IBM Plans 1,040-Qubit Quantum System by Linking Two Chips in 2027

IBM plans to offer access to a dual-processor quantum system in 2027 by linking two Nighthawk r3 processors, each with 520 programmable qubits, to create a 1,040-qubit machine.

Roadmap changes

The company previously planned to link nine 120-qubit Nighthawk chips to reach a system of about 1,080 qubits. It is now reducing that to two chips. The total qubit count remains close to the earlier target, at 1,040 qubits.

The Nighthawk r3 processor is designed to run 10,000 quantum operations on 520 usable qubits. It has 10 connectors for joining chips together.

Current generation performance

The current chip, Nighthawk r2, launched in September 2026. It can produce up to 100,000 results per second on 120 qubits. IBM says customers and partners have run 34 billion programs on it, with speedups of up to 19x over its older Heron chips.

German energy firm E.ON reported a 15x speedup on work to optimise power grids.

The main performance boost in r2 comes from hardware-based qubit resets. "This is an extra physical qubit that we include on the chip for each programmable qubit that lets us quickly remove the energy from one of our programmable qubits, returning it to the ground state," Oliver Dial, a VP of Quantum Systems, said. "That capability lets our users run circuits on this chip faster than was ever before possible."

IBM is reporting up to a 19-fold acceleration of some operations.

Scaling and error correction

IBM has linked earlier Nighthawk chips at 99.3% accuracy, short of its 99.9% goal. Dial said that IBM has had success "showing four L-couplers joining two Nighthawk R1 processors in the same refrigerator, reaching state transfer fidelities of up to 99.4 percent, very close to our long-term target of 99.9 percent."

Jerry Chow, IBM’s CTO of Quantum-Centric Supercomputing, said that the speed of these connections is comparable to the qubit interconnections on the chip itself.

IBM still aims to deliver its first error-corrected quantum computer, Starling, by 2029.

Why it matters

• IBM is adjusting its quantum hardware roadmap to link two 520-qubit chips in 2027 instead of nine smaller chips.
• The planned 1,040-qubit system would be about double the size of the largest quantum processor IBM has offered to date.
• The company is targeting an error-corrected quantum computer, Starling, by 2029.

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Sources

• arstechnica.com: IBM to offer access to a dual-processor quantum system in 2027 - Ars Technica
• newscord.org: IBM Unveils Quantum Nighthawk r3 With 520 Qubits, Plans 1,040-Qubit System in 2027: 8 outlets compared | NewsCord
• thenextweb.com: IBM plans to link two quantum chips into a 1,040-qubit system in 2027
• beinsure.com: IBM unveils Quantum Nighthawk r3 with 520 qubits, targets 1,040-qubit system in 2027

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.