A Quantum Computer Trusted Execution Environment
Theodoros Trochatos, Chuanqi Xu, Sanjay R. Deshpande, Yao Lu, Yongshan Ding, Jakub M. Szefer · IEEE Computer Architecture Letters · 2023
We present the first architecture for a trusted execution environment for quantum computers. In the architecture, to protect the user's circuits, they are obfuscated with decoy control pulses added during circuit transpilation by the user. The decoy pulses are removed, i.e. attenuated, by the trusted hardware inside the superconducting quantum computer's fridge before they reach the qubits. This preliminary work demonstrates that protection from possibly malicious cloud providers is feasible with minimal hardware cost.