Quantum Architecture Research Papers

The Quantum Architecture Research Center
Paper Abstract

Can we build Classical Control Circuits for
Silicon Quantum Computers?
Mark Whitney, Yatish Patel, Nemanja Isailovic, and John Kubiatowicz

Appears in Proceedings of the Second Workshop in Non-Silicon Computation (NSC2), June 2003

Many who propose quantum computing technologies focus on the quantum

without addressing the complexity of the classical

. We investigate the complexity of control for a specific technology, namely the Kane silicon quantum computer. We show that the pulse sequences required to effect one of the simplest operations -- two-bit swap -- poses a significant challenge to scalable implementation. The reason for this is two-fold: first, extremely cold operating temperatures require use of something other than CMOS for control and, second, pulse-generation for a

in the datapath requires many classical transistors. The result suggests that architects must focus on a form of SIMD for quantum datapaths, sharing pulse-generation circuits between as many quantum bits as possible.

[ Paper: PDF (111K), Postscript (1.69M), Compressed Postscript (386K)]

Last modified on 06/01/2003 by John Kubiatowicz.