🔮 Rigetti Quantum Cloud

Full-stack quantum computing with Quil and parametric gates

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D-Wave Quantum Annealing

🔮 Full-Stack Quantum Platform

Rigetti Computing (founded 2013) delivers full-stack quantum computing: custom superconducting processors (Aspen family), Quil instruction language, Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, and PyQuil SDK. Unlike cloud-only providers, Rigetti manufactures its own quantum chips—vertical integration enables rapid hardware-software co-optimization. First to offer quantum-as-a-service (2017), now serving customers including NASA, DARPA, AWS Braket.

💡 The Rigetti Difference

Parametric gates: Native support for arbitrary rotation angles—no decomposition into fixed gates. Quil language: Low-level control for NISQ optimization—manage classical memory, conditional branching, pulse-level operations. Quantum-classical hybrid: QPU and CPU share memory—low latency for variational algorithms (VQE, QAOA).

Processors:
80-qubit Aspen-M
Language:
Quil (Quantum IL)
Access:
QCS + AWS Braket

🎯 What You'll Learn

📝
Quil Programming
Low-level quantum instructions
🔧
Aspen Architecture
Superconducting processors
🔄
Hybrid Computing
QPU-CPU co-processing
Parametric Gates
Continuous angle control

🏗️ Full-Stack Philosophy

Hardware (Bottom)Custom fabrication

Superconducting transmon qubits fabricated in-house—rapid iteration on chip design, topology, and control electronics.

Instruction Set (Middle)Quil language

Low-level quantum instructions with classical control flow—compile high-level algorithms to native gate set.

Software (Top)PyQuil SDK

Python library for algorithm development—quantum-classical hybrid workflows, circuit optimization, noise mitigation.

🔬 Key Innovations

Parametric compilation: Gate angles as runtime parameters—no recompilation for VQE parameter updates. Active reset: Fast qubit reinitialization (10× faster than thermal relaxation) enables mid-circuit measurement and reuse. Quantum-classical memory: Shared address space—CPU reads QPU results with nanosecond latency for tight feedback loops.