ECSE/CS Joint Seminar: Intelligent Cross-Stack Co-Design of Quantum Computer Systems

Quantum Computing has the potential to solve classically intractable problems with greater speed and efficiency, and recent several years have witnessed exciting advancements in this domain. However, there remains a substantial gap between the algorithmic requirements and the available device in terms of qubit number and system reliability. To close this gap, it is critical to perform the cross-stack co-design of various technology layers, from algorithm and program design, to compilation, and hardware architecture.

In this talk, I will provide an overview of my contributions in the software stack and hardware support for quantum systems. At the algorithm and program level, I will introduce QuantumNAS, a framework for quantum program structure (ansatz) design for variational quantum algorithms. QuantumNAS utilizes the noisy feedback from quantum devices to search for ansatz and qubit mapping tailored for specific hardware, leading to notable resource reduction and reliability enhancements. Then, at the compiler level, I will discuss a compilation framework for the Field-Programmable Qubit Array (FPQA) implemented by the emerging reconfigurable atom arrays. This framework leverages movable atoms for routing 2Q gates, and generates atom movements and gate scheduling with high scalability and parallelism. On the hardware support front, I will present SpAtten, an algorithm-architecture-circuit co-design aimed at Transformer-based quantum error correction decoding. SpAtten supports on-the-flying syndrome pruning to eliminate less critical inputs and boost efficiency. Finally, I will conclude with an overview of my ongoing work and my research vision towards building software and architecture supports for quantum computing, and domain-specific computing for practical quantum advantages.