A cross-platform execution engine for the quantum intermediate representation

Wong, Elaine; Leyton-Ortega, Vicente; Claudino, Daniel Chaves; Johnson, Seth R.; Adams, Austin J.; Afrose, Sharmin; Gowrishankar, Meenambika; Cabrera, Anthony; Humble, Travis S.

doi:10.1007/s11227-025-07969-2

A cross-platform execution engine for the quantum intermediate representation

Journal Article · Wed Nov 05 00:00:00 EST 2025 · Journal of Supercomputing

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-025-07969-2· OSTI ID:3001783

^[1]; Leyton-Ortega, Vicente ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Adams, Austin J. ^[2]; Afrose, Sharmin ^[1]; Gowrishankar, Meenambika ^[3]; Cabrera, Anthony ^[1]; ^[1]

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

Hybrid languages like the quantum intermediate representation (QIR) are essential for programming systems that mix quantum and conventional computing models, while execution of these programs is often deferred to a system-specific implementation. Here, we develop the QIR Execution Engine (QIR-EE) for parsing, interpreting, and executing QIR across multiple hardware platforms. QIR-EE uses LLVM to execute hybrid instructions specifying quantum programs and, by design, presents extension points that support customized runtime and hardware environments. We demonstrate an implementation that uses the XACC quantum hardware-accelerator library to dispatch prototypical quantum programs on different commercial quantum platforms and numerical simulators, and we validate execution of QIR-EE on IonQ, Quantinuum, and IBM hardware. Our results highlight the efficiency of hybrid executable architectures for handling mixed instructions, managing mixed data, and integrating with quantum computing frameworks to realize cross-platform execution.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 3001783

Journal Information:: Journal of Supercomputing, Journal Name: Journal of Supercomputing Journal Issue: 16 Vol. 81; ISSN 0920-8542

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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LLVM
compiler
intermediate representation
quantum computing
software stack

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