荷兰代尔夫特理工大学S. Wehner团队研究了一种在量子网络节点上执行应用程序的操作系统。相关论文于2025年3月12日发表在《自然》杂志上。

未来量子网络的目标是实现仅使用经典通信无法实现的新互联网应用。到目前为止，量子网络应用和量子处理器功能的演示已经在特定于实验设置的自组织软件中进行，该软件被编程为使用实验物理学的专业知识直接在低级控制设备中执行一项任务（应用实验）。

研究组报告了一种架构的设计和实现，该架构能够在独立于平台的高级软件中在量子处理器上执行量子网络应用程序。通过将其实现为量子网络操作系统QNodeOS并执行测试程序，展示了该架构在高级软件中执行应用程序的能力，包括基于菱形氮空位（NV）中心的两个量子网络节点上从客户端到服务器的委托计算。

研究组展示了该架构如何通过多任务处理不同的应用程序来最大限度地利用量子网络硬件。该架构可用于在与该系统模型相对应的任何量子处理器平台上执行程序，通过演示基于单个⁴⁰Ca⁺原子的捕获离子量子网络节点的QNodeOS的额外驱动程序证明了这一点。该架构为量子网络编程中的计算机科学研究奠定了基础，并为能够将量子网络技术带入社会的软件开发铺平了道路。

附：英文原文

Title: An operating system for executing applications on quantum network nodes

Author: Delle Donne, C., Iuliano, M., van der Vecht, B., Ferreira, G. M., Jirovsk, H., van der Steenhoven, T. J. W., Dahlberg, A., Skrzypczyk, M., Fioretto, D., Teller, M., Filippov, P., Montblanch, A. R.-P., Fischer, J., van Ommen, H. B., Demetriou, N., Leichtle, D., Music, L., Ollivier, H., te Raa, I., Kozlowski, W., Taminiau, T. H., Paweczak, P., Northup, T. E., Hanson, R., Wehner, S.

Issue&Volume: 2025-03-12

Abstract: The goal of future quantum networks is to enable new internet applications that are impossible to achieve using only classical communication1,2,3. Up to now, demonstrations of quantum network applications4,5,6 and functionalities7,8,9,10,11,12 on quantum processors have been performed in ad hoc software that was specific to the experimental setup, programmed to perform one single task (the application experiment) directly into low-level control devices using expertise in experimental physics. Here we report on the design and implementation of an architecture capable of executing quantum network applications on quantum processors in platform-independent high-level software. We demonstrate the capability of the architecture to execute applications in high-level software by implementing it as a quantum network operating system—QNodeOS—and executing test programs, including a delegated computation from a client to a server13 on two quantum network nodes based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond14,15. We show how our architecture allows us to maximize the use of quantum network hardware by multitasking different applications. Our architecture can be used to execute programs on any quantum processor platform corresponding to our system model, which we illustrate by demonstrating an extra driver for QNodeOS for a trapped-ion quantum network node based on a single 40Ca+ atom16. Our architecture lays the groundwork for computer science research in quantum network programming and paves the way for the development of software that can bring quantum network technology to society.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08704-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08704-w