Glossary and Abbreviations

Table 2 Glossary

Term

Definition/Description

SHALL

This word, or the terms “REQUIRED” or “MUST”, mean that the definition is an absolute requirement of the specification [1].

SHOULD

This word, or the adjective “RECOMMENDED”, mean that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a particular item, but the full implications must be understood and carefully weighed before choosing a different course [1].

MAY

This word, or the adjective “OPTIONAL”, mean that an item is truly optional. One vendor may choose to include the item because a particular marketplace requires it or because the vendor feels that it enhances the product while another vendor may omit the same item. An implementation which does not include a particular option MUST be prepared to interoperate with another implementation which does include the option, though perhaps with reduced functionality. In the same vein an implementation which does include a particular option MUST be prepared to interoperate with another implementation which does not include the option (except, of course, for the feature the option provides) [1].

Northbound interface

In Computer Networking and Computer Architecture, a northbound interface of a component is an interface that allows the component to communicate to a higher-level component, using the latter component’s southbound interface.

Transpiler

Transpiling is a specific term for taking source code written in one language and transforming into another language that has a similar level of abstraction.

Quantum machine

A human-made device whose collective operation follows the laws of quantum mechanics.

Adjacency matrix

A square matrix normally used to represent a finite graph by defining adjacency of vertices as well as self-loops.

Table 3 Abbreviations

Term

Definition/Description

AMBA

Advanced microcontroller bus architecture

API

Application programming interface

ASIC

Application specific integrated circuit

CNOT

Controlled-not

CPU

Central processing unit

FPGA

Field programmable gate array

HAL

Hardware abstraction layer

ISCF

Industrial strategy challenge fund

NISQ

Noisy intermediate-scale quantum

PCI

Peripheral component interconnect

QFT

Quantum Fourier transform

QNN

Quantum neural network

QoS

Quality of service

QPU

Quantum processing unit

SPI

Serial peripheral interface

VQA

Variational quantum algorithm

VQE

Variational quantum eigensolver