Exploratory systems

As an IBM Quantum Network member, you have access to our R5 Falcon processors with fast sub-500 ns readout and mid-circuit measurements. In addition, we believe in a model of providing exploratory systems to our users as soon as they are available.

In general, exploratory systems have new experimental features that we believe can improve our quantum systems. Keep in mind that new features can be unreliable, and thus we will only make them more broadly available once they are fully qualified. While we are opting to rapidly give you access to exploratory systems, we still maintain a fleet of systems that have been fully validated, and can be a stable backbone for your science and research.

Some of the exploratory systems today include more qubits (Hummingbird R2 with 65, and our largest system, Eagle R1 with 127 qubits), and higher coherence (Falcon R8).

IBM will often make exploratory systems available even before IBM application and research scientists have been able to use them for our own internal exploration, enabling IBM Quantum Network members to be among the first to perform leading-edge science on the most advanced quantum processors in the world.

For more information on the processors in IBM Quantum systems, visit the IBM Quantum processor types topic.