Honeywell announced the second generation of his quantum computer: the Hon eywell System Model H1 , an evolution of the previous System Model H0 based on the principle of ion traps and able to achieve a quantum volume of 128 , double that offered by the previous model. The company also announced that it has partnered with various companies to harness the computing power of its quantum computers.

Honeywell System Model H1 reaches a quantum volume of 128

Like IonQ, Honeywell is betting on building computers using ion traps , particular devices capable of “trapping” single atoms in order to then manipulate them. The quantum processor used for the System Model H1 is the same as the System Model H0, but uses a greater number of qubits.

The company has reached the new milestone by improving the performance of the previous processor: to do so it has increased the qubits while maintaining the same level of fidelity (i.e. maintaining the state of the qubits and, consequently, reducing errors in the calculations), thus managing to obtain a particularly efficient processor. If IBM has announced a quantum volume of 64 with 27 qubit, Honeywell reaches instead a quantum volume of 128 with just 10 qubit .

A larger quantum volume indicates the computer’s ability to solve more complex circuits, i.e. larger problems (with a greater number of variables, for example). Obtaining an ever larger quantum volume therefore allows us to solve problems with a real impact; for example, in the future quantum computers will be able to run simulations of chemical compounds that are complex enough to lead to new medicines.

The new quantum computer is available both directly through Honeywell and through its partners offering cloud computing services, such as Microsoft Azure, Cambridge Quantum Computing and Zapata Computing.

“Honeywell has pledged to accelerate and steer the development of quantum computing and bring its power to its customers. This milestone represents our hallmarks of more qubits, high fidelity logical operations, connectivity between all qubits, and long coherence times “, says Honeywell Quantum Solutions President Tony Uttley . “As we continue to improve our system, these factors will increasingly allow our customers to run more complex algorithms.”

Honeywell’s plan for future developments allows us to take a look at how the The company plans to evolve its quantum computer. From the current linear processor it will move to a circuit one, and then move on to increasingly complex grids that will also make use of photonic devices. The current linear model should be ported up to 40 qubit , dun that we can expect that later technologies will offer more.

The number of qubits alone is not however indicative of greater computing power: it will all be in Honeywell’s capacity to maintain the same level of fidelity as current processors to bring a real evolution to the sector.