IonQ Reveals a New Reconfigurable Multicore Quantum Architecture (RMQA)

The Reconfigurable Multicore Quantum Architecture (RMQA) will allow IonQ to expand the number of qubits to hundreds per chip without any degradation in the qubit stability and performance as the number of qubits expands. The first demonstration of this consists of a configuration that IonQ calls 4x16 which consists of four chains of qubits with each chain containing 16 ions. The chains are built using an Evaporated Glass Trap (EGT) platform. The chains can be dynamically moved around and neighboring chains combined to create reconfigurable 32 ion chains.

Picture of a 4x16 Configuration. The solid lines represents the chains and the 16 white dots at the top of the blue triangle represent a zoom-in view of the ion configuration within one of the chains. Credit: IonQ

Picture showing the merging of two chains to create a 32 ion quantum computing core. Credit: IonQ

This step of creating a technology that contains multiple chains on a chip will allow IonQ to create chips with hundreds of qubits. In future years, IonQ intends to connect multiple chips together using optical networking technology to create processor systems that will contain thousands or millions of qubits for large quantum computations. Additional information about this technology can be found in a news release from IonQ located here as well as a short video that provides an animation of how it works that you can view here.