Practical HPCQC Integration with QDMI: A Real-Hardware Case Study with IQM Systems

2026-04-21

AI Summary

Integrating quantum computers into high-performance computing (HPC) centers is often hindered by reliance on vendor-specific adapters, impeding production-level deployment. This work proposes and implements a standardized hardware-software boundary based on the Quantum Device Management Interface (QDMI), using an IQM superconducting quantum system as a case study to seamlessly integrate with the Slurm job scheduler and Qiskit user workflows. The implementation demonstrates that QDMI provides a unified interface for coordinating HPC resources and quantum hardware across different vendors and deployment models, thereby eliminating redundant custom development. The authors have open-sourced their QDMI-on-IQM integration, significantly simplifying the deployment of quantum-HPC hybrid systems in today’s heterogeneous computing environments.

Technology Category

• Machine Learning: Quantum Machine Learning
• Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Search
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Architectures and workflows that use LLMs for crowd work
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

Quantum computers are moving into HPC centers, and the main challenge is now integration rather than pure hardware access. Many current software paths still depend on vendor-specific adapter chains between user SDKs, schedulers, and backend APIs. This pattern makes operations more complex than necessary and slows the transition from pilots to production workflows. We present a practical integration path centered on the Quantum Device Management Interface (QDMI). Using IQM superconducting systems as a hardware case study, we implement an IQM-backed QDMI layer and connect it to two software layers that HPC centers working with quantum computers already care about: Slurm-based job execution and Qiskit-facing user workflows. The implementation is publicly available at https://github.com/iqm-finland/QDMI-on-IQM. The key message is simple: integrating quantum hardware into HPC does not have to be a bespoke engineering effort for each backend. Once the software-hardware boundary is standardized, large parts of the stack become reusable across providers and deployment styles. Our results do not claim that standardization eliminates all HPCQC challenges. They show that this specific boundary can already be standardized today in a way that is practical for users, operators, and vendors.

Problem

• HPCQC
• quantum computing integration
• QDMI
• vendor-specific adapters
• HPC centers

Innovation

• QDMI
• HPCQC
• quantum hardware integration
• standardization
• Slurm-Qiskit interoperability