IBM Links Its First Modular Quantum Fridges — 180 Times Colder Than Deep Space

IBM cooled and connected its first pair of modular cryogenic systems below 15 millikelvin, a key step toward delivering a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029.

IBM has linked and cooled its first pair of modular cryogenic systems — the "quantum fridges" that keep its processors at temperatures more than 180 times colder than deep space — a milestone the company says keeps it on track to deliver the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer before the end of the decade.

The two modules, each eight feet tall and eight feet wide at IBM’s Poughkeepsie, New York facility, are chilled to below 15 millikelvin, near absolute zero. Each enclosure is roughly 12 times larger than existing systems, with room to connect hundreds of quantum processors — the chips where individual qubits live — using IBM’s L-Coupler interconnect, the same clustering logic that lets racks of GPUs scale up for AI training.

The setup is a stepping stone to IBM Quantum Starling, a system slated to arrive around 2029 that IBM envisions performing roughly 20,000 times more calculations than today’s quantum machines. That would cross the "quantum advantage" threshold — the point where these machines solve real problems classical supercomputers cannot.

Sources: IBM Newsroom | SiliconANGLE | Network World