IBM Quantum

In 2024-2025, IBM Quantum unveiled its 156-qubit Heron processor featuring a new architectural approach emphasizing modularity and error mitigation, achieving 16 times better performance and a 25-fold increase in speed over 2022 systems. At the inaugural IBM Quantum Developer Conference in 2024, IBM achieved accurate computations on circuits with 100 qubits and gate depths of 100 and 5,000 two-qubit gate operations in under a day's runtime. IBM introduced multi-chip coupling innovations including 'l-couplers' for linking distant chips via cables and 'm-couplers' for tightly connecting adjacent chips, demonstrated with IBM Quantum Flamingo connecting two Heron R2 chips, with the production-ready Flamingo system expected in 2025. IBM's roadmap extends to 2026 with the Kookaburra system demonstrating the first integration of logical qubit processing with quantum memory, and by 2028, the Starling system will operate 200 logical qubits requiring approximately 10,000 physical qubits using IBM's efficient LDPC codes.

November 2025: IBM announced the 120-qubit Nighthawk processor with 218 next-generation tunable couplers, enabling 30% more circuit complexity while maintaining low error rates. IBM achieved 10x speedup in quantum error correction decoding over leading approaches, completed one year ahead of schedule. IBM-Cisco partnership announced (November 20, 2025) to build networked distributed quantum computing infrastructure with first proof-of-concept targeted by end of 2030. IBM claims their LDPC codes approach requires 90% fewer qubits than Google's surface code method. IBM Quantum Loon experimental processor demonstrated all key fault-tolerant computing components for the first time.