IBM announced the launch of Nighthawk r3, its next-generation quantum processor. It supports executing 10,000 quantum operations on 520 qubits, enabling larger and more complex computational tasks and advancing IBM's quantum processor development roadmap. IBM plans to connect two Nighthawk r3 units next year to create a system with over 1,000 qubits, further raising the performance ceiling.
IBM launched Nighthawk r2 in September this year, supporting 7,500 quantum operations on 120 qubits. Its high-speed qubit reset technology significantly reduces the interval between circuit executions, allowing applications to more efficiently collect the millions or even billions of samples required for complex computations. IBM customers and partners, including E.ON, Algorithmiq, and Q-CTRL, have executed over 34 billion circuits on Nighthawk r2, reporting speed improvements of up to 19 times compared to IBM's previous quantum processors.
Subsequently, IBM expanded an experiment using Algorithmiq to simulate heterogeneous quantum materials to the Nighthawk r2, achieving circuit execution speeds eight times faster than the original experiment.
Nighthawk r3 expands the high-speed architecture of Nighthawk r2 to larger quantum computers, capable of handling a total of 2,034 physical qubits. While retaining the square lattice connectivity and fast operation capabilities of Nighthawk r2, it introduces ten inter-chip interconnects (known as L-shaped couplers) to link processors into larger systems.
Additionally, IBM validated two key technologies this year that make modular quantum computing possible, boosting confidence in scaling Nighthawk to larger quantum computers.
IBM connected four Nighthawk r1 units using L-shaped couplers, achieving a quantum state transfer fidelity of 99.3% and moving toward the 99.9% target. IBM also integrated two cryogenic modules into a single system for the first time, reaching operating temperature in under five days and cooling to below 15 millikelvin.
IBM recently partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and AMD to launch a new quantum error correction co-design platform, integrating Nighthawk with ORNL's Umbra high-performance computing (HPC) system, powered by AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs and 5th Gen EPYC CPUs.
