IBM has unveiled a new quantum computer architecture which, according to him, will reduce the number of qubits required for error correction. The advance will underpin its objective of building a large-scale quantum computer and tolerant to breakdowns, called Starling, which will be available for customers by 2029.
Due to the inherent lack of reliability of qubits (quantum equivalent of bits) from which quantum computers are built, error correction will be crucial to build reliable large -scale devices. The errors correction approaches distribute each information unit on many physical qubits to create “logical qubits”. This provides redundancy against errors in individual physical qubits.
One of the most popular approaches is known as a surface code, which requires around 1,000 physical qubits to constitute a logical qubit. It was the approach on which IBM was initially concentrated, but the company finally realized that the creation of equipment to support it was an “dream engineering dream,” said Jay Gambetta, vice-president of IBM Quantum, in a press point.
Around 2019, the company began to investigate alternatives. In an article published in Nature Last year, IBM researchers described a new error correction scheme called low quantum low density parity codes (QLDPC) which would require approximately one tenth of the number of qubits that the surface codes need. Now the company has unveiled a new quantum component architecture that can achieve this new approach.
“We fell in love with the correction of code errors for Quantum and this is our plan to build the first large -scale quantum computer and tolerant of the breakdowns,” said Gambetta, who is also an IBM scholarship holder. “We are convinced that it is now an engineering issue to build these machines, rather than science.”
IBM unveils a new quantum roadmap
IBM will take the first step towards the realization of this architecture later this year with a processor called Loon. This chip will have couples that can connect distant qubits on the same chip, which is the key to implementing QLDPC codes. These “non -local” interactions are what makes the approach more effective than the surface code, which is based solely on qubits communicating with their neighbors.
According to a published roadmap as well as the details of the new architecture, the company plans to build a follow -up processor called Kookaburra in 2026 which will have both a logical processing unit and a quantum memory. This will be the first demonstration of the basic module type from which the following systems will be built. The following year, IBM plans to connect two of these modules to create a device called Cacatoo.
The road card does not detail the number of modules used to create Starling, the expected commercial offer from IBM, but the computer will include 200 logical qubits and will be able to perform 100 million quantum operations. The number of physical qubits will still be necessary to finalize, said Matthias Steffen, IBM Fellow, who heads the technological team of quantum processor. But the new architecture should require in the order of several hundred physical qubits to create 10 logical qubits, he added.
IBM plans to build Starling by 2028, before making it available on the cloud the following year. It will be hosted in a new quantum data center in Powhkeepsia, NY, and will lay the Final System Foundations on the current IBM roadmap, a logic machine of 2,000 codes called Blue Jay.
IBM’s new architecture is a significant progress compared to its previous technology, explains Mark Horvath, vice-president of analyst at Gartner, who was informed before the announcement. The increased connectivity of the new chip makes it much more powerful and is saved by significant breakthroughs in 3D manufacturing. And if it helps IBM reach 200 logical qubits, this would bring quantum computers in the field of practical problems solving, says Horvath.
However, Horvath adds that the modular approach that IBM takes place to get there could be difficult. “It’s a very complicated task,” he says. “I think it will eventually work. It’s just, it’s much further than people don’t think so. ”
One of the greatest remaining obstacles is to improve the loyalty of the doors through the device. To successfully implement this new architecture, the error rates must drop by an order of magnitude, admitted Steffen from IBM, although the company is convinced that this is achievable. One of the main ways in advance will be to improve the coherence times of underlying qubits, which refer to the duration of their quantum state. “We have evidence that this is really one of the main bottlenecks to improve door errors,” explains Steffen.
In isolated test devices, IBM has managed to push the average coherence times to 2 milliseconds, but the larger flea translation is not easy. Steffen said that the company had recently progressed with its heron chips, from around 150 to 250 microseconds.
Significant engineering challenges also remain in support infrastructure, said Steffen, including connectors that connect different parts of the system and amplifiers. But a big advantage of the new architecture is that it requires far fewer components due to the reduced number of physical qubits. “This is one of the reasons why we are so excited by these QLDPC codes, because it also reduces all the general costs of non-diantum processor,” he said.
This story was updated on June 10, 2025 to correct certain details of the current IBM roadmap.
From your site items
Related items on the web
