In this first lecture of the course, Carmen will set out the scope of this MOOC and we will quickly look back at Building Blocks of a Quantum Computer- part 1. Koen will set out the different layers of the quantum computer and Menno will summarize and re-introduce the four different types of qubits that have been discussed in Building Blocks part 1.

Main takeaways

• The building blocks for a quantum computer are a description of the quantum algorithm to be executed, a quantum language, a compiler, arithmetic, an instruction set, a micro-architecture, a quantum-to-classical conversion system, and a quantum chip.
• Quantum computing is not like classical computing where you can run the same algorithm thousands of times and get exactly the same result in all of them. In quantum computing, we average the results of multiple runs. The result with the highest frequency is the most likely result of the quantum computation.
• Several of the most promising qubit types that are being researched are the NV-centre qubit, the spin quantum dot qubit, the superconducting transmon qubit, and the topological qubit, based on Majorana fermions. What the best qubit platform will be, is still unknown.