Chapter 9
It's All about the Stack
IN THIS CHAPTER
Assessing classical and quantum computing stacks
Looking into annealing as an option
Getting the right kind of quantum computer
Once you look at the opportunities in quantum computing available to you and your organization, you can start taking advantage of what’s on offer. For business advantage today, you’re most likely to find answers in quantum-inspired algorithms running on classical computers, as described in Chapter 8, and in using quantum annealers, a kind of quantum technology optimized for, well, optimization problems and showing promise in machine learning.
In this chapter, we introduce the stack, which powers all quantum computing solutions, and quantum annealers. In Chapters 10 and 11, we discuss the rich but confusing range of universal quantum computing systems. After we’ve introduced you to the range of options, you’ll be ready to get the most out of quantum computing, today and going forward.
Analyzing the Stack
Like a classical computing system (see Chapter 2), a quantum computer is made up of a stack of technology — several layers of hardware, firmware (software semipermanently burned into chips), and software. ...
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