Powerful hardware services and software libraries are vital tools for quickly and affordably designing, testing, and executing quantum algorithms. A robust large-scale study of how the performance of these platforms scales with the number of qubits is key to providing quantum solutions to challenging industry problems. This work benchmarks the runtime and accuracy for a representative sample of specialized high-performance simulated and physical quantum processing units. Results show the QMware simulator can reduce the runtime for executing a quantum circuit by up to 78% compared to the next fastest option for algorithms with fewer than 27 qubits. The AWS SV1 simulator offers a runtime advantage for larger circuits, up to the maximum 34 qubits available with SV1. Beyond this limit, QMware can execute circuits as large as 40 qubits. Physical quantum devices, such as Rigetti's Aspen-M2, can provide an exponential runtime advantage for circuits with more than 30 qubits. However, the high financial cost of physical quantum processing units presents a serious barrier to practical use. Moreover, only IonQ's Harmony quantum device achieves high fidelity with more than four qubits. This study paves the way to understanding the optimal combination of available software and hardware for executing practical quantum algorithms.

翻译：强大的硬件服务和软件库是快速且经济地设计、测试和执行量子算法的重要工具。对这些平台性能随量子比特数量扩展进行大规模的稳健研究，是解决行业挑战性问题的关键。本研究对具有代表性的专用高性能仿真和物理量子处理单元的运行时间和准确性进行了基准测试。结果表明，对于少于27个量子比特的算法，QMware模拟器执行量子电路的时间比次优选择最多减少78%。AWS SV1模拟器在更大电路上具有运行时间优势，最高支持SV1的34个量子比特上限。超过此限制时，QMware可执行多达40个量子比特的电路。诸如Rigetti的Aspen-M2等物理量子设备，可在超过30个量子比特的电路上提供指数级的运行时间优势，但物理量子处理单元的高昂财务成本对其实际应用构成严重障碍。此外，仅IonQ的Harmony量子设备能在超过四个量子比特的情况下实现高保真度。本研究为理解执行实际量子算法时可用软件与硬件的最佳组合奠定了基础。