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Quantum Computing Information

Understanding emulation billing

Scaleway offers different "Platforms" for emulation, ranging from standard CPU instances to high-end GPU clusters.

  • Platform selection: When you choose a backend (e.g., EMU-AER-H100), Scaleway dynamically allocates the requested resource.
  • Session & billing: Behind the scenes, a Session is created for your computation. Unlike QPU "shots", emulation is typically billed based on the duration of resource usage (similar to renting a cloud instance). This makes it cost-effective for running massive batches of shots or debugging complex algorithms.
  • End of billing: It stops when you terminate your Session or after a timeout.
Tip

Performance Tip: The service automatically handles data compression. This is particularly useful when running algorithms like QML (Quantum Machine Learning) or Variational Algorithms (VQE/QAOA) where large amounts of parameters and results are exchanged between the classical client and the quantum backend.

Understanding platform names

Scaleway exposes resources via distinct Platform naming that you must specify when selecting a backend:

  • QPU-IBEX-12PQ: This connects you to the real quantum computer here, located at AQT's headquarters, in Innbruck. The naming specifies the number of physical qubits Use this for final runs and validatable experiments.
  • EMU-IBEX-12PQ-L4: This connects you to a noisy emulator. It mimics the real hardware connectivity and gates but runs classically (on Scaleway's L4 GPU instances). Use this for debugging and testing your code logic before running on the real QPU hardware and paying for real quantum shots.
  • EMU-QSIM-H100: This connects you to the noiseless emulator, here based on Google Qsim emulator, running on powerful H100 GPUs. It does not mimic any specific hardware but provides a fast and efficient way to simulate larger circuits without noise. Use this for prototyping and exploring larger quantum algorithms.

From console to code

Scaleway Quantum Computing platform is primarily designed to be coding first but also provides a web console to create and manage your Sessions.

If you created a session via the Scaleway console, you can reconnect to it using its deduplication_id during initialization in your code from Qiskit, Cirq, Pulser or Perceval.

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