Just the TKET

Quantum Software Tool Now Open Source

November 29, 2021
The online tool adapts quantum circuits to run optimally on different quantum computing technologies, with easy switching between Honeywell’s system and other hardware platforms.


Cambridge Quantum recently announced it has made the source code for TKET, its quantum software development kit, fully open to the quantum software community.

The move, which comes just months after the company began providing free access to TKET, is expected to benefit software developers as well as Honeywell Quantum Solutions and other hardware providers.

Most of the programming languages or quantum software development kits available were designed initially to run on certain hardware platforms, creating compatibility issues. Software developers who wanted to test circuits or algorithms on different quantum technologies had to rewrite or tweak code to run on a new system.

Providing access to TKET and its source code makes it easier for developers to do that.

“Users need only to focus on developing their quantum applications, not rewriting code around the idiosyncrasies of any particular hardware,” said Dr. Ross Duncan, head of software at Cambridge Quantum.

And for Honeywell Quantum Solutions and other hardware providers, TKET broadens access to their technologies by enabling developers to move more seamlessly between systems. The software development kit is optimized for each commercial hardware system, including Honeywell’s trapped-ion quantum computer.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for the quantum software community to run circuits and algorithms on our trapped-ion quantum computers,” said Tony Uttley, president of Honeywell Quantum Solutions. “The System Model H1 technology is the highest performing quantum system available, and we want them to experience that.”

Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum have a long-standing history of partnering together for the benefit of end-customers. (The two entities announced in June they are seeking regulatory approval to combine to form a new company.)

"Having TKET fully open-sourced provides an incredible tool to the world’s quantum algorithm developers, including Honeywell," Uttley said.

“Our products and offerings have always been complementary and continue to be,” he said. “(Cambridge Quantum) has developed a suite of tools and programs that interface well with our hardware.”

How TKET works

If you have ever traveled to another country and tried plugging something in, you’ve likely discovered the need for an adapter. Electrical outlets vary and the plug-ins used in the United States don't always work in Europe or other countries and vice versa.

The same is true with today’s early-stage quantum computers. Each technology has its own performance specifications, API (an interface that enables different computing systems to talk to one another), and compiler (a program that translates code written in one computing language to another).

TKET is versatile. Developers can use it to create circuits or algorithms and also to serve as a universal connector or adapter between hardware and software platforms.

Cambridge Quantum has developed extensions, which are Python modules, for each commercial quantum hardware platform available. These extensions enable developers to code in Qiskit, Cirq, or another language and automatically adapt their circuits or algorithms to work on different quantum devices or simulators without having to tweak it themselves.

And now that TKET is open source, developers can create their own extensions to the codebase and bridge between platforms.

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents. 

Blog
June 10, 2025
Our Hardware is Now Running Quantum Transformers!

If we are to create ‘next-gen’ AI that takes full advantage of the power of quantum computers, we need to start with quantum native transformers. Today we announce yet again that Quantinuum continues to lead by demonstrating concrete progress — advancing from theoretical models to real quantum deployment.

The future of AI won't be built on yesterday’s tech. If we're serious about creating next-generation AI that unlocks the full promise of quantum computing, then we must build quantum-native models—designed for quantum, from the ground up.

Around this time last year, we introduced Quixer, a state-of-the-art quantum-native transformer. Today, we’re thrilled to announce a major milestone: one year on, Quixer is now running natively on quantum hardware.

Why this matters: Quantum AI, born native

This marks a turning point for the industry: realizing quantum-native AI opens a world of possibilities.

Classical transformers revolutionized AI. They power everything from ChatGPT to real-time translation, computer vision, drug discovery, and algorithmic trading. Now, Quixer sets the stage for a similar leap — but for quantum-native computation. Because quantum computers differ fundamentally from classical computers, we expect a whole new host of valuable applications to emerge.  

Achieving that future requires models that are efficient, scalable, and actually run on today’s quantum hardware.

That’s what we’ve built.

What makes Quixer different?

Until Quixer, quantum transformers were the result of a brute force “copy-paste” approach: taking the math from a classical model and putting it onto a quantum circuit. However, this approach does not account for the considerable differences between quantum and classical architectures, leading to substantial resource requirements.

Quixer is different: it’s not a translation – it's an innovation.

With Quixer, our team introduced an explicitly quantum transformer, built from the ground up using quantum algorithmic primitives. Because Quixer is tailored for quantum circuits, it's more resource efficient than most competing approaches.

As quantum computing advances toward fault tolerance, Quixer is built to scale with it.

What’s next for Quixer?

We’ve already deployed Quixer on real-world data: genomic sequence analysis, a high-impact classification task in biotech. We're happy to report that its performance is already approaching that of classical models, even in this first implementation.

This is just the beginning.

Looking ahead, we’ll explore using Quixer anywhere classical transformers have proven to be useful; such as language modeling, image classification, quantum chemistry, and beyond. More excitingly, we expect use cases to emerge that are quantum-specific, impossible on classical hardware.

This milestone isn’t just about one model. It’s a signal that the quantum AI era has begun, and that Quantinuum is leading the charge with real results, not empty hype.

Stay tuned. The revolution is only getting started.

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Blog
June 9, 2025
Join us at ISC25

Our team is participating in ISC High Performance 2025 (ISC 2025) from June 10-13 in Hamburg, Germany!

As quantum computing accelerates, so does the urgency to integrate its capabilities into today’s high-performance computing (HPC) and AI environments. At ISC 2025, meet the Quantinuum team to learn how the highest performing quantum systems on the market, combined with advanced software and powerful collaborations, are helping organizations take the next step in their compute strategy.

Quantinuum is leading the industry across every major vector: performance, hybrid integration, scientific innovation, global collaboration and ease of access.

  • Our industry-leading quantum computer holds the record for performance with a Quantum Volume of 2²³ = 8,388,608 and the highest fidelity on a commercially available QPU available to our users every time they access our systems.
  • Our systems have been validated by a #1 ranking against competitors in a recent benchmarking study by Jülich Research Centre.
  • We’ve laid out a clear roadmap to reach universal, fully fault-tolerant quantum computing by the end of the decade and will launch our next-generation system, Helios, later this year.
  • We are advancing real-world hybrid compute with partners such as RIKEN, NVIDIA, SoftBank, STFC Hartree Center and are pioneering applications such as our own GenQAI framework.
Exhibit Hall

From June 10–13, in Hamburg, Germany, visit us at Booth B40 in the Exhibition Hall or attend one of our technical talks to explore how our quantum technologies are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible across HPC.

Presentations & Demos

Throughout ISC, our team will present on the most important topics in HPC and quantum computing integration—from near-term hybrid use cases to hardware innovations and future roadmaps.

Multicore World Networking Event

  • Monday, June 9 | 7:00pm – 9:00 PM at Hofbräu Wirtshaus Esplanade
    In partnership with Multicore World, join us for a Quantinuum-sponsored Happy Hour to explore the present and future of quantum computing with Quantinuum CCO, Dr. Nash Palaniswamy, and network with our team.
    Register here

H1 x CUDA-Q Demonstration

  • All Week at Booth B40
    We’re showcasing a live demonstration of NVIDIA’s CUDA-Q platform running on Quantinuum’s industry-leading quantum hardware. This new integration paves the way for hybrid compute solutions in optimization, AI, and chemistry.
    Register for a demo

HPC Solutions Forum

  • Wednesday, June 11 | 2:20 – 2:40 PM
    “Enabling Scientific Discovery with Generative Quantum AI” – Presented by Maud Einhorn, Technical Account Executive at Quantinuum, discover how hybrid quantum-classical workflows are powering novel use cases in scientific discovery.
See You There!

Whether you're exploring hybrid solutions today or planning for large-scale quantum deployment tomorrow, ISC 2025 is the place to begin the conversation.

We look forward to seeing you in Hamburg!

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Blog
May 27, 2025
Teleporting to new heights

Quantinuum has once again raised the bar—setting a record in teleportation, and advancing our leadership in the race toward universal fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Last year, we published a paper in Science demonstrating the first-ever fault-tolerant teleportation of a logical qubit. At the time, we outlined how crucial teleportation is to realize large-scale fault tolerant quantum computers. Given the high degree of system performance and capabilities required to run the protocol (e.g., multiple qubits, high-fidelity state-preparation, entangling operations, mid-circuit measurement, etc.), teleportation is recognized as an excellent measure of system maturity.

Today we’re building on last year’s breakthrough, having recently achieved a record logical teleportation fidelity of 99.82% – up from 97.5% in last year’s result. What’s more, our logical qubit teleportation fidelity now exceeds our physical qubit teleportation fidelity, passing the break-even point that establishes our H2 system as the gold standard for complex quantum operations.

Figure 1: Fidelity of two-bit state teleportation for physical qubit experiments and logical qubit experiments using the d=3 color code (Steane code). The same QASM programs that were ran during March 2024 on the Quantinuum's H2-1 device were reran on the same device on April to March 2025. Thanks to the improvements made to H2-1 from 2024 to 2025, physical error rates have been reduced leading to increased fidelity for both the physical and logical level teleportation experiments. The results imply a logical error rate that is 2.3 times smaller than the physical error rate while being statistically well separated, thus indicating the logical fidelities are below break-even for teleportation.

This progress reflects the strength and flexibility of our Quantum Charge Coupled Device (QCCD) architecture. The native high fidelity of our QCCD architecture enables us to perform highly complex demonstrations like this that nobody else has yet to match. Further, our ability to perform conditional logic and real-time decoding was crucial for implementing the Steane error correction code used in this work, and our all-to-all connectivity was essential for performing the high-fidelity transversal gates that drove the protocol.

Teleportation schemes like this allow us to “trade space for time,” meaning that we can do quantum error correction more quickly, reducing our time to solution. Additionally, teleportation enables long-range communication during logical computation, which translates to higher connectivity in logical algorithms, improving computational power.

This demonstration underscores our ongoing commitment to reducing logical error rates, which is critical for realizing the promise of quantum computing. Quantinuum continues to lead in quantum hardware performance, algorithms, and error correction—and we’ll extend our leadership come the launch of our next generation system, Helios, in just a matter of months.

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