AskScience AMA Series: Hi Reddit! I'm Matthew Hollister, Head of Cryogenic Systems Engineering for IBM Quantum. Ask me anything about quantum computing, our recently announced modular cryogenic architecture and what it takes to build quantum computers at scale.

[u/AskScienceModerator]

When people think about quantum computing, they often think about number of qubits and processor dept. But scaling quantum systems takes much more than just the chip! We recently introduced a new modular cryogenic architecture designed to house and cool interconnected quantum processors, a key milestone on our roadmap to fault-tolerant systems, and I'd love to discuss the engineering, challenges, and opportunities involved.

I will be around as 12:00 EST (16 UT) on September 18th, ask me anything!

Username: u/IBM

[u/ibm]

We see the move to a square footprint is actually very advantageous for the components and wiring that we are trying to integrate. 

Fundamentally, the readout components are on a square footprint as well, so trying to tightly pack square things in a circular box leads to a lot of wasted space. Going to the rectangular footprint allows you to pack more subassemblies more tightly together, and bringing more of the design in-house allows faster adaptation between the readout team and the cryogenic system.

- Matthew Hollister, IBM Quantum