The race for quantum computing dominance is played by only a handful of player, and Google is one of them.
Quantum computers work using "qubits", a two-state quantum-mechanical system that is different than the traditional "bits" ordinary computers understand. As the basic unit of quantum information, qubits can be in both states at once thanks to a phenomenon known as superposition.
This makes quantum computers to theoretically have the ability to outperform ordinary computers by a huge margin.
However. most developments in quantum computing are focusing on breaking the barrier of computing records and achieve new heights. Developers that are going to be building things based on quantum applications are somehow left out of the equation.
Since quantum computers require a unique type of programming models that not many people have the knowledge of, Google took its part in the race by introducing the first public alpha of Cirq, an open source framework that allow developers to create algorithms without needing an experience in quantum physics.
As the development of quantum computers continues, Google knows that it can't do this alone.
"Over the past few years, quantum computing has experienced a growth not only in the construction of quantum hardware, but also in the development of quantum algorithms," said Google on its blog post. "Quantum computing will require strong cross-industry and academic collaborations if it is going to realize its full potential."
Programmers and scientists have barely scratched the surface of quantum usefulness, and Google is in the race to find industry uses for these noisy quantum computers.
The idea behind Cirq that architecturally uses a series of base constructs, is to provide a simple programming model that abstracts the fundamental building blocks of quantum applications.
Google likens Cirq to its popular TensorFlow open source toolkit that has made it easier for developers to build machine-learning software. Initially, Cirq that has been implemented in Python and is available on Github, allows developers to create quantum algorithms that run on simulators.
Aside from Cirq, the tech giant also released OpenFermion-Cirq, a toolkit for creating algorithms that simulate molecules and properties of materials.
Read: Google Introduces OpenFermion, A Software To Ease Scientists In Using Quantum Computers
"Cirq is focused on near-term questions and helping researchers understand whether NISQ quantum computers are capable of solving computational problems of practical importance," explained Alan Ho and Dave Bacon, product and software leads from the Google AI Quantum Team, in a blog post.
Previously, there have been other initiatives that were made to introduce developers to quantum machines.
For example. Microsoft has a programming language called Q#. The company's first version of Quantum Developer Kit which is meant to attract developers to the quantum world. Companies like IBM and Rigetti Computing have made their machines accessible to those who want to run algorithms on them, and Google looks set to follow.
Google that is one at the forefront of developing quantum computers, has made its Bristlecone processor available via the computing cloud. And with Cirq, Google hopes that the tools can help developers build software that will run on a wide range of real machines.