AlQasm

AlQasm is a hardware-agnostic quantum assembly language and compiler framework intended to describe quantum circuits at the instruction level and to target multiple quantum processing backends. The language provides an explicit low-level syntax for defining qubits, registers, and gates, while offering portability across devices with different native gate sets. It is designed for researchers and developers who need precise control over timing, routing, and calibration metadata.

Key features include a compact instruction set for single-qubit and two-qubit gates, support for parametric gates, and constructs for classical-quantum feedback, conditional execution, and repeatable subroutines. The language supports modular programming through subroutines and gate libraries, qubit routing annotations, and timing directives to model pulse-level behavior. It also enables circuit optimization passes such as gate cancellation, commutation analysis, and layout-aware transpilation.

The AlQasm toolchain comprises a front-end parser and semantic checker, an intermediate representation, and a back-end code generator. The IR supports both static and dynamic control flow, measurements, and reset operations. Backends can target hardware devices that implement OpenQASM-like interfaces, as well as high-performance simulators that compute amplitudes or density matrices. The ecosystem includes exporters to other quantum programming frameworks to facilitate interoperability.

History and status: The project was launched by an international collaboration of universities and industry partners to provide a portable alternative to device-specific languages. Since its initial release, AlQasm has been adopted in academic curricula and by research groups developing hardware-agnostic benchmarks. It is maintained as an open-source project under a permissive license, with ongoing development focusing on extensibility, error-aware compilation, and improved interoperability with existing quantum software stacks.