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Comment by vtomole | Hacker News Reader

> This new service is designed to let you get some hands-on experience with qubits and quantum circuits.

Lots of open-source libraries do this[0]. Is Amazon Bracket going to be open-source?

[0]: https://github.com/desireevl/awesome-quantum-computing#devel...

I can't speak to braket being open source, but at least two of the hardware providers, D-Wave [1] and Rigetti, have open source stacks. Disclosure, I work for D-Wave and I'm not terribly familiar with the other providers.

[1] https://github.com/dwavesystems

Years ago I met first time with quantum computing through https://www.dwavesys.com/tutorials/background-reading-series..., then there was a python simulator on website and call for the beta testers but the slot was closed quickly. Kudos for great tutorial!

Last time I checked d-waves systems didn't have quantum speedup thus weren't considered true quantum computers.

This is a tricky point, but I would say that D-Wave systems are quantum computers, however they rely on coherence, and not entanglement (coherence is necessary for entanglement, but you don't get entanglement automatically from coherence ), and thus do not have a universal set of quantum gates. D-wave systems thus can gain a quadratic advantage over classical systems, but will not see exponential speedups (likely need entanglement for this).

Thanks, that is a good list of learning materials and tools.

Several years ago I spent a few evenings with a quantum computer simulator and a SHOR algorithm example.

Amazon Bracket seems to allow you to run on actual quantum hardware which I’m guessing is the difficult bit rather than the software.

I was asking if the software that allows one to program a quantum computer is going to be open-source. Pyquil and Qiskit allow you to run on actual quantum hardware and they are open-source.

My point is that if Amazon is providing the hardware then that's the selling point since quantum hardware is I'm guessing not easy to get a hold of.

If quantum hardware is the selling point, I'm trying to understand the gain in keeping their SDK closed (If that is what they plan on doing).

To lock you in as a measure to protect their revenue if another company offers quantum hardware as a service. The last thing amazon wants in any of its aas solutions is compatibility with competitors.

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