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Execute on target hardware

All Qiskit pattern steps are shown (Map problem, Optimize for hardware, Execute on hardware, and Post-process results), with 'Execute on hardware' emphasized. Executing on hardware uses only the Qiskit Runtime service.

The "execute on hardware" step of a Qiskit pattern involves running your circuits on hardware and produces the outputs of the quantum computation. The ISA circuits produced in the previous step can be executed using either a Sampler or Estimator primitive from Qiskit Runtime, initialized locally on your computer or from a cluster or other heterogeneous compute environment. These can be executed in a Batch, which allows parallel transpilation for classical computational efficiency - or a Session, which allows iterative tasks to be implemented efficiently without queuing delays.

During this step, there is also the option to configure certain error suppression and mitigation techniques provided by Qiskit Runtime.

Depending on whether you are using the Sampler or Estimator primitive, the outcome of this step will be different. If using the Sampler, the output will be per-shot measurements in the form of bitstrings. If using the Estimator, the output will be expectation values of observables corresponding to physical quantities or cost functions.


Guides for executing on hardware

Run with primitives

Configure runtime options

Execution modes

Manage jobs

QPU and platform information