RasQberry: Quantum Computing is the Coolest Project for Raspberry Pi

Jan Lahmann
Qiskit
Published in
20 min readJul 21, 2020

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Please note that the IBM Quantum Experience is now the IBM Quantum Composer and Lab.

Quantum computers typically operate at temperatures close to zero Kelvin (minus 273.15 °C, or −459.67 °F). 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.

In addition to the Qrasp project — which uses a minimal 8x8 Sense HAT LED display to visualize the results of several fundamental quantum circuits — there are some other nice projects related to Quantum Computing and the Raspberry Pi: Raspberry-tie by Kevin Roche discusses additional examples for Qiskit on the Raspberry Pi, and Andy Stanford-Clark created a 3D model of the IBM Q System One. These projects might inspire us to create our own quantum circuits to deepen our understanding of Quantum Computing or even create new fun projects based on this exciting set of technologies.

Photo by Jeff Loucks on Unsplash

This article is co-authored by Jan Lahmann and Robert Lahmann, who had a lot of fun…

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Jan Lahmann
Qiskit
Writer for

IBM Quantum Ambassador; Member of the IBM Academy of Technology; working as an IBM CTO with airlines