Jan and Robert Lahmann Get a Quantum Computer Running on Your Raspberry Pi in Under 30 Minutes
Based on IBM's Qiskit, and inspired by Hassi Norlen's earlier Qrasp project, the Lahmanns' guide should get you up and running in no time.
Developer Jan Lahmann, aided by his son Robert, has published a guide to turning a Raspberry Pi SBC into a quantum computer — inspired by Hassi Norlen's Qrasp project, and powered by IBM's open source Qiskit framework.
"Quantum computers typically operate at temperatures close to zero Kelvin (minus 273.15 °C, or −459.67 °F)," Lahmann explains. "So if we could turn a Raspberry Pi into a quantum computer, this must be the 'coolest' project for Raspberry Pi."
"Inspired by the Qrasp project developed by Hassi Norlen, this post describes in detail how to install and run Qiskit — IBM’s open source quantum computing software framework— on a Raspberry Pi in order to turn it into a quantum computing simulator and use it to access real IBM quantum computers."
The tutorial walks through the setup of a Raspberry Pi SBC in headless mode with a suitable Python environment and various dependencies, then installation of IBM's Qiskit framework. Launched three years ago, IBM's Qiskit was originally developed to interface with IBM's own Q Experience prototype quantum devices — but also comes with a handy simulation mode, allowing for experimentation with quantum computing concepts on traditional computing hardware.
With Qiskit installed and Jupyter notebooks set up, the Lahmanns move on to configuring a Raspberry Pi Sense HAT add-on — using the 8x8 RGB LED matrix as a display to visualize the quantum computing experiments. Finally Kevin Roche's Raspberry-Tie is installed — providing pre-written five- and 16-qubit examples for the Sense HAT. For further experimentation, Lahmann covers installing Qrasp as well.
The full guide is available on Medium; those eager to get started can scroll down to the "fastpass," which aims to get you up and running within 30 minutes.