Quantum systems have started to emerge as a disruptive technology and enabling platforms - exploiting the principles of quantum mechanics - to achieve quantum supremacy in computing. Academic research, industrial projects (e.g., Amazon Braket), and consortiums like 'Quantum Flagship' are striving to develop practically capable and commercially viable quantum computing (QC) systems and technologies. Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS) is viewed as a solution attuned to the philosophy of service-orientation that can offer QC resources and platforms, as utility computing, to individuals and organisations who do not own quantum computers. To understand the quantum service development life cycle and pinpoint emerging trends, we used evidence-based software engineering approach to conduct a systematic mapping study (SMS) of research that enables or enhances QCaaS. The SMS process retrieved a total of 55 studies, and based on their qualitative assessment we selected 9 of them to investigate (i) the functional aspects, design models, patterns, programming languages, deployment platforms, and (ii) trends of emerging research on QCaaS. The results indicate three modelling notations and a catalogue of five design patterns to architect QCaaS, whereas Python (native code or frameworks) and Amazon Braket are the predominant solutions to implement and deploy QCaaS solutions. From the quantum software engineering (QSE) perspective, this SMS provides empirically grounded findings that could help derive processes, patterns, and reference architectures to engineer software services for QC.
翻译:摘要:量子系统已经成为一项颠覆性技术和实现量子计算霸权的平台,利用量子力学的原理。学术研究、工业项目(例如Amazon Braket)和联盟(如“Quantum Flagship”)正在努力开发实用并具有商业价值的量子计算(QC)系统和技术。量子计算作为服务(QCaaS)被视为一种符合服务定位哲学的解决方案,可以向不拥有量子计算机的个人和组织提供QC资源和平台,就像公用事业计算一样。为了了解量子服务开发生命周期并指出新兴趋势,我们采用基于证据的软件工程方法进行了系统映射研究(SMS),研究使QCaaS成为可能或增强QCaaS的研究。SMS过程检索到55项研究,根据定性评估,我们选择了9项研究进行调查,分别是功能方面、设计模型、模式、编程语言、部署平台等,并分析QCaaS新兴研究的趋势。结果表明,有三个建模符号和一个目录的五个设计模式可以设计QCaaS,而Python(本地代码或框架)和Amazon Braket是实施和部署QCaaS解决方案的主要解决方案。从量子软件工程(QSE)的角度来看,本次系统映射研究提供了经验证据的发现,可以帮助推导出量子计算服务软件工程的过程、模式和参考架构。