Not many people might be familiar with Microsoft’s Quantum Dev Kit but they must have heard about Quantum computing and the heavenly future they seem to promise.
The Quantum Development Kit is Microsoft’s integrated platform for building quantum applications using a new quantum-focused programming language called Q# (Q Sharp). It was interlaced with only Visual Studio on Windows until Microsoft recently made a port for macOS and Linux which contains support for quantum simulation and VS Code.
Genuine Quantum devices are remarkably hard to come by but the Quantum Dev Kit makes it possible for software to run on either a Qubit simulators. Since its release, thousands of developers have been able to preview how it feels to work using Quantum States instead of the typical Binary States. This has led Microsoft to not only port the kit to macOS and Linux but to also Open Source its libraries.
The development libraries and demo examples which were launched alongside Q# are released under the Open Source MIT License and are available on GitHub.
Microsoft Quantum Development Kit has also been made to be Python-compatible with support for Q# to make native calls to Python routines and vice-versa and the simulator’s performance has been increased by 4-5 times.
Install Microsoft Quantum Dev Kit in Ubuntu Linux
If you would want to delve into the new world of Quantum Computing with Microsoft’s Dev Kit you need to have Visual Studio Code installed.
1. Install the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit for Visual Studio Code extension.
2. Install the Q# Development Kit project templates using your preferred command line by running the following command.
$ dotnet new -i "Microsoft.Quantum.ProjectTemplates::0.2-*"
3. Clone the Microsoft Quantum Developer Kit Samples and Libraries from its GitHub repo.
$ git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/Quantum.git
4. Navigate into the newly cloned directory and run start up Visual Studio Code.
$ cd Quantum $ code .
5. Run the teleport sample program.
$ cd Samples/Teleportation/ $ dotnet build $ dotnet run
Your workstation is set up for Q# development if the program runs and the output is similar to: has 8 rounds of successful teleportation with varying values True/False sent each round.
Are you excited about the availability of the Quantum Development Kit for Linux and what are your thoughts on Quantum Computing in general? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below.
