ETH Zurich demonstrates 17,000 qubit array with 99.91% fidelity

4/10/2026 at 8:57:57 AM

I find the editorialized title misleading. They trapped 17000 atom pairs in an optical lattice and demonstrated a high-fidelity quantum gate between the atoms of each pair in parallel. There is no interaction between the atoms of different pairs and no individual control. The experiment demonstrates a very robust gate scheme, but is a long way from a programmable computer.

by fsh

4/10/2026 at 9:46:41 AM

With the hype QC these days, I find it hard to separate hype from real progress.

by baxtr

4/10/2026 at 10:55:22 AM

Reminds me the state of nuclear fusion.

by trollbridge

4/10/2026 at 10:57:41 AM

Just a decade away now.

by blitzar

4/10/2026 at 11:06:23 AM

Nah, it's a decade away from *now*.

by ashirviskas

4/10/2026 at 11:14:35 AM

nahhh, definately from *now* though - 100% this time

by blitzar

4/10/2026 at 11:05:45 AM

So just like AI?

by mrroper

4/10/2026 at 10:04:59 AM

ETHZ news page is always overhyped. There is good research coming from there but their marketing is never worth reading.

by progbits

4/10/2026 at 10:21:31 AM

What is overhyped about: "A new trick brings stability to quantum operations". Are people complaining about the HN title as if it's the article's title?

by vasco

4/10/2026 at 10:00:06 AM

its still more than my nephew managed to achieve this morning

by ionwake

4/10/2026 at 10:19:49 AM

I have questions. Is he attempting to build a quantum gate array? Seems kind of unfair to compare one person's efforts with a well-established university, if so. :P

by TheEaterOfSouls

4/10/2026 at 10:02:17 AM

Judging by the other comments on here, they learned to title their articles from OpenAI and Anthropic.

by nottorp

4/10/2026 at 10:51:02 AM

“Demonstrates“ vs. “can be applied to 17,000 qubits simultaneously.“ - too completely different things, you know ...

by ForgotMyUUID

4/10/2026 at 7:23:34 AM

Non-paywalled research paper:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.22112

by adrian_b

4/10/2026 at 4:04:57 AM

Seems like we are moving from theory to pactice faster than expected.

by joko42

4/10/2026 at 9:13:07 AM

This is not a 17000 qubit general computer. Read the paper.

by SideQuark

4/10/2026 at 7:25:15 AM

> “We can now make lots of swap gates with neutral atoms”, says Tilman Esslinger, “but of course we still need a few other ingredients to build a working quantum computer.”

by adrian_b

4/10/2026 at 10:06:35 AM

And ... can it run Crysis?

:-D

by KellyCriterion

4/10/2026 at 8:22:20 AM

For real? I wouldn't have thought so many would be possible so soon. Might actually need to look into quantum computing again after 20 years.

by snthpy

4/10/2026 at 9:12:28 AM

They did not make a 17000 qubit computer. The qubits were not controllable or general in any way. The paper is linked, look at it.

This title is misleading.

by SideQuark

4/10/2026 at 8:57:42 AM

It is still orders of magnitude away from breaking RSA 2048 even under the most optimistic assumptions. And qubits double waaay slower than transistors so far.

by sigmoid10

4/10/2026 at 9:29:28 AM

[dead]

by randomtoast