98-qubit quantum computer’s record results published in Nature

Quantinuum ↘ 1.11% and Sandia National Laboratories have published peer-reviewed results in Nature demonstrating that Helios, a 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer, operates well beyond the reach of classical simulation while maintaining the highest gate fidelities of any commercial quantum system.nature+1

Record-Setting Accuracy at Scale

The paper, published on June 17, reports single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9975% and two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.921% averaged across all operational zones in the system — figures that surpass competing superconducting platforms from Google Alphabet Inc. ↘ 1.23% and IBM International Business Machines Corporation ↘ 1.84%. The system uses barium-137 hyperfine qubits and achieves state preparation and measurement infidelity of just 4.8 × 10⁻⁴.arxiv+1

"You would need to harvest every sun in the universe to power a classical machine that could reproduce what we did on Helios," said a Quantinuum researcher, referencing the system's performance in random circuit sampling benchmarks that establish "a new frontier of fidelity and complexity for quantum computers."linkedin+1

Architecture and Connectivity

Helios is built on a Quantum Charge-Coupled Device (QCCD) architecture featuring a "tuning fork" ion trap design with a rotatable ion storage ring connecting two quantum operation regions via a junction. This enables all-to-all qubit connectivity — meaning any two qubits in the system can interact directly — a property that distinguishes trapped-ion systems from the fixed-grid topology of superconducting processors.Nature+3

The system also encodes up to 48 fully error-corrected logical qubits at a 2:1 physical-to-logical ratio, and up to 94 error-detected logical qubits with performance exceeding that of raw physical qubits.Quantum Computing Report+1

Validation and Implications

Sandia National Laboratories independently validated Helios's performance through rigorous benchmarking, a partnership that supports the U.S. Department of Energy's goal of achieving fault-tolerant quantum computing. Separate work using Europe's JUPITER exascale supercomputer confirmed that Helios maintains coherent performance up to 93 qubits and over 12,000 two-qubit gates before outputs become indistinguishable from noise.hpcwire+2

The results position Helios as the first 100-qubit-scale trapped-ion system to demonstrate that the technology can match superconducting circuits in qubit count while maintaining lower error rates — a milestone in the competition between quantum hardware platforms.Quantum Zeitgeist+1