Quantinuum Launches Helios: A Scalable Quantum Computer with Enhanced Error Correction

Quantinuum has unveiled Helios, its third-generation quantum computer, designed to advance scalability in quantum computing. The system introduces enhanced error correction and expanded capabilities, leveraging barium ion qubits for improved performance.

While Helios is not yet capable of running complex algorithms for applications like materials discovery or financial modeling, its design offers potential scalability advantages over superconducting qubit systems used by competitors like Google and IBM.

Key Features of Helios

Helios is housed in Quantinuum’s Colorado facility and features a complex arrangement of mirrors, lasers, and optical fibers. At its core is a chip containing 98 barium ions, which serve as qubits. These ions represent an upgrade from the 56 ytterbium qubits used in its predecessor, H2, due to their improved controllability.

The system operates within a chamber cooled to approximately 15 Kelvin, accessible remotely via the cloud. Helios encodes information using the quantum states of the ions, leveraging superposition to enable computations beyond classical capabilities.

Error Correction and Scalability

Quantum computing research faces significant challenges, particularly in implementing effective error correction. Helios addresses this by using two physical qubits to create one logical qubit, reducing the number of physical qubits required compared to superconducting systems.

For example, Google used 105 physical qubits to create a logical qubit in 2024, while IBM used 12 physical qubits per logical qubit this year. Amazon Web Services achieved a single logical qubit with nine physical qubits.

Technical Advancements

Rajibul Islam, a physicist at the University of Waterloo, highlights the precision of Helios’ qubits, noting their low error rates. Quantinuum demonstrated a 99.921% success rate in entanglement operations between qubit pairs. This advantage stems from the "all-to-all connectivity" design, allowing ions to interact efficiently for error correction.

Quantinuum has also showcased "on the fly" error correction on Helios, using Nvidia GPUs to identify errors in parallel. The company has simulated electron behavior in high-temperature superconductors using its quantum computers.

Future Plans

Quantinuum plans to build another version of Helios in Minnesota and is developing a fourth-generation computer, Sol, slated for delivery in 2027 with 192 physical qubits. The company aims to release Apollo in 2029, targeting thousands of physical qubits and full fault tolerance.

This roadmap reflects Quantinuum’s commitment to advancing quantum computing technology and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the field.