In the global race to build bigger and better quantum computers, researchers have taken a step forward. A new machine called Helios is a radically different system compared to other quantum computers.

Quantum computers harness the power of quantum mechanics, the laws that govern how physics operates at atomic and sub-atomic scales. Among various designs for such machines, Helios is a trapped-ion quantum computer, which means it uses charged atoms suspended in free space using electromagnetic fields.

It operates using 98 qubits – the units of information that a quantum computer uses to process data. This number of qubits makes it the largest trapped-ion quantum computer built so far. Quantinuum, the company behind the device, which is based in Cambridge, UK and Broomfield, Colorado, demonstrated earlier machines operating on 32 qubits in 2023 and 56 qubits in 2025.

Helios and its predecessors use an architecture (or operational structure) with separate regions for storing and processing quantum information. The architecture is called a QCCD (quantum charge-coupled device) and was invented in 2002. This is akin to the architecture of classical computers that have a memory for storage (hard disk drives, solid state drives) and a separate processor (CPU, GPU).

The specific geometry of Helios resembles a rosette, with the ring for storage and two streamers for processing. The crucial element is the four-way X junction where they meet. A QCCD physically transports the charged objects (the ions) from the storage to the processing regions electrically.

The processing is done using laser pulses. This requires a quantum algorithm to be broken up into ion transport and quantum processing. This differs substantially from other quantum computing architectures such as superconducting qubits, where the qubits are fixed in space, and processing is executed by electrical signals switched on and off in time.

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