Fast Facts
IBM linked two 120-qubit chips using four superconducting long-distance couplers.
The 80-centimeter connections transferred quantum states with average 99-percent accuracy.
Couplers transmitted entanglement, lost little energy, and survived repeated cryogenic cycles.
Magnetic interference and efficiency improvements remain before scalable, fault-tolerant systems become practical.
IBM Reports 99% Accuracy in Quantum Information Transfer Between Chips
A modular path to larger quantum computers
IBM researchers have connected two 120-qubit chips with four superconducting aluminum links, each about 80 centimeters long. The links, called L-couplers, transferred quantum information with 99% average accuracy and a peak of 99.29%.
The result addresses a practical challenge: building larger quantum computers by connecting chips, rather than adding ever more qubits to a single processor. Qubits can hold quantum states that classical bits cannot, but those states are fragile. Moving them between modules without losing information is essential to a modular design.
The team also reported low energy loss, operation through three warming and cooling cycles, and the ability to transmit entanglement between chips. Together, those tests suggest the links could become useful components in larger systems.
Promising results, with engineering still ahead
The demonstration is an important step, not a finished solution. Researchers observed magnetic interference that reduced signal quality, and the links need further efficiency improvements before practical deployment. The findings are also posted as a preprint and have not yet been peer-reviewed.
IBM plans to use modular, cryogenic systems to connect hundreds of chips. The company says this work could support its goal of building a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029. Reaching that milestone will require progress beyond chip-to-chip connections, including better error correction, hardware and software.
For now, the experiment offers evidence that multiple long-distance links can operate between large quantum processors. Whether they can do so reliably at much greater scale remains an open question.
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