The Sudden Surge of Quantum Computing
Quantum computing has been making strides these last months.
It started with Google’s Willow in December 2024, maybe the first-ever scalable quantum chip. It then followed with the news of the first distributed quantum computing across an optical network link, opening the way to quantum computers being networked like normal ones in dedicated servers.
Then it was Microsoft’s turn, with its Majorana 1 chip using an entirely new state of matter, topoconductors.
It also became clear that the way was opening for networking together multiple quantum computers.
With, at the same time, more powerful and reliable chips, and more interconnection, it is clear that the computing capacity of quantum systems is going to explode very soon.
The Next Phase Of Quantum Computing
As the hardware issues are getting solved, the quantum computing sector is going to pass through similar stages as classical computing went. This means that we are exiting the era of experimental devices and ultra-specialized, custom-made systems like the 1940s and 1950s and entering the commercialization stage.
This would be characterized at once by:
- An era of operational mainframes being built, with massive computers mostly used for research, defense, or business purposes.
- New applications for these new devices are discovered almost daily.
- The development of programming languages, operating systems, and other tools to better leverage the calculation power of the quantum mainframe.
A solid step in that direction has been taken by researchers at the Delft University of Technology (Netherland), Universität Innsbruck (Austria), Sorbonne Université (France), Ecole Normale Supérieure (France), with the creation of a quantum operating system (OS)1.
This work was published in the prestigious review Nature, under the title “An operating system for executing applications on quantum network nodes”.
This project was created under the Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA), a European initiative looking to create a prototype quantum internet network.
Making Quantum Computing Accessible
The very first computers were programmed by electronic specialists, who understood the complex ins and outs of vacuum tubes and the hardware of the first mainframe computers.
This changed, with programming progressively becoming an independent field, with programmers not having to understand how the computer works to make it perform calculations.
Considering how complex quantum computing systems are, up to the point of inventing an entirely new state of matter in the case of Majorana 1, it is reasonable to expect that programmers will need a similar set of tools to handle programming quantum computers.
This is especially true as most applications of quantum computing are in very complex sciences like biology, physics, material sciences, chemistry, cryptography, etc. So it is unreasonable to expect scientists already having to stay at the top of their domain to also become quantum hardware experts.
“The system is like the software on your computer at home: you don’t need to know how the hardware works to use it.
By essentially removing the barrier between networking hardware and software, the operating system will allow developers to create applications with ease and across a large spectrum of hardware solutions.
Mariagrazia Iuliano, PhD student at QuTech.
Ignoring Hardware
The interconnection of quantum computers has so far been at the hardware level, achieving particle entanglement through a network of optical fiber and quantum teleportation.
To be really useful, a quantum network will need a hardware-agnostic level of networking, more similar to how computers currently interact with each other with message transfers.
Source: Nature
So the researchers created QNodeOS, an operating system dedicated to “talking” to the quantum hardware and making it possible to program and interact through normal networking methods.
“The goal of our research is to bring quantum network technology to all. With QNodeOS we’re taking a big step forward. We’re making it possible – for the first time – to program and execute applications on a quantum network easily.
Our work also creates a framework opening entirely new areas of quantum computer science research.”
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Wehner – Professor of Quantum Computer Science at TU Delft’s
The reason for ignoring what hardware is used is also that a true quantum Internet will likely include many unrelated technologies, the same way that the current Internet has interaction between PCs, Macs, smartphones, servers, etc.
Only by creating an intermediary layer of abstraction, working with all quantum hardware, can some level of uniformity and interactions can durably be achieved.
The researchers tested their methods by connecting two quantum network nodes based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. They then added an extra driver for QNodeOS for a trapped-ion quantum network node based on a single 40Ca+ atom.
“Our trapped ion processors work fundamentally differently than those based on color centers in diamond, yet we have shown QNodeOS can work with both of them.”
Tracy Northup – Professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Building A Quantum OS
Scheduling Quantum calculation
A major issue for any interaction between classical and quantum computing in a network is the difference in time scales.
Networks will have ping in milliseconds; meanwhile, quantum computers have processing time in microseconds (one thousand times shorter) and require nanoseconds precision for controls of the quantum calculation (one million times shorter).
The same time frame issue is true for memory retention, as most quantum systems lose their quantum properties a lot quicker than classical computers.
For this reason, a quantum OS needs to schedule very precisely when the quantum computers will trigger entanglement in each node of the network.
Ultimately, this means that the execution of local quantum operations will depend on the network schedule.
While the concept is relatively simple, its implementation in practical terms is all but easy.
Source: Nature
Multitasking Quantum Calculation
Because an individual quantum chip will have to stay idle most of the time, waiting for the network ping to synchronize with other quantum nodes, the best use of the hardware is to get it to work on multiple tasks in parallel.
If not, the extra computing power from networking will be compensated by a very low usage rate of the expensive hardware.
So, a functional quantum OS needs to be able to not only schedule one set of calculations but handle many programs in parallel, including processes, quantum memory management, and entanglement requests.
Source: Nature
Future Applications
By providing a common software layer compatible with different quantum computing hardware, QNodeOS is an important first step in the expansion of quantum computing from labs to practical applications.
Together with SDK (software development kit) from quantum computing firms, this will likely be the basis of the first developer-friendly quantum apps. This in turn should help generalize the utilization of quantum computing beyond a narrow group of specialists, to all analysts and researchers interested in leveraging this very special form of computing into their work.
Investing in Quantum Computing
IonQ
IonQ is a quantum computing company that uses trapped-ion technology, founded by pioneering scientists in the field from the University of Maryland and Duke University. It was publicly listed on the NYSE in 2021.
IonQ quantum computing platforms are able to produce a 99.9% fidelity result. It currently uses a 64-barium ion chain, producing a 36-algorithmic qubit (AQ).
The chain organization allows for much quicker computing than other trapped-ion designs without losing fidelity. This comes on top of trapped-ion being by far the most reliable design of quantum computers.
Source: IonQ
IonQ acquired Qubitekk in January 2025, adding to its operations the company’s team and 118 patents to IonQ. Qubitekk’s specialty is in quantum networks, using photonic interconnects, enabling quantum clusters, and advancing quantum internet capabilities.
Quantum networks should facilitate highly secured communications and ultimately allow for distributed quantum computing. Considering how quickly the field is moving, expertise and IPs on this topic might prove crucial for IonQ’s future.
IonQ is developing a partnership with NKT Photonics (NKT.CO) to help develop future data center-ready quantum computers.
It is also collaborating with Imec on photonic integrated circuits and chip-scale ion trap technology to scale up the company’s qubit count and system size and costs.
Instead of developing its own SDK (Software Development Kit), the company is supporting all the major ones at once, and partnering with many leading companies for developing new quantum computing applications.
Source: IonQ
IonQ is the closest to a pure quantum computing stock for investors who are uninterested in the main activities of other leaders like Google, Intel, IBM, or Honeywell.
So together with its competitor Quantinuum, part of Honeywell (HON -0.51%), IonQ is closer to developing commercial quantum computers, with its focus on high fidelity, lower qubit count trapped-ion systems.
Its early success has helped it build a strong network of partnerships with other quantum computing innovators to keep pushing this technology forward, with a recent re-focus on networked quantum computers, something that should be encouraged further by the emergence of tools like QNodeOS
Latest on IonQ
Study Reference:
1. Delle Donne, C., Iuliano, M., van der Vecht, B. et al. An operating system for executing applications on quantum network nodes. Nature 639, 321–328 (2025).