Qsyn: An End-to-End Quantum Circuit Synthesis Framework

Introduction

qsyn is a C++-based growing software system for synthesizing, optimizing, and verifying quantum circuits to aid the development of quantum computing. qsyn implements scalable quantum circuit optimization by combining ZX-Calculus and technology mapping.

qsyn provides an experimental implementation of optimization algorithms and a programming environment for simulation or building similar applications. Future development will focus on enhancing the optimization and qubit mapping routines, adding support to synthesize from arbitrary unitaries, and adding verification functionalities.

Getting Started

System Requirements

qsyn requires c++-20 to build. We support compilation with (1) g++-11 or above or (2) clang++-16 or above. We regularly perform build tests for the two compilers.

Installation

Clone the repository to your local machine by running

git clone https://github.com/DVLab-NTU/qsyn.git
cd qsyn

Then, follow the instructions below to install the dependencies and build qsyn.

Or you can try out qsyn in a containerized environment by running

docker run -it --rm dvlab/qsyn:latest

Optional Dependencies for Visualization

Visualization functionalities of qsyn depend at runtime on the following dependencies. Please refer to the linked pages for installation instructions of these dependencies:

• qiskit, qiskit[visualization] for drawing quantum circuits
  • Please refer to this page
• texlive for drawing ZX-diagrams.
  • For Ubuntu:

    sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra

  • Other Platforms: please refer to this page

Compilation

qsyn uses CMake to manage the build process. To build qsyn, follow the instructions below:

1. Run cmake to build dependencies and generate Makefiles, if this step fails, you might have to install external dependencies blas, lapack or xtensor yourself.

   cmake -B build -S .

   Note for Mac Users: Since we use some C++20 features that are not yet supported by Apple Clang, you'll need to install another compiler yourself. We recommend installing the llvm toolchain with clang++ by running

   brew install llvm

   Then, run the following command to force cmake to use the new clang++ you installed.

   cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=$(which clang++) -B build -S .

2. Build the executable. You would want to crank up the number of threads to speed up the compilation process:

   cmake --build build -j 8

   You can now execute qsyn by running

    ./qsyn

   You can also build qsyn in a containerized environment by running

   make build-docker

   And run that executable by running

   make run-docker

Run

• After successful compilation, open the command-line interface of qsyn by running

   ❯ ./qsyn
   qsyn v0.6.2 - Copyright © 2022-2023, DVLab NTUEE.
   Licensed under Apache 2.0 License.
   qsyn>

• To see what commands are available, type help in the command-line interface.

  qsyn> help

• To see the help message of a specific command, type <command> -h.

  qsyn> qcir read -h

• You can also let qsyn to execute a sequence of commands by passing a DOFILE to qsyn:

  ❯ ./qsyn -f examples/synth.dof
  qsyn v0.6.2 - DVLab NTUEE.
  Licensed under Apache 2.0 License.
  qsyn> qcir read benchmark/zx/tof3.zx

  Some example DOFILEs are provided under examples/. You can also write your own DOFILEs to automate your workflow.

• If you're new to qsyn, you will be prompted to run the command create-qsynrc to create a configuration file for qsyn. This file will be stored under ~/.config/qsynrc and can be used to store your aliases, variables, etc.

• For more options, please refer to the help message of qsyn by running

  ./qsyn -h

Testing

We have provided some DOFILEs, i.e., a sequence of commands, to serve as functionality checks as well as demonstration of use. DOFILEs are Located under tests/<section>/<subsection>/dof/.

• To run a DOFILE and compare the result to the reference, type

  ./scripts/RUN_TESTS <path/to/test> -d

• To update the reference to a dofile, type

  ./scripts/RUN_TESTS <path/to/test> -u

• You may also run all DOFILEs by running

  make test

• To run test in a containerized environment, run

  make test-docker

  Notice that if you use a different BLAS or LAPACK implementation to build qsyn, some of the DOFILEs may produce different results, which is expected.

License

qsyn is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Certain functions of qsyn is enabled by a series of third-party libraries. For a list of these libraries, as well as their license information, please refer to this document.