Quantum Gate Count Analysis

In recent years, interest in quantum computers has grown significantly. While commercial quantum computers are not available yet, both private and public sector investment into developing quantum computers has developed considerably. One of the key challenges in quantum computing is optimizing the performance of the quantum hardware devices. Different factors can be put into consideration regarding this point, including the number of gates used by the processors to execute different quantum computations and operations. This paper focuses on developing quantum hardware metrics that can be used to measure the performance of a quantum processor in terms of number of quantum gates needed to execute different quantum algorithms. The proposed metrics have been implemented and experimental evaluations have been conducted on various IBM back-end Quantum Computers and using 4 different algorithms: a 5-Qubit entangled circuit algorithm, a 5-Qubit implementation of Grover’s quantum search algorithm, a 5-Qubit implementation of Simon’s quantum algorithm and the 7-Qubit implementation of Steane’s error correction quantum algorithm. In addition, quantitative data on the number of quantum gates used by quantum processors to execute the different quantum algorithms were gathered, which enabled the analysis of how the availability and compatibility of different gate sets affect the overall number of quantum gates needed in the execution of the different quantum algorithms.