IBM is continuing its push to make quantum computing more of a practical reality than ever before.

Today IBM announced the 1.0 release of its Qiskit Software Development Kit (SDK) for building and visualizing quantum circuits. Qiskit is an open source effort that got its start in 2017 and has been expanding over the last seven years.  According to IBM, Qiskit has become the de facto SDK for quantum computing across multiple quantum hardware platforms. Qiskit is written in Python enabling regular developers to use existing skills to benefit from quantum hardware. With the new Qiskit 1.0 release, IBM is focusing on enhanced reliability, performance and stability.

The Qiskit software stack now includes the Qiskit Transpiler Service, which is a cloud-based feature that enhances the capabilities of the local Qiskit transpiler by leveraging IBM Quantum cloud resources and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered optimization techniques.  There is also the Qiskit Runtime Service for operations on quantum hardware as well as the Qiskit Serverless tool to help run workloads on classical and quantum hardware. The stack also includes an early preview of the Qiskit Code Assistant, which uses IBM Watsonx to help write optimized  quantum code.

The new Qiskit stack update comes as IBM is claiming that it has already been able to demonstrate quantum utility and is on a path to demonstrating quantum advantage.

In a press briefing, Jerry Chow, IBM Fellow and Director, Quantum Systems and Runtime Technology, said that quantum utility is the point where it can be proven that a quantum system is better than a classical system for trying to execute functions that can run on an actual quantum system. The goal is however to move to quantum advantage.

“With quantum advantage we really are able to outperform any kind of classical demonstration of a particular classical solution for any type of problem,” Chow said.

During the briefing, IBM Distinguished Engineer and Quantum Engine Lead Blake Johnson demonstrated how developers can use the new Qiskit tools to solve real-world optimization problems.

Developers can build quantum circuits and operators using the SDK and optimize circuits using techniques like the AI-enhanced transpiler service.

Johnson also detailed a distinct four-step path known as Qiskit patterns to solve problems with the Qiskit software stack. Qiskit patterns provide a standardized framework for applying quantum computing to solve problems.

The framework consists of four steps:

1. Map classical inputs of a problem into a quantum problem.
2. Optimize the quantum problem for efficient execution on a quantum system.
3. Execute the quantum circuits on actual quantum hardware using Qiskit runtime primitives.
4. Perform post-processing using classical computation to return the results in a classical format.

The patterns are aimed at streamlining the process of solving problems from start to finish using Qiskit's tools for mapping problems to circuits, optimizing circuits, executing on hardware and analyzing results.