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Install the Qiskit provider

1. Set up your environment

You need a Python environment to use Felis (supported Python versions: 3.8 to 3.11).

We strongly recommend creating a new environment before attempting to install Felis. We assume you know how to do this. If you don’t, you can go through the Python docs, or simply reach out.

2. Install the Alice & Bob Qiskit provider

pip install --upgrade qiskit-alice-bob-provider

📝 Note: no need to install Qiskit separately, it will be installed automatically if it is not already installed.

⚠️ Warning: Felis is currently only compatible with Qiskit 0.44.3. If you have a more recent version of Qiskit, you will need to create a new environment before installing Felis.

3. Write your first Qiskit program

To use the Alice & Bob Qiskit provider in a Qiskit program, you need to instantiate it and retrieve a backend.

from qiskit_alice_bob_provider import AliceBobLocalProvider
ab = AliceBobLocalProvider()

print(ab.backends())
backend = ab.get_backend('EMU:1Q:LESCANNE_2020')

You may then use backend as a target to execute a Qiskit circuit.

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit, execute

circ = QuantumCircuit(1,1)
circ.reset(0)
circ.measure(0, 0)
job = execute(circ, backend, shots=1_000)
res = job.result()
print(res.get_counts())

📝 Note: If you’re not familiar with Qiskit, we recommend reading this short introduction.

4. Enjoy!

Now that you understand the basics, you need to know that Felis features both physical and logical backends:

  • Physical backends reproduce the behavior of individual, physical cat qubits; use them to study quantum error correction or the properties of cat qubits
  • Logical backends reproduce the behavior of logical qubits created out of several cat qubits running a quantum error correction code; use them to run quantum algorithms and study the impact of noise on the quality of their results

To go further, check out and compare these two examples:

📝 Note: unless otherwise stated, our examples all use AliceBobLocalProvider, which runs the circuits on your own machine. In order to run circuits on a real quantum chip or on cloud-based emulators, you need to use the AliceBobRemoteProvider and have a Felis Cloud subscription.