Quantinuum is building a software platform, Nexus, to accelerate the development of applications for fault-tolerant quantum computers, the company says. The company reports demonstrating key components for large-scale, error-corrected hardware, but recognizes the need for accessible tools that shield developers from the complexities of quantum error correction.
Nexus connects software development directly to each generation of Quantinuum hardware, with a multi-year roadmap culminating in the planned 2029 launch of Apollo, Quantinuum’s universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer. “Our ambition is for Nexus to be the platform developers turn to for the fault-tolerant era,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President & CEO, Quantinuum.
Quantinuum Nexus Platform Enables Fault-Tolerant Application Development
With the immediate availability of Guppy FT, a programming framework integrated within the Nexus platform, Quantinuum is delivering a new layer of abstraction for fault-tolerant quantum computing. This tool allows developers to begin building applications that use quantum error correction without needing specialized expertise in the underlying complexities of QEC, an important step toward wider adoption of the technology. This commitment to continuous integration ensures that applications built on Nexus will benefit from hardware improvements without requiring extensive code rewrites, a significant advantage in a rapidly evolving field.
Quantinuum’s approach prioritizes evolving the underlying architecture while maintaining compatibility with existing developer programs, streamlining the development process and encouraging innovation, according to the company. The platform’s capabilities extend beyond theoretical frameworks. Developers can currently use InQuanto to explore quantum chemistry and materials science, then apply Quantinuum’s pre-built fault-tolerant primitives to protect those calculations from errors.
This immediate functionality allows for practical experimentation with fault tolerance, moving beyond simulations and toward real-world applications. The availability of pre-perfected codes, such as Quantinuum’s high-rate quantum error detection code, through Nexus further accelerates this process, with additional codes slated for integration as they are developed.
Seyon Sivarajah, Chief Architect of Developer Tools, explains that “Guppy FT and Guppy Algorithms add a necessary abstraction on top of Guppy’s flexible programming model, so that application development and QEC research can advance together without either having to bake in assumptions about the other.” This layered approach decouples application development from the specifics of error correction implementation, allowing both areas to progress independently and supporting a more collaborative ecosystem. Quantinuum plans to expand Guppy Algorithms to include end-to-end workflows of reusable components, further simplifying the development process.
The field of quantum error correction has historically been abstract, making it difficult for those outside the specialty to assess feasibility on current devices. Quantinuum aims to change that perception with Guppy FT, promoting a change where QEC is not just theoretical but also an engineering reality, a tangible capability developers can use.
“The field of QEC is quite abstract, and it is hard for non-experts to gauge what is feasible on current devices. Guppy FT promotes a new idea: QEC is no longer just theory, it is also engineering, it is something you can use,” the company states.
José Ignacio Latorre, Director, Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore, emphasizes the importance of bridging the gap between algorithm design and deployment. “Quantum computers are on the brink of achieving fault tolerance at scale. It’s exciting: we are entering terra incognita for what we can compute. The new challenge is putting our high-level quantum algorithms into the right form to successfully run on error-corrected hardware. Developer platforms like Nexus help us bridge that gap between quantum algorithm design and deployment.” The platform’s focus on streamlining this process positions Quantinuum as a key player in the advancement of practical, fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Guppy FT Framework Separates Quantum Error Correction and Application Logic
With a separation between quantum error correction implementation and application development achieved through the Guppy FT framework within its Nexus platform, Quantinuum enables developers to build fault-tolerant programs without needing specialized QEC expertise. This approach allows quantum error correction experts to define fault-tolerant architectures once, while application developers program on top of them using standard Guppy, a QEC-agnostic language.
The Guppy FT framework then automatically translates standard Guppy programs into an encoded, fault-tolerant form for execution, streamlining the development process and accelerating the path to practical quantum computation. This decoupling is central to Quantinuum’s strategy for scaling fault tolerance, as it allows for evolution of the underlying architecture without requiring application-level rewrites.
Guppy FT delivers on this need by providing a framework for QEC experts to define architectures, automatic compilation to translate programs, and proprietary codes optimized for Quantinuum’s hardware, the firm reports. “With Guppy FT, QEC experts define the fault-tolerant architecture once, and application developers can program on it without needing to become QEC experts themselves,” the company states in its documentation. The framework’s capabilities extend beyond simply enabling fault tolerance; it also focuses on performance optimization.
Results from running the encoded HHL program on the Helios system demonstrate that Guppy FT functions on real quantum hardware, and that applying QEC cycles and parallelizing state factories improves performance. This is achieved through a combination of high-fidelity physical qubits, distance scaling, all-to-all connectivity, reconfigurable qubits, real-time decoding and circuit optimization. The design of Guppy FT also supports hybrid quantum-classical workflows.
Developers can use GPUs for real-time error decoding and benefit from hardware-enabled error suppression techniques like Leakage Repump or Dynamical Decoupling, smoothly integrating with high-performance computing resources connected to Quantinuum’s quantum processing units. This hybrid approach allows users to harness the strengths of both quantum and classical computing, maximizing performance and efficiency. The company envisions Nexus becoming a robust platform where fault tolerance is a feature, not a barrier, enabling broader access to the potential of quantum computation, Quantinuum reports.
The availability of Guppy FT represents a step toward software designed for the fault-tolerant era, and highlights Quantinuum’s commitment to building a comprehensive ecosystem for quantum application development. The framework’s ability to separate concerns between QEC architecture and application logic will be important as the field advances and quantum computers move closer to practical utility.
Our ambition is for Nexus to be the platform developers turn to for the fault-tolerant era.
Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President & CEO, Quantinuum
Guppy Algorithms Accelerate Quantum Workflow Construction with Reusable Primitives
Quantinuum is also enabling hybrid workflows by connecting high-performance computing resources to its quantum processing units, allowing smooth integration of classical and quantum computation. These capabilities are underpinned by a new language framework designed for fault tolerance, culminating in the introduction of Guppy FT, Nexus’ fault tolerant quantum programming framework, and Guppy Algorithms, a library of reusable algorithmic primitives. This framework then automatically compiles programs written in standard Guppy into programs designed to run on those architectures.
The system incorporates proprietary codes developed by Quantinuum’s error correction specialists, optimizing performance on the company’s hardware, by the company’s account. This design allows developers to write quantum algorithms without detailed knowledge of the underlying error-correction, while still empowering experts to define and refine the architectures that drive those programs. Quantinuum aims to accelerate more than just program writing. The company intends to facilitate rapid and optimal development through Guppy Algorithms.
This tool saves developers from redundant work by enabling the construction of complex application-level software workflows in a manner independent of specific applications. Built upon Guppy, the library combines type-safe Guppy primitives with Python builders, allowing developers to assemble quantum algorithms from pre-optimized building blocks. Guppy Algorithms is also designed to be QEC agnostic, allowing users to adapt their fault tolerance approach as the platform evolves without rewriting existing programs.
Current primitives support complex tasks including Trotterisation for Hamiltonian Simulation, quantum linear algebra and quantum arithmetic. The process of using Guppy Algorithms is straightforward: developers first construct their application-specific algorithm, then compose it with Guppy Algorithms by importing desired implementations of circuit sub-components, Quantinuum claims. To demonstrate Guppy FT’s capabilities, the team ran a Steane-encoded quantum algorithm, HHL, on Quantinuum’s Helios quantum computer.
The team compared three versions of the HHL program, each with 500 shots, and varied the settings for Guppy FT’s Steane code ([[7, 1, 3]]) encoding. These results demonstrate how Guppy FT can implement fault-tolerant architectures for practical, end-to-end programs running on real quantum hardware. These combined tools ensure Nexus provides an optimal programming experience, spanning from the circuit level to the user interface.
Realtime Analytics and Tools Optimize Quantum Circuit Execution on Nexus
Nexus integrates real-time metrics into its workflow, providing developers with execution statistics like gate counts and shot duration during circuit execution. This granular level of feedback allows for iterative optimization of quantum programs, enabling users to experiment with different approaches to minimize both the number of gates required and the overall runtime. Complementing these metrics is ShotPlot, Quantinuum’s visualization tool that maps gate scheduling, revealing idle periods and opportunities to refine circuit layout for improved efficiency.
These analytical tools are designed to work in concert with Guppy Algorithms, a system that allows developers to construct complex application-level software workflows without repetitive coding. This approach moves beyond simply writing fault-tolerant programs, focusing instead on achieving rapid and optimal execution. The combination of algorithmic construction and real-time analysis aims to empower developers to explore a wider range of solutions and refine their circuits based on immediate hardware feedback.
Quantinuum demonstrated the capabilities of Guppy FT, its fault tolerance framework, by running a Steane-encoded HHL algorithm on the Helios quantum computer. This experiment highlights the platform’s ability to translate theoretical fault tolerance into practical, end-to-end execution on current hardware. The development of Nexus is not solely focused on immediate capabilities. Quantinuum plans to expand the platform with ecosystem tools and libraries. Rajeeb Hazra, President & CEO, Quantinuum, reflecting the company’s long-term vision for the platform.
The integration of tools like ShotPlot and Guppy Algorithms, coupled with the planned expansion of the ecosystem, positions Nexus as a comprehensive environment for building and deploying fault-tolerant quantum applications. By focusing on both software innovation and hardware integration, Quantinuum intends to establish Nexus as a central hub for the future of quantum computing development., the company says.
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