Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the Amendment filed on 2/25/2026. Claims 1, 18, and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are pending in the case. Claims 1, 18, and 20 are independent claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-11 and 13-20 are r rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al (US 20220156627 A1) in view of Rigetti et al (US 20220084085 A1).
Referring to claim 1, Kim discloses a method comprising:
receiving, by a first quantum computing system from a client computing device, a quantum instruction file; ([0069] of Kim, Quantum operating system includes source manager to handle qubit allocation, which is a file/quantum instruction file (computer instruction file))
accessing, by the first quantum computing system, a list of resources that identifies resources available on a second quantum computing system and a list of resources that identifies resources available on a third quantum computing system, wherein the resources available on the second quantum computing system and the resources available on the third quantum computing system comprises qubits; (as shown in figs. 1A-1D and [00052] of Kim, “The communication control units 220a and 220b in FIG. 2 may be implemented independent from their respective control units 120a and 120b, or may be integrated within their respective control units 120a and 120b. The communication achieved using the communication control units 220a and 220b as well as the switch/router unit 230, may also be accomplished or realized, at least in part, using the shuttling technique described in FIGS. 1C and 1D in which information from one set of qubits is available to another set of qubits as a result of the shuttling of qubits..” And the system has a plurality of quantum cores/quantum computing systems and [0032] of Kim, “The hardware description language may be used to dynamically configure the software-defined quantum computer such that, for example, the size of the computations (e.g., the number of qubits) may be adjusted on the fly (e.g., can be changed from one size to another size at any point in time). In an example, hardware description language may specify the structure and behavior of the software-defined quantum computer. This approach differs from a conventional quantum computer in which the configuration is rigid and fixed by the hardware. Instead, a software-defined quantum computer may be configured using, for example, a hardware description language (or quantum hardware description language), in a manner similar to how a field programmable device may be configured. As such, a software-defined quantum computer may be configured to load and use 10 qubits, 20 qubits, or 100 qubits (or any number for that matter) as it is needed for the particular operations being performed.”)
generating, by the first quantum computing system based on the quantum instruction file, a representative quantum computing system comprising a subset of the resources available on the second quantum computing system and a subset of the resources available on the third quantum computing system; (as shown in figs. 1A-1D and [00052] of Kim, “The communication control units 220a and 220b in FIG. 2 may be implemented independent from their respective control units 120a and 120b, or may be integrated within their respective control units 120a and 120b. The communication achieved using the communication control units 220a and 220b as well as the switch/router unit 230, may also be accomplished or realized, at least in part, using the shuttling technique described in FIGS. 1C and 1D in which information from one set of qubits is available to another set of qubits as a result of the shuttling of qubits..” hence, subsets of resources are available on different quantum cores/computing systems)
executing, by the first quantum computing system, the quantum instruction file via the representative quantum computing system comprising: executing a first portion of the quantum instruction file on the second quantum computing system to utilize the subset of the resources available on the second quantum computing system and executing a second portion of the quantum instruction file on the third quantum computing system to utilize the subset of the resources available on the third quantum computing system; ([0069]-[0071] of Kim, “There are many different kinds of resources at the disposal of a resource manager (e.g., resource manager 330) in a software-defined quantum architecture. These resources include qubits, connectivity, coherence, (photonic) interconnect network among core units (e.g., ion traps), classical communication channels, as well as other types of resources. A software-defined quantum architecture, via a resource manager, needs to optimize the resource utilization as much as possible within a reasonable time frame. When a program (e.g., a set of instructions) is submitted via the API stack 310 (see 405), it is translated into a next level intermediate representation which is handed over to the resource manager (see 410). From the netlist-like representation, the resource manager estimates the cost of executing the program (see 415). This cost will be used by the resource manager to make decisions about resource allocation.”) and
returning, by the first quantum computing system to the client computing device, a response from the execution of the quantum instruction file. ([0069]-[0071] of Kim, “:The job may then be placed on the priority queue for the target core(s) (see 475).”)
Kim does not specifically disclose “wherein each of the quantum computing systems comprises a respective one or more quantum computing devices.”
However, Rigetti discloses wherein each of the quantum computing systems comprises a respective one or more quantum computing devices (as shown in Fig. 8, each of the quantum computing systems comprises a respective one or more quantum computing devices, such s devices of customer 1, customer 2 and customer 3).
Kim and Rigetti are analogous art because both references concern quantum computing. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kim’s quantum API with different users of different quantum devices sharing resources with each other based on resource load balancing as taught by Rigetti. The motivation for doing so would have been ensure the right to access quantum resources.
Referring to claim 2, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, by the first quantum computing system from a fourth quantum computing system, a list of resources available on the fourth quantum computing system; generating, by the first quantum computing system, a representative quantum computing system comprising the subset of the resources available on the second quantum computing system, the subset of the resources available on the third quantum computing system, and a subset of the resources available on the fourth quantum computing system based on the quantum instruction file; executing, by the first quantum computing system, a third portion of the quantum instruction file on the fourth quantum computing system to utilize the subset of the resources available on the fourth quantum computing system; and returning, by the first quantum computing system to the client computing device, a response from the execution of the quantum instruction file. (see citations of claim 1 where the same method can be applied to different sets of quantum cores/computing systems [0032] of Kim, “The hardware description language may be used to dynamically configure the software-defined quantum computer such that, for example, the size of the computations (e.g., the number of qubits) may be adjusted on the fly (e.g., can be changed from one size to another size at any point in time). In an example, hardware description language may specify the structure and behavior of the software-defined quantum computer. This approach differs from a conventional quantum computer in which the configuration is rigid and fixed by the hardware. Instead, a software-defined quantum computer may be configured using, for example, a hardware description language (or quantum hardware description language), in a manner similar to how a field programmable device may be configured. As such, a software-defined quantum computer may be configured to load and use 10 qubits, 20 qubits, or 100 qubits (or any number for that matter) as it is needed for the particular operations being performed.”)
Referring to claim 3, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising:
generating, by the first quantum computing system, a representative quantum computing system comprising the resources available on the second quantum computing system; executing, by the first quantum computing system, the quantum instruction file on the second quantum computing system to utilize the resources available on the second quantum computing system; and returning, by the first quantum computing system to the client computing device, a response from the execution of the quantum instruction file. ([0069]-[0071] of Kim, “There are many different kinds of resources at the disposal of a resource manager (e.g., resource manager 330) in a software-defined quantum architecture. These resources include qubits, connectivity, coherence, (photonic) interconnect network among core units (e.g., ion traps), classical communication channels, as well as other types of resources. A software-defined quantum architecture, via a resource manager, needs to optimize the resource utilization as much as possible within a reasonable time frame. When a program (e.g., a set of instructions) is submitted via the API stack 310 (see 405), it is translated into a next level intermediate representation which is handed over to the resource manager (see 410). From the netlist-like representation, the resource manager estimates the cost of executing the program (see 415). This cost will be used by the resource manager to make decisions about resource allocation.” [0032] of Kim, “The hardware description language may be used to dynamically configure the software-defined quantum computer such that, for example, the size of the computations (e.g., the number of qubits) may be adjusted on the fly (e.g., can be changed from one size to another size at any point in time). In an example, hardware description language may specify the structure and behavior of the software-defined quantum computer. This approach differs from a conventional quantum computer in which the configuration is rigid and fixed by the hardware. Instead, a software-defined quantum computer may be configured using, for example, a hardware description language (or quantum hardware description language), in a manner similar to how a field programmable device may be configured. As such, a software-defined quantum computer may be configured to load and use 10 qubits, 20 qubits, or 100 qubits (or any number for that matter) as it is needed for the particular operations being performed.”)
Referring to claim 4, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the first quantum computing system is in a different location from the second quantum computing system and the third quantum computing system. (as shown in Figs. 1A-1D of Kim, a plurality of the quantum core/control units 120x are in different locations)
Referring to claim 5, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the second quantum computing system is in a different location from the first quantum computing system and the third quantum computing system. (as shown in Figs. 1A-1D of Kim, a plurality of the quantum core/control units 120x are in different locations)
Referring to claim 6, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the client computing device is unaware of executing the first portion of the quantum instruction file on the second quantum computing system to utilize the subset of the resources available on the second quantum computing system and the second portion of the quantum instruction file on the third quantum computing system to utilize the subset of the resources available on the third quantum computing system. ([0069]-[0071] of Kim and [0031] of Kim, “FIG. 1A shows a diagram 100 that illustrates an example of a software-defined quantum computer in accordance with aspects of this disclosure. The system shown in the diagram 100 of FIG. 1A can, as described above, load or enable up tom qubits and then control any subset of n qubits (see e.g., qubits 130 in FIG. 1A), where m≥n. As used herein, the terms quantum computer, quantum computer system, quantum computing system, an quantum information processing system may be used interchangeably.”)
Referring to claim 7, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the quantum instruction file comprises a list of instructions to be executed on a quantum computing system. ([0008] of Kim, “a software-defined quantum computer is described that includes multiple modules, each module having a control unit, a communication control unit, and multiple qubits, each control unit being configured to receive programming instructions from a software program and generate control signals based at least in part on the programming instructions, and a number of the qubits and connections between any two of the qubits are enabled and controlled by the control signals from the control unit. The software-defined quantum computer also includes a switch/router unit configured to enable communication channels from the communication control unit from each of the modules.”)
Referring to claim 8, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 7, wherein the instructions comprise one or more of a quantity of qubits, quantum services, quantum communication channels, and API routes that the client computing device requires to run on a quantum computing system. ([0008] of Kim, “a software-defined quantum computer is described that includes multiple modules, each module having a control unit, a communication control unit, and multiple qubits, each control unit being configured to receive programming instructions from a software program and generate control signals based at least in part on the programming instructions, and a number of the qubits and connections between any two of the qubits are enabled and controlled by the control signals from the control unit. The software-defined quantum computer also includes a switch/router unit configured to enable communication channels from the communication control unit from each of the modules.”)
Referring to claim 9, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 7, wherein one or more of the instructions are predefined for a qubit in the second quantum computing system. ([0035] of Kim, “the set of instructions can be described as a collection of parameterized, continuous quantum gates, broadly defined, with each gate performing a parameter-dependent action on a quantum input. For example, a predetermined evolution of a set of qubits in the QC associated with desired interaction Hamiltonian is implemented with continuous variables that dictate the nature of evolution.”)
Referring to claim 10, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 7, wherein the list of instructions comprises segments of instructions to be executed together on a quantum computing system. ([0084] of Kim, “the memory 850 may include programs 110 and 110a in FIGS. 1 and 2. In another example, the memory 850 may be used to enable the software-defined quantum computer architecture described in FIG. 3 (e.g., by storing at least a portion of the QOS 320)”)
Referring to claim 11, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, wherein generating the representative quantum computing system comprising the subset of the resources available on the second quantum computing system and the subset of the resources available on the third quantum computing system based on the quantum instruction file comprises:
identifying resources that the client computing device requires to run on a quantum computing system by reading the quantum instruction file; reading the list of resources available on the second quantum computing system; reading the list of resources available on the third quantum computing system; [0032] of Kim, “The hardware description language may be used to dynamically configure the software-defined quantum computer such that, for example, the size of the computations (e.g., the number of qubits) may be adjusted on the fly (e.g., can be changed from one size to another size at any point in time). In an example, hardware description language may specify the structure and behavior of the software-defined quantum computer. This approach differs from a conventional quantum computer in which the configuration is rigid and fixed by the hardware. Instead, a software-defined quantum computer may be configured using, for example, a hardware description language (or quantum hardware description language), in a manner similar to how a field programmable device may be configured. As such, a software-defined quantum computer may be configured to load and use 10 qubits, 20 qubits, or 100 qubits (or any number for that matter) as it is needed for the particular operations being performed.”
comparing the resources that the client computing device requires to run to the list of resources available on the second quantum computing system and the list of resources available on the third quantum computing system; ([0071] of Kim) and
determining resources of the resources available on the second quantum computing system and resources of the resources available on the third quantum computing system that allow the client computing device to run. ([0071] of Kim, “The first decision taken by the resource manager is whether hardware has the necessary and sufficient resources to execute the program (see 420). If it is a multi-quantum-core system, the resource manager allocates the least number of cores on which the program can run (see 425). If there are more than one set of least number of cores, the resource manager chooses the cores for which distribution of the program is least expensive. For example, the current requested operation is following a sequence of previous operations which have been performed on a certain software-defined architecture (see 430). The resource manager may compare between the cost of mapping the operation on an existing software-defined architecture (see 440) and the cost of creating a software-defined architecture native to the operation (see 435) and decide accordingly (see 445, 450). If any decision increases the circuit depth (see 455) or if a rounding off error occurs (see 465), the appropriate flags (see 460, 470) need to be raised while returning the result. The job may then be placed on the priority queue for the target core(s) (see 475).”)
Referring to claim 13, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: providing the client computing device with access to the subset of the resources available on the second quantum computing system and the subset of the resources available on the third quantum computing system comprising the representative quantum computing system through an interface to the representative quantum computing system. ([0069]-[0071] of Kim, “There are many different kinds of resources at the disposal of a resource manager (e.g., resource manager 330) in a software-defined quantum architecture. These resources include qubits, connectivity, coherence, (photonic) interconnect network among core units (e.g., ion traps), classical communication channels, as well as other types of resources. A software-defined quantum architecture, via a resource manager, needs to optimize the resource utilization as much as possible within a reasonable time frame. When a program (e.g., a set of instructions) is submitted via the API stack 310 (see 405), it is translated into a next level intermediate representation which is handed over to the resource manager (see 410). From the netlist-like representation, the resource manager estimates the cost of executing the program (see 415). This cost will be used by the resource manager to make decisions about resource allocation.”)
Referring to claim 14, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 13, wherein the interface to the representative quantum computing system comprises one or more of an application programming interface (API), a configuration file, and an interface contract. ([0083] of Kim, “The processor 848 may be used to, for example, perform the resource manager workflow described in FIGS. 4A-4C, implement the levels of application programming interface (API) access points”)
Referring to claim 15, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 13, further comprising: subsequent to returning, by the first quantum computing system to the client computing device, a response from executing the quantum instruction file, utilizing the interface to run a quantum service via the representative quantum computing system. ([0071] of Kim)
Referring to claim 16, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: accessing, by the first quantum computing system, one or more of a qubit registry, quantum services, quantum communication channels, a scheduler, and a task manager of the second quantum computing system. ([0008] of Kim, “The software-defined quantum computer also includes a switch/router unit configured to enable communication channels from the communication control unit from each of the modules.”)
Referring to claim 17, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: accessing, by the first quantum computing system, one or more of a qubit registry, quantum services, quantum communication channels, a scheduler, and a task manager of the third quantum computing system. ([0008] of Kim, “The software-defined quantum computer also includes a switch/router unit configured to enable communication channels from the communication control unit from each of the modules.”)
Referring to claim 18, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose a quantum computing device, comprising: a memory; and a processor device coupled to the memory, the processor device to: receive a quantum instruction file from a client computing device; communicate with quantum computing devices in other quantum computing systems; and generate a representative quantum computing system comprising a subset of resources available on the other quantum computing systems based on the quantum instruction file. (see citations of claim 1)
Referring to claim 19, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the quantum computing device of claim 18, wherein to communicate with quantum computing devices in other quantum computing systems, the processor device is further to: access a list of resources that identifies resources available on a second quantum computing system and a list of resources that identifies resources available on a third quantum computing system, wherein the second quantum computing system and the third quantum computing system are from among the other quantum computing systems; and generate reference points based on the list of resources available on the second quantum computing system and the list of resources available on the third quantum computing system. ([0069]-[0071] of Kim)
Referring to claim 20, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processor devices to: receive a quantum instruction file from a client computing device; access a list of resources that identifies resources available on a second quantum computing system and a list of resources that identifies resources available on a third quantum computing system; and generate a representative quantum computing system comprising a subset of the resources available on the second quantum computing system and a subset of the resources available on the third quantum computing system. (see citations of claim 1 and [0069]-[0071] of Kim)
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al (US 20220156627 A1) in view of Rigetti et al (US 20220084085 A1) and in view of Borrill (US 20180062764 A1)
Referring to claim 12, Kim in view of Rigetti disclose the method of claim 11, further comprising:
requesting, from a qubit registry of the second quantum computing system, an available qubit; requesting, from a qubit registry of the third quantum computing system, an available qubit; ([0032]-[0033] of Kim, various qubits resources availability to perform particular tasks)
obtaining, from the second quantum computing system and the third quantum computing system, API routes to quantum services that the client computing device requires to run; ([0068]-[0069] of Kim, quantum operating API to manage resources in the system).
Kim in view of Rigetti do not specifically disclose “obtaining, from the second quantum computing system and the third quantum computing system, one or more of access keys and permissions to utilize the quantum services; obtaining, from the second quantum computing system and the third quantum computing system, one or more of access keys and permissions to utilize quantum communication channels; and creating a qubit registry namespace, wherein the qubit registry namespace represents the representative quantum computing system and qubits of the representative quantum computing system.”
However, Borrill discloses obtaining, from the second quantum computing system and the third quantum computing system, one or more of access keys and permissions to utilize the quantum services; obtaining, from the second quantum computing system and the third quantum computing system, one or more of access keys and permissions to utilize quantum communication channels; and creating a qubit registry namespace, wherein the qubit registry namespace represents the representative quantum computing system and qubits of the representative quantum computing system ([0485], [0505] and [0732] of Borrill)
Kim and Rigetti and Borrill are analogous art because both references concern quantum computing. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kim’s quantum API with different users of different quantum devices sharing resources with each other based on resource load balancing as taught by Rigetti and resource allocation with QKD access capabilities as taught by Borrill. The motivation for doing so would have been ensure the right to access quantum resources.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure:
Pinho et al (US 20230229514 A1): method includes receiving a computation workflow defined by a graph that includes quantum computing nodes, receiving a catalogue of quantum computing instances that are available in a hybrid classic-quantum computation infrastructure, transforming the graph to create a first graph transformation, and each of the quantum computing nodes is assigned a respective candidate resource allocation that identifies candidate resources operable to execute a respective quantum algorithm associated with that quantum computing node, and the transforming is performed using information from the catalogue, and optimizing the computation workflow by selecting, for each of the quantum computing nodes, a resource from the candidate resource allocation associated with that quantum computing node, and the optimizing includes transforming the first graph transformation to create a second graph transformation that specifies the selected resources for each node.
Applicant is required under 37 C.F.R. § 1.111(c) to consider these references fully when responding to this action.
It is noted that any citation to specific pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the references should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. In re Heck, 699 F.2d 1331, 1332-33, 216 U.S.P.Q. 1038, 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1983) (quoting In re Lemelson, 397 F.2d 1006, 1009, 158 U.S.P.Q. 275, 277 (C.C.P.A. 1968)).
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Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HAIMEI JIANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1590. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5pm.
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/HAIMEI JIANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2142
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