Breakeven Is Where the Race Starts
IonQ ran nine error-correcting codes on one chain of forty barium ions, and reports breakeven on some of them: an encoded qubit that lasts about as long as the physical qubits underneath it. The machine measures itself mid-computation without moving a single ion or keeping ions just for cooling. The bill arrives as measurement error, leakage and discarded runs, and the larger codes did not do better.
Trapped ions
September 12, 2026
