New language Quipper helps quantum programmers write killer apps

A high-level programming language specifically designed for quantum computers will help create practical quantum software. This new language, named Quipper, was jointly developed by researchers at Dalhousie University in Canada and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA. It incorporates excellent features from classical programming languages to adapt them for quantum computing.

An important characteristic of quantum computers is that the value of a quantum bit (qubit) can be both 1 and 0 simultaneously, allowing the computer to perform more than two computations at once. However, designing algorithms that leverage quantum parallel processing is extremely challenging. Quipper, developed by Peter Selinger of Dalhousie University and his colleagues, is the first high-level quantum programming language. It is based on the classical functional programming language Haskell and has been specially customized to handle qubits.

The Quipper code library can execute seven existing quantum algorithms. The researchers hope that more developers will contribute to developing Quipper's code library and share resources, enabling quantum programmers to build software by combining modules just like classical computer programmers do. This research was funded by the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).

(via.Solidot)