residing at the technology giant’s Downstate New York research center.

Today’s addition expands upon the programming language that IBM originally made available for the system at the time of its launch. TechCrunch reported that developers have run more than 200,000 scripts using the syntax and produced material for 15 research papers, but they still only scraped the surface in terms of what a quantum computer can do. Big Blue’s new interface is designed to enable use cases that are more similar to how such a machine would be employed outside the lab.

More specifically, developers can now create scripts in their prefered language instead of the stock syntax and even implement integration with classical computers. Such interoperability will be essential if quantum machines are ever to find use in the real world alongside conventional technology equipment.

The new programming interface is rolling out in conjunction with a simulator that can replicate the properties of a quantum computer in a virtual sandbox. On launch, the tool is capable of modelling a circuit with up to 20 qubits, the quantum equivalent of bits and the source of the technology’s power.  A phenomenon known as quantum superposition enables each qubit to have three possible states rather than just 1 or 0, which means there are more values to work with than in conventional machines.

As a result, quantum computers are much better-equipped to perform tasks that involve performing a large number of mathematical calculations. This property lends itself to everything from conducting medical research to cracking encryption algorithms, which protect data by making it too time-consuming for conventional computers to try to manually guess the key. The threat of contemporary cryptographic technologies becoming vulnerable is so alarming that a number of organizations are already working to develop an alternative.

Judging from IBM’s development roadmap, the effort to develop quantum cryptography is starting just in time: The company said that it intends to ship its first commercial 50-qubit computers within a few years.  In the more immediate future, Big Blue will release a software development kit to ease the task of writing programs for its Quantum Experience service.

Photo: IBM