Qiskit Runtime

Qiskit Runtime is a new architecture offered by IBM Quantum that streamlines quantum computations. It is designed to use classical compute resources to execute quantum circuits with more efficiency on quantum processors.

Using Qiskit Runtime, for example, a research team at IBM Quantum was able to achieve 120x speed up in their lithium hydride simulation. For more information, see the IBM Research blog

Qiskit Runtime allows authorized users to upload their quantum programs for themselves or others to use. A quantum program, also called a Qiskit runtime program, is a piece of Python code that takes certain inputs, performs quantum and classical computation, and returns the processing results. The same or other authorized users can then invoke these quantum programs by simply passing in the required input parameters.

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🚀 Qiskit Runtime is now available on all IBM Quantum systems. If ibm-q/open/main is the only hub/group/project in your account, then you can only execute runtime programs on ibmq_qasm_simulator. If you have more than one hub/group/project, you can execute runtime programs on any systems to which you have access and upload your custom programs.

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Installation

You need to install the required packages for the tutorials, which are documented in requirements.txt. After that, you can download this repository and use Jupyter Notebook/Lab to explore the tutorials and learn how Qiskit Runtime works.

git clone https://github.com/Qiskit-Partners/qiskit-runtime.git
cd qiskit-runtime
pip install -r requirements.txt

cd tutorials
jupyter notebook .

Executing a Qiskit Runtime program

Configuring your IBM Quantum credentials

Before you can start using Qiskit Runtime, make sure you have an IBM Quantum account. If this is your first time using IBM Quantum or Qiskit, please refer to the instruction in the qiskit-ibmq-provider repository to configure your IBM Quantum credentials.

Finding available programs

To list all available programs:

from qiskit import IBMQ

IBMQ.load_account()
provider = IBMQ.get_provider(hub='MY_HUB', group='MY_GROUP', project='MY_PROJECT')
provider.runtime.pprint_programs()

pprint_programs() prints the metadata of all programs visible to you. A program's metadata consists of its ID, name, description, input parameters, return values, interim results, and other information that helps you to know more about the program.

If you know the ID of the program you're looking for, you can also print out the metadata of just that one program:

print(provider.runtime.program('sample-program'))

The output of the code above would be:

sample-program:
  Name: sample-program
  Description: A sample runtime program.
  Version: 1
  Creation date: 2021-05-04T01:38:21Z
  Max execution time: 300
  Parameters:
    - iterations:
      Description: Number of iterations to run. Each iteration generates and runs a random circuit.
      Type: int
      Required: True
  Interim results:
    - iteration:
      Description: Iteration number.
      Type: int
    - counts:
      Description: Histogram data of the circuit result.
      Type: dict
  Returns:
    - -:
      Description: A string that says 'All done!'.
      Type: string

sample-program, as the name suggests, is a sample program used for demonstration. It takes only 1 input parameter iterations, which indicates how many iterations to run. For each iteration it generates and runs a random 5-qubit circuit and returns the counts as well as the iteration number as the interim results. When the program finishes, it returns the sentence All done!. This program has a maximum execution time of 300 seconds, after which the execution will be forcibly terminated.

Executing the sample-program program

Because sample-program provides interim results, which are results available to you while the program is still running, we want to first define a callback function that would handle these interim results:

def interim_result_callback(job_id, interim_result):
    print(f"interim result: {interim_result}")

When an interim result is available, this callback function will be invoked and the result data passed to it. Not all programs provide interim results, and you don't have to provide a callback even if the program you're executing does provide them.

To run the sample-program program:

program_inputs = {
    'iterations': 3
}
options = {'backend_name': 'ibmq_montreal'}
job = provider.runtime.run(program_id="sample-program",
                           options=options,
                           inputs=program_inputs,
                           callback=interim_result_callback
                          )
print(f"job ID: {job.job_id()}")
result = job.result()

Deleting your job

While not strictly necessary, deleting unwanted jobs can help with performance when you want to query for old jobs. To delete a job:

provider.runtime.delete_job('JOB_ID')

Limitations

API

Qiskit Runtime is still in beta mode, and heavy modifications to both functionality and API are likely to occur. Some of the changes might not be backward compatible and would require updating your Qiskit version.

Next Steps

This README only provides a quick overview of Qiskit Runtime. Check out the tutorials. The Qiskit user interface for accessing Qiskit Runtime is provided by qiskit-ibmq-provider, so you might want to also check out its runtime API documentation.

License

Apache License 2.0