Quantinuum Announces Quantum Volume 4096 Achievement
Quantinuum has reached another milestone in its quest to build the highest performing quantum computer in the world.
This week, the System Model H1-2 doubled its performance to become the first commercial quantum computer to pass Quantum Volume 4096, a benchmark introduced by IBM in 2019 to measure the overall capability and performance of quantum computers.
It marks the sixth time in two years that Quantinuum’s H-Series hardware, Powered by Honeywell, has set an industry record for measured quantum volume.
The achievement also fulfills a March 2020 promise made by Honeywell Quantum Solutions, which combined with Cambridge Quantum in late 2021 to form Quantinuum, to increase the performance of its trapped ion technologies by an order of magnitude each year for the next five years.
“This is the second consecutive year we’ve delivered on that promise and our commitment to developing the highest performing quantum hardware available,” said Tony Uttley, president and chief operating officer at Quantinuum.
Continuous upgrades
This week marks the second time in four months that the System Model H1-2, which came online late last year, has achieved a quantum volume milestone. It set a record in December 2021 when it passed Quantum Volume 2048.
Uttley attributed the doubling of performance to the consistent upgrades that are made.
Quantinuum currently operates two commercial quantum computers, the H1-1 and H1-2, which run projects for customers and then are taken offline for upgrades.
“This approach provides the opportunity for us to continuously add new updates and features to our systems, which enables us to improve performance,” he said. “We learn a lot about our machines by running projects and can make small upgrades or tweaks that keep our fidelities high.”
The data
The average single-qubit gate fidelity for this milestone was 99.994(3)%, the average two-qubit gate fidelity was 99.81(3)% with fully-connected qubits, and measurement fidelity was 99.72(5)%. The Quantinuum team ran 200 circuits with 100 shots each, using standard QV optimization techniques to yield an average of 152.97 two-qubit gates per circuit.
The System Model H1-2 successfully passed the quantum volume 4096 benchmark, outputting heavy outcomes 69.04% of the time, which is above the 2/3 threshold with greater than 99.99% confidence.
The team used a new method developed by Quantinuum researchers, Dr. Charlie Baldwin and Dr. Karl Mayer, to calculate the confidence interval.
The plot above shows the individual heavy output probability for each circuit in the Quantum Volume 4096 test. The blue line is the cumulative average heavy output probability and the green regions are the cumulative two-sigma confidence interval calculated by the new method. The heavy output probability crosses the 2/3 threshold with two-sigma confidence after 100 circuits.
The plot above shows the growth of measured quantum volume by Quantinuum. For each test, the heavy output probability ‘h’ is listed and the system is identified by the marker type. The dashed grey line shows our target scaling of increasing QV × 10 yearly.
What’s next?
Uttley said the next step is to increase the number of qubits on both Quantinuum machines and to continue to improve gate fidelities.
“The System Model H1-2 used all 12 of its fully connected qubits to pass Quantum Volume 4096,” he said. “We have reached the limit of what we can do with 12 qubits. To continue to improve performance, we need to add qubits. So keep watching what happens soon.”
Kaniah is Chief Legal Counsel and SVP of Government Relations for Quantinuum. In her previous role, she served as General Counsel, Honeywell Quantum Solutions. Prior to Honeywell, she was General Counsel, Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, LLC, and Senior Attorney, U.S. Department of Energy. She was Lead Counsel before the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Kaniah holds a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law and B.A., International Relations and Spanish from the College of William and Mary.
Jeff Miller is Chief Information Officer for Quantinuum. In his previous role, he served as CIO for Honeywell Quantum Solutions and led a cross-functional team responsible for Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Physical Security. For Honeywell, Jeff has held numerous management and executive roles in Information Technology, Security, Integrated Supply Chain and Program Management. Jeff holds a B.S., Computer Science, University of Arizona. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, attaining the rank of Commander.
Matthew Bohne is the Vice President & Chief Product Security Officer for Honeywell Corporation. He is a passionate cybersecurity leader and executive with a proven track record of building and leading cybersecurity organizations securing energy, industrial, buildings, nuclear, pharmaceutical, and consumer sectors. He is a sought-after expert with deep experience in DevSecOps, critical infrastructure, software engineering, secure SDLC, supply chain security, privacy, and risk management.
Todd Moore is the Global Vice President of Data Encryption Products at Thales. He is responsible for setting the business line and go to market strategies for an industry leading cybersecurity business. He routinely helps enterprises build solutions for a wide range of complex data security problems and use cases. Todd holds several management and technical degrees from the University of Virginia, Rochester Institute of Technology, Cornell University and Ithaca College. He is active in his community, loves to travel and spends much of his free time supporting his family in pursuing their various passions.
Retired U.S. Army Major General John Davis is the Vice President, Public Sector for Palo Alto Networks, where he is responsible for expanding cybersecurity initiatives and global policy for the international public sector and assisting governments around the world to prevent successful cyber breaches. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, John served as the Senior Military Advisor for Cyber to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy. Prior to this assignment, he served in multiple leadership positions in special operations, cyber, and information operations.
