IBM Achieves a New Quantum Volume Level of 128

In the race between IBM and others to see who can quote the highest Quantum Volume number, IBM just disclosed that they have now reached a Quantum Volume level of 128 on their IBM Q Montreal quantum computer. This now matches the Quantum Volume of 128 that Honeywell announced at the end of September. It was only last August when IBM announced they had upgraded this same Montreal device to reach a Quantum Volume level of 64 from the previous 32 solely through improved software and qubit controls. Apparently, IBM has continued to improve the software and qubit controls to reach this new level without any major changes in the hardware. Although the Montreal computer has a total of 27 qubits available, reaching a Quantum Volume metric of 128 requires a circuit that uses 7 qubits with a circuit depth of 7. Additional information about this can be found in a Tweet from Jay Gambetta which can be seen here.

December 3, 2020