The new NIST architecture for quantum computing relies on several levels of error checking to ensure the accuracy of quantum bits (qubits). The image above illustrates how qubits are grouped in blocks to form the levels. To implement the architecture with three levels, a series of operations is performed on 36 qubits (bottom row) each one representing either a 1, a 0, or both at once. The operations on the nine sets of qubits produce two reliably accurate qubits (top row). The purple spheres represent qubits that are either used in error detection or in actual computations. The yellow spheres are qubits that are measured to detect or correct errors but are not used in final computations.

Courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology

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