A New Layer in the Quantum Software Stack
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Origin Quantum, a Chinese quantum computing company, recently released Origin Pilot, a quantum operating system available for public download. While quantum computing announcements often focus on hardware milestones, this release highlights a different part of the ecosystem: the software infrastructure that connects quantum processors with the applications that run on them. This article reviews broader progress in the quantum software layer rather than representing an assessment of any specific company.
Qbeat does not invest in Chinese companies, consistent with our regulatory considerations and investment policy. We nevertheless monitor technological developments globally to track progress across the quantum ecosystem.
Why does it matter?
Over the past decade, the quantum computing landscape has expanded rapidly. Universities, national labs, and a growing number of companies are developing their own quantum hardware platforms. At the same time, companies have emerged across the value chain, building qubit processors, control electronics, development tools, and cloud access platforms.
Integrating these components into a functioning system remains a challenge. Quantum hardware architectures differ significantly, and the software stacks built around them are often proprietary or tightly coupled to specific devices. Unlike classical computing, where operating systems provide a standardized interface between hardware and applications, quantum computing still relies largely on custom integration pipelines.
What is Origin Pilot?
Origin Pilot provides system-level software that coordinates how quantum hardware is used. Its functions include:
Job scheduling
Resource management
Circuit compilation and execution
Coordination between classical and quantum processors
Automated qubit calibration
In practice, this layer resides between the physical quantum device and the development tools used by programmers, managing how circuits are compiled, executed, and distributed across available hardware resources.
Origin Pilot is part of a broader ecosystem developed by Origin Quantum that also includes cloud hardware access and QPanda, a quantum software development kit similar in role to IBM's Qiskit or Rigetti's pyQuil. These frameworks allow developers to design quantum circuits, run simulations, and interact with quantum hardware through a programming interface.
Public availability vs. open source
System-level components similar to a “quantum OS” already exist internally within platforms operated by companies such as IBM or Google, enabling remote execution of quantum circuits on their hardware. However, these systems are typically tightly integrated with proprietary infrastructure and are not designed for independent deployment.
Origin Pilot differs in that it can be downloaded and deployed locally, which may make it easier for organizations building their own quantum hardware stacks.
However, publicly available does not mean open source. Origin Pilot is distributed under a licensing model with both free and paid tiers, and the source code is not open to external contributions. This limits community-driven development and independent verification. In addition, the platform currently has limited English-language documentation, which may pose a barrier for international users attempting to deploy it.
Transparency in open-source software is especially important in the quantum ecosystem, where supply-chain dependencies and geopolitical sensitivities make visibility and trust in software infrastructure increasingly critical.
Current hardware support
Origin Pilot is already deployed on Origin Quantum’s Origin Wukong, a 72-qubit superconducting quantum computer. The system is also designed with a driver architecture intended to support additional hardware modalities, including trapped-ion, neutral-atom, and photonic platforms.
The Wukong system has already processed a substantial number of quantum computing jobs through cloud access, suggesting that the software stack has been in internal use before its public release.
Why a quantum operating system is difficult
Building operating-system-like infrastructure for quantum computing is challenging for reasons beyond the lack of standards.
Continuous hardware calibration:
Quantum processors require constant recalibration because qubit frequencies drift and noise levels change over time. System software must monitor device performance and trigger calibration routines during operation.
Hybrid quantum–classical workloads:
Many near-term quantum algorithms involve tight feedback loops between classical optimizers and quantum circuit execution. Coordinating these hybrid workflows requires careful orchestration between classical compute resources and quantum processors.
Limited parallelism:
Unlike classical servers that run thousands of processes simultaneously, existing quantum processors can execute only a small number of calibrated workloads at a time. Efficient scheduling and queue management, therefore, become critical system functions.
The current state of quantum software
Much of the quantum software ecosystem has so far focused on development frameworks rather than full system-level platforms. Tools such as Qiskit and Cirq provide programming environments, simulators, and algorithm libraries that allow developers to experiment with quantum algorithms and run them on both simulated and real devices.
Origin Quantum is also developing tools in this space through QPanda, which the company claims offers improved performance compared to some existing frameworks, though independent benchmarking remains limited.
But Origin Pilot itself does not compete with these SDKs. Instead, it aims to fill the gap between high-level development frameworks and the low-level control systems that operate quantum hardware.
operate quantum hardware.
A step toward a more mature ecosystem
In this context, Origin Pilot can be seen as an attempt to expose part of the system-level infrastructure that typically remains internal to quantum hardware providers.
As quantum devices grow more complex and access expands to a larger user base, software that coordinates hardware resources and integrates different components of the stack may become increasingly important.
In classical computing, operating systems played a crucial role in enabling hardware abstraction and software portability across machines. Quantum computing is still not at that level of maturity, but developments like Origin Pilot suggest that the ecosystem is gradually evolving in that direction.
A note of caution
At the same time, the release should not be overinterpreted. Origin Pilot does not change the fundamental limitations of current quantum hardware, and the field remains firmly in the NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) era. Additionally, while QPanda and the remote hardware access could appeal to end users, the OS itself is only relevant for institutions building their own hardware.
Seen in that context, this announcement is best understood as part of the gradual development of quantum infrastructure, an encouraging sign that the software stack is evolving, rather than a breakthrough that immediately expands the capabilities of quantum computers.
Itamar Fink is a Research Intern at Qbeat Ventures and a Master’s student in Computer Science at LMU Munich, focusing on quantum technologies and their emerging applications.
