Quantinuum works with Microsoft to set up ‘second phase of quantum era’

Quantinuum, the integrated quantum computing innovator on Hills Road, has achieved a breakthrough in making fault-tolerant quantum computing a reality with Microsoft’s quantum computing team.

The outcome of the collaboration between Quantinuum’s teams in Cambridge and in Arlington, Virginia, with Microsoft’s quantum computing team is the development of the most reliable logical qubits with active syndrome extraction, an achievement previously believed to be years away from realisation.

Active syndrome extraction, also called repeated error correction, is crucial to reduce the error rate which quantum computing is susceptible to. Individual qubits are vulnerable to error before even being used: this new technology combines multiple hardware qubits to form what’s termed a logical qubit, which are less prone to error. Additional qubits are used as sensors to detect errors and allow interventions to correct them.

This method has hitherto only worked in principle – now it works in practice too. The breakthrough significantly accelerates progress towards the ultimate goal of achieving universal fault-tolerant quantum computing, potentially shortening the timeline to tackling real-world problems and revolutionising fields including materials science and drug discovery.

The achievement stems from the industry-leading fidelity, scalability, and flexibility of Quantinuum’s 32-qubit H2 quantum processor, powered by Honeywell – which has a 54 per cent stake in Quantinuum – combined with Microsoft’s highly innovative error correction capabilities.

Microsoft has its own quantum computing agenda and acts as a service provider for other companies’ hardware. In 2021, it released Azure Quantum in ‘public preview’, making its cloud quantum computing platform available to all.

The joint Quantinuum/Microsoft team created four logical qubits using 30 of the 32 physical qubits available on the H2 (Quantinuum’s quantum processor), leading to the creation of what both companies herald as the most ‘reliable logical qubits’. They also successfully demonstrated syndrome extraction, another critical milestone that is necessary for fault-tolerant quantum computing.

“Today’s achievement was only possible using Quantinuum’s H2 quantum computer, with its unparalleled 99.8 per cent two-qubit gate fidelities; the 32 qubits in our QCCD architecture; and all-to-all qubit connectivity,” said Rajeeb Hazra, CEO, Quantinuum.

Microsoft describes the new era as ‘Level 2 Resilient’, “where quantum computing is capable of dealing with the issues caused by errors, and can begin to tackle meaningful challenges, such as modelling the states of molecules and materials, simulating systems in condensed matter physics, and exploring solutions to problems across many fields”.

Microsoft adds: “Based on Microsoft’s exacting criteria, the demonstration of multiple, entangled logical qubits, with the logical qubits outperforming the physical qubits, marks a long-anticipated transition into this second phase of quantum computing”.

“This is an important breakthrough for quantum computing,” says Dr Krysta Svore – distinguished engineer and VP of advanced quantum development for Microsoft Azure Quantum. “The collaboration between Quantinuum and Microsoft has established a crucial step forward for the industry and demonstrated a critical milestone on the path to hybrid classical-quantum supercomputing capable of transforming scientific discovery.”

Quantinuum vice-chairman and chief product officer, Ilyas Khan, concluded: “As leaders, we will continue to innovate more rapidly than the competition, with hardware innovations and developing applications to take advantage of the new era of truly logical qubits.

“We will continue to ensure that our customers are the first to benefit from these and future breakthroughs. I am excited to see how they take advantage of reliable quantum computing, to generate more powerful solutions than ever to their most challenging problems.”

Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. It has almost 500 employees, of whom 370 are scientists and engineers.