We’re excited to invite Python developers to experience the open Azure Quantum ecosystem with an expanded stack. With new support in Azure Quantum for major quantum Python SDKs, developers can directly submit quantum circuits built with Qiskit and Cirq. You can use familiar tools and leverage your existing development investment to explore quantum hardware in Azure Quantum.
We designed an integration API following patterns that are familiar to Qiskit and Cirq developers. You can send your quantum circuits written with Qiskit or Cirq to Azure Quantum hardware partners like Honeywell Quantum Solutions and IonQ. Here is an example of running existing Qiskit and Cirq circuits on IonQ quantum hardware in Azure Quantum:
Qiskit
To install: pip install azure-quantum[qiskit]
from azure.quantum.qiskit import AzureQuantumProvider
# Enter your Azure Quantum workspace details here
provider = AzureQuantumProvider(resource_id="", location="")
backend = provider.get_backend("ionq.qpu")
job = backend.run(your_qiskit_circuit, shots=1000)
result = job.result()
“This integration with Azure Quantum and its partners is another step in the move towards interoperability across the quantum industry,” said Blake Johnson, Quantum Platform Lead, IBM Quantum. “As quantum computing grows more powerful, interoperability will be crucial to helping developers build and deploy quantum algorithms without friction.”
Cirq
To install: pip install azure-quantum[cirq]
import azure.quantum.cirq as aq # Enter your Azure Quantum workspace details here service = aq.AzureQuantumService(resource_id="", location="") job = service.run(your_cirq_circuit, repetitions=1000, target="ionq.qpu") results = job.results()
“It’s great to see the adoption of Cirq following the spirit of the Apache 2.0 open-source license and making further hardware platforms accessible to the global Cirq developer community.” explains Dr. Markus Hoffmann, Quantum Partnerships at Google Quantum AI.
You can also directly send circuits in the native format supported by our partners’ hardware, such as the IonQ JSON specification. This modular approach makes it easy to write your own Python integration with the Azure Quantum service.
We’re also excited that, through a continued collaboration with Microsoft, the Strangeworks quantum computing platform will enable users to either connect to their existing Azure Quantum workspaces or use the Strangeworks direct integration to submit jobs to Azure Quantum using Qiskit, Cirq, Q#, and Python.
“We at Strangeworks are very excited by Azure Quantum’s efforts to extend their unique quantum services to the Python community. Developers working with Azure Quantum now have unprecedented optionality to work in both Q# and Python, and to leverage the strengths across many frameworks, including Qiskit and Cirq, within the Quantum Development Kit,” said Justin Youens, Founder and CTO of Strangeworks. “These latest enhancements strengthen our ongoing collaboration with Azure Quantum. Combined with their generous community credit program, Azure Quantum is a prime partner for quantum exploration.”
With these new capabilities in Azure Quantum, you can bring, reuse, and submit your existing Qiskit and Cirq source code with little to no change, and at the same time develop and submit quantum programs using Q#. We want to make it easy for developers to create the high-level applications that run on both today’s hardware and scalable hardware of the future.
Learn more
Get started by accessing the quickstart for Qiskit and quickstart for Cirq. You can also check out sample Jupyter Notebooks for Qiskit and Cirq. If you’re interested in innovative research with Azure Quantum, check out our Azure Quantum Credits program to receive up to $10,000 of credits to use on our platform.
