Scientists at Quantinuum have announced the creation of Helios, a groundbreaking quantum computer claimed to be the most powerful currently available. This new system boasts capabilities surpassing even the most powerful supercomputers, potentially requiring more energy than a quasar – an incredibly bright celestial object – to achieve comparable performance using conventional computing methods. The breakthrough holds immense potential for scientific discovery and technological advancement.
The Architecture of Helios
At the core of Helios lies a quantum processing unit (QPU) comprised of 98 physical qubits, each crafted from barium ions. These qubits are arranged in a unique “junction ion trap” formation, resembling a ring with a crossover junction at its base and extending into two parallel rods.
Boosting Performance Through Error Correction
This distinctive arrangement significantly enhances error detection and correction, leading to superior performance compared to existing QPUs. Quantinuum scientists achieved this by meshing the 98 physical qubits into 48 fully error-corrected logical qubits. These logical qubits function as paired sets, incorporating spare qubits to minimize the likelihood of failure. The team demonstrated “better than break-even performance,” meaning error correction codes actually improve the processor’s output compared to running calculations without them – a challenging feat. While previous assumptions suggested a 10:1 ratio of physical to logical qubits, Quantinuum achieved an impressive 2:1 ratio, paving the way for scaling to even larger systems.
New Programming Language and Control Engine
To complement the hardware, the team developed Guppy, a new programming language based on the widely-used Python, designed for compatibility with future fault-tolerant systems. Crucially, they also built a sophisticated control stack, including a real-time control engine—the “classical brain” of the machine—that can detect and resolve errors. This engine uses Nvidia GPUs to decode error information and send corrections back to the quantum computer, ensuring efficient operation and error mitigation.
Benchmarking and Fidelity
The Helios system has demonstrated exceptional performance in a series of benchmark experiments. The QPU achieved a remarkable 99.921% fidelity across all qubit pairs and 99.9975% fidelity across single-qubit quantum gates. The team broke previous records in the random circuit sampling (RCS) benchmark—previously set by Google’s Willow QPU—further solidifying Helios’s position as a leader in quantum computing.
The Importance of Error Correction
While some quantum computers have more physical qubits, performance hinges on qubit quality and minimizing error rates. This is why scientists are increasingly focusing on quantum error correction (QEC), which addresses the significantly higher error rates in qubits compared to bits in conventional computers.
New Discoveries Through Simulation
To showcase Helios’s capabilities, scientists simulated a high-temperature superconducting metal, revealing previously unknown electron behavior. They found that electrons pair up through entanglement while in a superconducting state—a “signature of superconductivity”—and this signature disappears when the metal is not superconducting.
Observing the Unobservable
This observation stemmed from a model based on a previous experiment where scientists briefly induced superconductivity in a chunk of La3Ni2O metal. This simulation allowed scientists to observe phenomena at an atomic level – something impossible in traditional “wet lab” experiments where the material is present. The new machine marks the first quantum computer capable of observing this phenomenon, opening new avenues for materials science research.
The Road Ahead
Having established this innovative quantum computing architecture, Quantinuum is confident in its scalability. The junction ion trap design allows for efficient qubit routing and pairing, and researchers envision integrating numerous such junctions into future machines, enabling massive scaling and bringing quantum computing closer to surpassing the capabilities of classical supercomputers.
“You can kind of think of it as a traffic intersection for the qubits to route them really efficiently and pair them up,” Hayes said, referencing the junction following the ring in the new arrangement. “And now that we have this one working, we think that it should be pretty straightforward to insert a lot of these things trying to close the window into the next-generation machine and really scale these machines up to huge numbers.”
The development of Helios represents a significant leap forward in quantum computing, offering unprecedented power and precision for scientific exploration and paving the way for future breakthroughs in various fields.
