Moving the Needle on Scale

Abstract

The IBM Eagle Quantum ProcessorOne of our chief research thrusts at IBM Quantum is to improve the quality of our quantum processors. Advancing the state of the art as quickly as possible requires pursuing in parallel improvements in the scale (number of qubits), quality (coherence, gate fidelities, and quantum volume), and speed (circuit level operations per second, or CLOPS) of our devices. Our users now have access to our next step in scale, the first 127 qubit “Eagle” device IBM Washington. Integrating new technologies including superconducting vias and multi-layer wiring, this device has performance and uniformity markedly different from our previous generations of processor: in some cases better, in some cases we still have some work to do. I will discuss some of the challenges in reliably characterizing devices of this scale and compare quantitatively this generation of devices to our more conventional Falcon devices. Finally, I will put this device in the larger context of the roadmap of devices and technologies we are researching in IBM Quantum.