Google makes new Quantum Virtual Machine available on Colab free of cost

Quantum Virtual Machine joins the long list of tools that Google has made publicly available, free of cost. Now, Quantum Virtual Machine can be deployed instantly from a Colab notebook, Google informs. 

"Combined with processor-like output makes the QVM a great tool for prototyping, testing and optimizing your quantum circuit for near-term quantum hardware," said Google said in a press release. 

Google added, "Quantum Virtual Machine emulates the experience and results of programming one of the quantum computers in its lab, from circuit validation to processor infidelity." The researchers feed measurements from its Sycamore processors, like qubit decay, dephasing, gate and readout errors, into the QVM and combine these with the qubit connectivity of the device to simulate quantum processor-like output, using its physics research team's models.

For now, users can emulate two of its processors-Weber and Rainbow. Weber is the Sycamore processor that was used in Google's beyond-classical experiments, first published in Nature in 2019. On the other hand, Rainbow is used in the tech giant's experiments demonstrating the variational quantum eigensolver on quantum chemistry problems.

Once the user deploys the Quantum Virtual Machine, users can run their quantum program on a grid of virtual qubits. If they require more qubits than what can be simulated through Colab, the QVM can be supercharged with an additional high-performance computing of one's choice.