IBM moves closer to fault-tolerant quantum computing at scale

“This is our first shared ultra cold environment that allows multiple chips within to be connected together, and it really provides enough space for all the high-density wiring that’s needed,” explained IBM Fellow Jerry Chow, CTO, quantum-centric supercomputing, during a media briefing. “So we’re really starting to architect the entire system towards one unified powerful system.”

Oliver Dial, IBM Fellow and VP of quantum systems, added, “one of the great things about this modular design is it lets us co-optimize the volume that’s inside, the amount of space that we have for wiring, and the amount of cooling power we have. This has about 12 times more area for wiring than Quantum System One. We really need that to be able to install the super complicated, sophisticated quantum processors of the future.”

The importance of the box-shaped design, he noted, is that when adding modules, it minimizes the distance that L couplers need to go from processor to processor.