Innovation Signal 64 (2026) | 7 October 2026
Quantum computers are getting better at computing across separate processors
Short note, about 5 minutes to read.
What happened
Making a quantum computer more powerful does not necessarily mean making a single processor larger.
Another possibility is to connect separate quantum processors and allow them to take part in the same computation. Connecting quantum systems is not new. What is changing is the ability to perform computing operations across the physical boundary between them.
Connecting separate quantum systems → transferring quantum information between them → performing computing operations across separate processors
Researchers at the University of Oxford connected two separate quantum processor modules and demonstrated an operation between them (quantum gate). They also used the connected processors to carry out quantum computations.
Separately, researchers at TU Delft and QuTech demonstrated a computing operation between remote quantum registers using a different physical approach. The operation did not depend on discarding unsuccessful attempts afterwards.
Together, these experiments show that physically separate quantum processors can begin to participate in the same computation.
Why this matters
Fitting increasing numbers of qubits, connections and control systems into a single processor becomes more difficult as quantum computers grow.
If computation can instead be distributed across connected processors, future systems could have another way to increase their computing resources without requiring everything to fit inside one ever-larger processor.
Who should care
- Quantum computing companies and researchers
- Quantum hardware and component companies
- Semiconductor and photonics companies
- Cloud and computing infrastructure providers
- Governments funding quantum technology programmes
- Investors tracking emerging computing technologies
What could change over the next 2 to 3 years
The next step will be showing that several processors can participate in the same computation while operations between them remain accurate and reliable.
Watch for demonstrations involving more processors, more demanding computations and longer periods of reliable operation.
What might block this
Connecting quantum processors is difficult. The links between them must transfer quantum information reliably while the individual processors continue to operate accurately.
As more processors are connected, communication delays, errors and control requirements could become more difficult to manage.
The recent experiments therefore do not yet show that large quantum computers can be built simply by connecting many smaller processors.
Why I am sharing this
Most computing systems eventually face physical limits to how much can be concentrated in one place.
Quantum computing is beginning to test whether some of its future scale could come from making separate processors behave more like parts of one computer.
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Archive Tags
Quantum Computing · Distributed Quantum Computing · Quantum Networking · Modular Quantum Computing