Logical qubits start outperforming physical qubits
Quantinuum closes in on breakeven point in quantum error correction
Broomfield, Colorado, August 4th, 2022 — Quantinuum researchers have hit a significant milestone by entangling logical qubits in a fault-tolerant circuit using real-time quantum error correction. The research, published in a new scientific paper that was released on August 3rd, is the first experimental comparison study of different quantum error correction codes in similar environments and presents a collection of several different experiments. These experiments include:
- The first demonstration of entangling gates between two logical qubits done in a fully fault-tolerant manner using real-time error correction
- The first demonstration of a logical entangling circuit that has higher fidelity than the corresponding physical circuit.
This milestone achievement is important because it marks the first time that logical qubits have been shown to outperform physical qubits — a critical step towards fault-tolerant quantum computers.
“Quantinuum’s trapped-ion quantum computing roadmap is designed around continuous upgrades, enabled our flexible architecture and our precision control capabilities. This combination provides for outstanding, first-of-its-kind achievements that help accelerate the entire industry,” said Tony Uttley, President and COO of Quantinuum.
David Hayes, a Theory and Architecture Technical Manager at Quantinuum and co-author of the new research paper, said the research moves quantum computing closer to the point where encoded circuits outperform more primitive operations.
“People have worked with error corrected qubits before, but they haven't reached this sort of special point where the encoded operation is working better than the primitive operation,” Hayes said. “The other thing that's new here is that in other experiments we're doing the error correction while we're doing the operations. An important next step for us is to get the error rate induced by the error correction itself down further."
The findings are described in the new research paper, “Implementing Fault-tolerant Entangling Gates on the Five-Qubit code and the Color Code”. The paper was recently published on the arXiv. Scientists used both the H1-1 and the H1-2 quantum computers, Powered by Honeywell, to compare the Five-Qubit error code and the Distance Three Color Code in these tests.
Quantum researchers are in the early days of experimental quantum error correction with a multitude of codes to test. Quantinuum researchers can explore a wider range of quantum error codes, compared to other quantum hardware designs, due to the architecture of the machine.
The System Model H1 uses a trapped-ion design and a quantum charged coupled device architecture (QCCD). Along with the inherent flexibility of this design, another strength is all-to-all connectivity. All the qubits are connected to each other which makes it easy to move information through chains of ions without creating multiple errors along the way.
“Instead of having to build a new machine every time we want to try a new code, we can just program the machine to run a different code, make the measurements and weigh the different pros and cons,” Hayes said.
Advancing quantum error correction
All forms of technology need error correction including servers in data centers and space probes sending transmissions back to Earth. For Quantinuum and other companies in the quantum computing sector, quantum error correction is one of the most important pillars of progress. Errors prevent quantum computers from producing reliable results before they are overwhelmed. Quantinuum’s researchers are working toward the milestone of fault tolerance, meaning the errors can be suppressed to arbitrarily low levels.
Natalie Brown, another co-author of the paper and an Advanced Physicist at Quantinuum, said that most classical error correction principles fail with quantum computers because of the basic nature of quantum mechanics.
“It becomes very difficult to suppress noise to very small levels, and that becomes a problem in quantum computing,” she said. “The most promising candidate was this quantum error correction, where we take the physical qubits, make a logical qubit.”
Logical qubits are groups of physical qubits working together to perform a computation. For each physical qubit used in a computation, other ancillary qubits perform a range of tasks such as spotting and correcting errors as they occur.
Ciaran Ryan-Anderson, a Senior Advanced Physicist at Quantinuum and also a co-author of the new paper, said the newest research paper builds on research performed in 2021 and published in Physical Review X. That work explained how researchers at Honeywell Quantum Solutions applied multiple rounds of quantum error correction to a single logical qubit.
“One of the first really important things to demonstrate was these repeated rounds of quantum error correction cycles,” he said.
That is one of several milestones on Ryan-Anderson’s quantum error correction checklist:
- Conduct repeated rounds of fault tolerant quantum error correction
- Feed forward and conditionally apply syndrome extraction
- Enable real-time determination of correction for a quantum error correction code
- Demonstrate general algorithmic real-time decoding
- Scale up quantum error correction with two logical qubits
- Hit the breakeven point when logical quantum computing starts to outperform physical quantum computing
“Quantinuum has achieved some of the milestones required to accomplish this now,” Ryan-Anderson said.
Five-Qubit Code vs. Color Code
Building upon the 2021 research involving one logical qubit, the newest research illustrates the Quantinuum team’s progress with quantum error correction and two logical qubits. The team tested two error codes familiar to quantum experts: the Five-Qubit Code and the Color Code. The Five-Qubit Code does not allow for a fault tolerant transversal gate using only two logical qubits. Researchers used “pieceable” fault tolerance to decompose an initially non-fault tolerant logical gate operation into pieces that are individually fault-tolerant. The Color Code, however, does allow the use of a transversal CNOT gate which is naturally fault-tolerant.
How the experiment worked
H1-2 can use up to 12 qubits and H1-1 can use up to 20. The Five-Qubit Code tested on H1-2 while the Color Code tested on H1-1. Both computers use the same surface electrode ion trap to control ytterbium ions as qubits. Ion transport to isolated gate zones with focused laser beams provides low crosstalk gate and mid-circuit measurement operations.
The researchers ran five experiments with different combinations of circuit elements to test the Five-Qubit Code and to understand the impact of fault tolerant design and circuit depth. The team found that the extra circuitry designed to increase fault tolerance had a negative impact on the overall fidelity of the logical operation, due to the large number of CNOT operations required.
The Color Code showed much better results due in part to the ability to use a transversal CNOT gate. The team ran seven experiments to investigate the fault tolerant potential of these codes. With the Color Code, the researchers found that the State Preparation and Measurement circuits benefitted from the addition of fault tolerant circuitry with a significant reduction of error rates: 99.94% for the logical qubits compared to 99.68% for the physical qubits. This was the only additional circuitry required to make the circuit fault tolerant from end-to-end, since the logical CNOT is transversal and naturally fault tolerant.
The researchers concluded that the “relatively economical fault tolerant circuitry of the Color Code will provide a better platform for computation than the qubit efficient five-qubit code.” Also, the researchers found that the Five-Qubit Code would be useful only in systems with far lower physical error rates than quantum computers have at this point in time.
Hayes said the team’s next step will be to surpass the breakeven point and provide proof of the work. “We are getting evidence that we're really darn close to that point, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done to actually prove it,” he said. “Just getting right there is not good enough, you have to actually get past it.”
A new classical+quantum connection
Another advance from this experiment is a new classical processor with enhanced capabilities which will be essential to scalable algorithmic decoders. The data from the classical functions were used to dictate the control flow and operations executed in the quantum program.
The decoders used in these experiments were partially written in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly (Wasm). The choice of Wasm provides an efficient, safe, and portable classical language to have functions that are callable from quantum programs.
The decoder implemented in Rust uses many high-level program constructs. The support for these features means that various scalable algorithmic decoders can be ergonomically implemented in various high-level languages that compile to Wasm (such as Rust, C, and C++) and called from quantum programs.
“It was pretty enabling for this particular experiment, and it'll be even more important for future experiments as these things get more and more complicated,” Hayes said.
Another advantage of the trapped ion architecture is the ability to do real-time decision making during the execution of the quantum circuit thanks to long coherence times and the ability to do mid-circuit measurement and reset qubits as needed.
“Our systems have very long coherence times which is super advantageous when integrating in the classical compute real-time decision making,” Hayes said.
The Honeywell Trademark is used under license from Honeywell International Inc. Honeywell International Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to this product. This product is produced by Quantinuum.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents.
With the industry's most advanced quantum systems and proven ability to scale, Quantinuum is on track to deliver utility-scale quantum computing by early 2030s
November 6, 2025 – Broomfield, CO – Quantinuum, the world leader in quantum computing, has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a contractor to advance to Stage B of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).
DARPA is using QBI to evaluate the technical likelihood that a utility scale quantum computer will be available no later than 2033. A multi-stage program, Stage B follows a six-month Stage A effort in which Quantinuum developed and delivered a detailed concept design for a utility scale system called “Lumos.”
Last year, Quantinuum released its public roadmap through the end of the decade with Apollo—a universal, fully fault-tolerant quantum computer—scheduled for launch in 2029. Lumos is a new addition to the roadmap as Quantinuum outlines plans to develop increasingly larger systems into the 2030s.
“This selection recognizes the strength and maturity of our roadmap and the work our teams have already delivered,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. “Lumos extends our roadmap into the next decade and gives DARPA a concrete, de-risked path for achieving utility-scale quantum computing by 2033. We look forward to partnering with DARPA and our ecosystem partners to advance this important national objective.”
Stage B will be a year-long, performance-based evaluation by DARPA’s Test and Evaluation team in which Quantinuum will develop a detailed R&D roadmap for Lumos to validate technical assumptions, verification methods, and scaling plans to meet the 2033 objective.
Yesterday, Quantinuum deployed its latest generation system, “Helios,” on schedule with its roadmap. With the highest fidelity physical qubits and logical qubits of any commercial system, and a next-generation software stack featuring a modern, high-level programming language, Helios is designed to accelerate quantum computing adoption. The system has already been used to simulate high-temperature superconductivity and magnetism at unprecedented scales—two applications with relevance to critical, industrial utility.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 630 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution.
For more information, please visit www.quantinuum.com
New collaboration to position Singapore as a leading global hub for quantum computing
Quantinuum to bring state-of-the-art Helios quantum computer to Singapore in 2026 and establish R&D and Operations Centre to advance talent development and commercial innovation
Singapore, November 6th, 2025 – Singapore’s National Quantum Office (NQO), a national platform hosted by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and Quantinuum, the world’s leading quantum computing company, today announced a strategic partnership to accelerate quantum computing in Singapore.
The partnership marks a key milestone under Singapore’s National Quantum Strategy, led by NQO, and will advance quantum hardware, software and talent development through Singapore’s National Quantum Computing Hub (NQCH). The NQCH and Quantinuum will work together to strengthen Singapore’s position as a top global quantum computing hub, accelerate innovation with industry users across pharmaceuticals, materials science and finance, and nurture world-class talent.
Singapore to Become First Country Outside of the United States to Host the World-Class Quantinuum Helios System
The installation of the Helios system in Singapore, expected to be completed in 2026, will give researchers direct access to Quantinuum’s Helios computing capabilities, supporting deeper research collaboration and innovation. Effective immediately, researchers will gain cloud access to Helios that enables key research and capability building.
As a full-stack offering, Helios is one of the most advanced commercial quantum computers today. The Helios platform unites a fully connected physical and logical qubit architecture with industry-leading fidelity and a next-generation software stack featuring a modern, high-level programming language, Helios is designed to accelerate quantum computing adoption.
Deepening Collaboration through Quantinuum’s R&D and Operations Centre in Singapore
Quantinuum will establish a new R&D and Operations Centre in Singapore to collaborate with Singapore’s research and innovation ecosystem. The Centre will serve to unify Quantinuum staff and local researchers and industry partners in co-developing end-to-end middleware and applications that bridge classical and quantum systems. Through these efforts, the Centre aims to accelerate the translation of quantum technologies into commercially relevant solutions, while building long-term R&D capabilities in quantum computing and its applications.
Strengthening Singapore’s Quantum Ecosystem through Industry Collaboration and Talent
The partnership will foster a thriving quantum ecosystem in Singapore through industry programs and talent development. These include internships and co-organized workshops and conferences to accelerate skills transfer and build a strong pipeline of quantum specialists.
Quantinuum will collaborate with industry end-users in Singapore to co-develop advanced quantum computing applications that address real-world challenges. Initial programs under the strategic partnership will target areas such as:
- Computational biology, bioinformatics, and drug discovery
- Financial modeling and optimization
- Advanced materials and chemistry
- Combinatorial optimization
Collectively, the initiatives aim to nurture a community of researchers, engineers and developers equipped to advance quantum computing and strengthen collaboration across Singapore’s research and industry ecosystem.
A Strategic Journey of Collaboration between Singapore and Quantinuum
- Mr. Ling Keok Tong, Executive Director of the National Quantum Office: “This partnership marks an important step in building Singapore as a leading quantum computing hub. Through the National Quantum Computing Hub, we are advancing quantum-enabled applications in sectors such as healthcare, materials science, and finance. Working with Quantinuum will accelerate this progress, deepen local capabilities, and position Singapore as a leading quantum computing hub in the region, driving real-world outcomes.”
- Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President & CEO of Quantinuum: “Singapore has demonstrated remarkable foresight in recognizing the transformative power of quantum computing in this next phase of technological progress. Quantinuum is proud to work in partnership with Singapore to advance the frontiers of quantum computing, providing direct access to the most powerful computational capabilities ever developed. Together, we’re strengthening a hub that will accelerate the commercialization of quantum computing, enabling industries to rapidly turn breakthrough technology into real-world solutions.”
- Mrs. Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information, and Minister-in-Charge of Cybersecurity & Smart Nation Group: “Singapore continues to invest significantly in quantum to strengthen our digital growth and security. We do this by collaborating with global partners on frontier tech, developing, and attracting world-class talents, and uplifting our local workforce and enterprises. Together, we hope to shape a more prosperous and safe future for Singapore and the world – where technology serves the public good.”
This strategic partnership builds on Quantinuum’s ongoing collaboration with Singapore’s quantum ecosystem, following two earlier agreements inked in 2024. These collaborations, which also involved the A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute (A*STAR BII) and Duke-NUS Medical School, laid the groundwork for this next phase of collaboration.
For media queries and clarifications, please contact:
Quah Sheryl
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Corporate Communications
Mobile: +65 9113 7937
Email: Sheryl_Quah@a-star.edu.sg
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 630 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution. For more information, please visit www.quantinuum.com
Quantinuum Helios, Powered by Honeywell, reflects that the Helios ion trap was manufactured by Honeywell. The Honeywell trademark is used under license from Honeywell International, Inc. Honeywell makes no representations or warranties with respect to this service.
About the National Quantum Office
The National Quantum Office (NQO) was established with the support of the National Research Foundation (NRF) to drive the development and implementation of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) strategy for Quantum in Singapore. The Office was set up in April 2022 and is hosted by A*STAR, the Implementing Agency for Quantum. NQO, as a control tower, supports fundamental and translational research in Quantum through various strategic programmes that it oversees. It partners both public and private sectors to create a vibrant RIE quantum ecosystem in Singapore. For more information, visit https://nqo.sg.
About the National Quantum Computing Hub
The National Quantum Computing Hub (NQCH) is Singapore’s national initiative for advancing quantum software and applications. The hub is building foundational capabilities, providing access to quantum computers, and driving public-private partnerships.
NQCH pursues practical quantum advantage across high-impact fields, including quantum chemistry, computational biology, finance and optimisation. The Hub also runs a programme to develop talent for the emerging quantum industry.
NQCH is a joint effort by Singapore’s Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing (A*STAR IHPC), and the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore.
For more information, visit: nqch.sg
Helios launches with customers Amgen, BMW Group, JPMorganChase, and SoftBank Corp.
New York City, November 5, 2025 – Quantinuum, the world leader in quantum computing, today announced the launch of Helios, the world’s most accurate general-purpose commercial quantum computer, designed to accelerate quantum computing adoption by enterprises. With the highest fidelity† of any commercial system and a first-of-its-kind real-time control engine, Helios enables developers to program a quantum computer in much the same way they program heterogeneous classical computers. A new, modern Python-based programming language called Guppy allows developers to seamlessly combine hybrid compute capabilities — quantum and classical — in a single program. Helios is now available to customers through Quantinuum’s cloud service and on-premise offering.
“The next computing inflection point starts today,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President & CEO of Quantinuum. “For the first time enterprises can access a highly accurate general purpose quantum computer to drive real world impact, transforming how industries innovate – from drug discovery to finance to advanced materials.”
Helios unlocks the ability to enhance GenAI models with quantum generated data, thereby unlocking AI’s full potential in areas such as data analysis, material design, and quantum chemistry. To accelerate GenQAI, Quantinuum is expanding its partnership with NVIDIA, integrating NVIDIA GB200 with Helios via NVIDIA NVQLink to create applications for targeted end markets. In addition, Quantinuum will switch to NVIDIA accelerated computing for Helios and future systems, using Quantinuum Guppy alongside the NVIDIA CUDA-Q platform to perform real-time error correction critical to its roadmap.
Quantinuum announced a growing community of early users and collaborators, including leaders in life sciences, materials, and energy sectors:
- Amgen: an investor and research collaborator, exploring hybrid quantum-machine learning to advance data-driven discovery in biologics.
- BlueQubit: AI image recognition using real-world driving video data.
- BMW Group: advancing sustainable mobility through materials research on fuel cell catalysts.
- JPMorganChase: researching potential capabilities for advanced financial analytics.
- SoftBank Corp.: exploring organic materials for next-gen batteries, optical switches, and solar cells.
Today, Quantinuum also signed a strategic partnership agreement with Singapore’s National Quantum Office (NQO) and National Quantum Computing Hub (NQCH) that includes access to Helios in country to accelerate commercial applications of quantum computing in the areas of computational biology and bioinformatics, financial modeling and optimization, advanced materials and chemistry, and combinatorial optimization. To support this strategic partnership, Quantinuum is establishing a world-class R&D and Operations Centre in Singapore.
Finally, as part of its strategy to expand the commercial reach of quantum computing, Quantinuum is introducing two new ecosystem programs. Q-Net, a new user group, will serve as a forum for customer feedback and collaboration, while a new startup partner program will invite developers to build and scale third party applications on Helios.
A blog post with more details on Helios can be read here. Visual assets and scientific papers can be downloaded here.
† Fidelity: In quantum computing, fidelity is a metric that determines the accuracy of system’s computation. The lower a system’s error rate, the higher its fidelity. Helios has the highest fidelities ever released to the market. Its key performance specifications are outlined below:
- Physical qubits (PQ): 98 PQ at 99.921% 2-qubit gate fidelity, and 99.9975% 1-qubit gate fidelity.
- Logical qubits (LQ):
- 94 LQ (error detected) globally entangled with better than physical performance;
- 50 LQ (error detected) with better than physical performance in a magnetism simulation; and
- 48 LQ (error corrected) with better than physical performance (99.99% state prep and measurement fidelity).
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 630 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution. For more information, please visit www.quantinuum.com.
Quantinuum Helios, Powered by Honeywell, reflects that the Helios ion trap was manufactured by Honeywell. The Honeywell trademark is used under license from Honeywell International, Inc. Honeywell makes no representations or warranties with respect to this service.