Quantum Coprocessor Model
How would programmers interact with
a device capable of performing quantum
operations? Our purpose here is
not to provide engineering blueprints
for building an actual quantum computer;
see Meter and Horsman13 for a
discussion of that agenda. What we describe
is a hypothetical quantum architecture
in enough detail to cover how
one would go about programming it.
Viewed from the outside, quantum
computers perform a set of specialized
operations, somewhat analogous to
a floating-point unit or a graphics coprocessor.
We therefore envision the
quantum computer as a kind of coprocessor
that is controlled by a classical
computer, as shown schematically in
Figure 1. The classical computer per-