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Hardware recommendations for simulation #1236

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16 changes: 13 additions & 3 deletions docs/verify/index.mdx
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ description: Introduction to verifying quantum circuits in Qiskit.

In the verify phase, you test your quantum programs by running them on simulated devices and exploring their performance under realistic device noise models. This allows you to validate them before sending them to a physical system.

Quantum simulators can be used to help develop and test programs before fine-tuning them and sending them to quantum hardware. Local simulators can do this with good performance and efficiency.
Quantum simulators can be used to help develop and test programs before fine-tuning them and sending them to quantum hardware. Local simulators can do this with good performance and efficiency.

Because the cost of classically simulating quantum circuits scales exponentially with the number of qubits, circuits that are larger than 50 qubits or so generally cannot be directly verified. For such circuits, you can:

@@ -17,7 +17,17 @@ Stabilizer circuits, also known as Clifford circuits, are a useful tool for acco

For general quantum circuits, the following tools are available to verify your quantum programs:

- For simulating circuits when using Qiskit Runtime, use its [local testing mode.](local-testing-mode)
- For simulating circuits when using Qiskit Runtime, use its [local testing mode.](local-testing-mode)
- For exact simulation of small quantum circuits, you can use the reference primitives included with Qiskit. See [Exact simulation with Qiskit primitives](simulate-with-qiskit-primitives).
- For higher-performance simulation that can handle larger circuits, or to incorporate noise models into your simulation, use [Qiskit Aer](https://qiskit.org/ecosystem/aer/), a project that is part of the [Qiskit Ecosystem](https://qiskit.github.io/ecosystem/). See [Exact and noisy simulation with Qiskit Aer primitives](simulate-with-qiskit-aer) (V1 primitive support only). For V2 primitive support, use the [Qiskit Runtime local testing mode](local-testing-mode) with a Qiskit Aer backend.
- To build custom noise models, use the [`noise`](https://qiskit.org/ecosystem/aer/apidocs/aer_noise.html) module of Qiskit Aer. See [Building noise models](building_noise_models).
- To build custom noise models, use the [`noise`](https://qiskit.org/ecosystem/aer/apidocs/aer_noise.html) module of Qiskit Aer. See [Building noise models](building_noise_models).

## Hardware considerations

Several factors impact how much memory quantum simulation requires, so there are no exact hardware requirements for simulation, but there are some guidelines you can follow.

- The only requirement to run Qiskit is a functioning Python environment. For details, see the [Operating system support](../start/install#operating-system-support) section.
- Because the requirements for simulating quantum circuits scale exponentially with the number of qubits, the available hardware limits the number of qubits that can be simulated. For example, a system with 4GB RAM can simulate approximately 27 qubits.
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- More or less available memory will not result in more or less accurate results (assuming results are returned), although more memory might return results faster or let you simulate more qubits.
- To get the most benefit out of your hardware, use local stabilizer (Clifford) circuit simulation when possible. See [Clifford simulation with Qiskit Runtime local testing mode](local-testing-mode#clifford-simulation) or [Efficient simulation of stabilizer circuits with Qiskit Aer primitives](stabilizer-circuit-simulation) for examples.
- You can increase your computing power by following these instructions to [run with multiple GPUs, nodes, or both.](https://qiskit.github.io/qiskit-aer/howtos/running_gpu.html)