Quantum/Machines/QuEra Aquila
USA · operational · Neutral atoms
QuEra Aquila
QuEra Aquila is a neutral atoms quantum computer operated by QuEra Computing in USA. It has 256 physical qubits. It ranks 4 of 10 neutral atom machines in this table by physical qubit count. 11 sourced specs are in the spec sheet. 1 published benchmark or milestone record are listed below, each marked by who measured it.
Aquila is a field-programmable array of up to 256 neutral rubidium atoms, offered through Amazon Braket since November 2022. It is an analog processor that runs programmed Hamiltonians, not a gate-based universal machine. Per-atom gate fidelities do not apply to this mode and none are recorded here. The physical location of the hardware is not stated in the pages consulted.
Spec sheet
Technical details as the builder or a paper states them, each with its own source. A blank is a fact we could not source, not a zero. Fidelity and coherence figures are in the benchmark table below.
| Spec | Value | Basis | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Aquila, a 256-site field-programmable qubit array (FPQA) | Vendor reported | QuEra describes Aquila as a reconfigurable 256-qubit neutral-atom array operated as an analog processor. | quera.comarxiv.org |
| Qubit type | 87Rb atom, ground-Rydberg qubit in optical tweezers | Peer reviewed | QuEra whitepaper (arXiv, June 2023): neutral Rb-87 atoms held in tweezers; a hyperfine qubit is also described but analog mode uses the ground-Rydberg pair. | arxiv.org |
| Topology | Reconfigurable 2D atom array, interaction strength set by atom distance | Peer reviewed | Whitepaper: sites at least 4 um apart inside a 75 x 76 um area, Rydberg van der Waals interaction; QuEra's page markets this as all-to-all connectivity for algorithm design. | arxiv.orgquera.com |
| Native gates | No digital gate set (analog Hamiltonian simulation only) | Independent | AWS says Aquila is not a universal quantum computer and runs analog Hamiltonian simulation; QuEra calls it an analog quantum processor. | aws.amazon.comquera.com |
| Cooling and environment | Room-temperature apparatus, atoms laser-cooled to microkelvin in a vacuum cell | Peer reviewed | Whitepaper: a room-temperature device with Rb-87 atoms held and cooled to microkelvin temperatures by lasers inside a vacuum cell; no cryogenics. | arxiv.org |
| Power draw | 12 kW | Vendor reported | QuEra roadmap table lists the Aquila column as under 12 kW with room-temperature operation, so 12 is an upper bound, not a measured draw. | quera.com |
| Software | Amazon Braket SDK, Bloqade | Vendor reported | QuEra's Aquila page points to the AWS Braket SDK and the Bloqade SDK; the whitepaper notebooks use the Braket SDK. | quera.comarxiv.org |
| Cloud platforms | Amazon Braket | Independent | AWS lists Aquila (QuEra) as an analog Hamiltonian simulation QPU in us-east-1; QuEra says it is available via Amazon Braket. | docs.aws.amazon.comquera.com |
| Access and pricing | Cloud queue on Braket at $0.30 per task plus $0.01 per shot, or $2,500 per hour reserved; QuEra Premium Access also offered | Independent | AWS pricing page as fetched 2026-10-09; QuEra says Aquila is available over 100 hours a week and Premium Access adds priority bookings and support. | aws.amazon.comquera.com |
| Successor | Gemini | Vendor reported | QuEra roadmap shows Aquila (launched 2022) followed by Gemini (launched 2025), a 260-qubit gate-model system. | quera.comquera.com |
| Roadmap | Gemini (2025), then Libra fault-tolerant system launching 2028 and a next-gen gigaquop system 2028 to 2029 | Vendor reported | Roadmap page as fetched 2026-10-09; Libra is described as 256 logical qubits from more than 10,000 physical qubits. | quera.com |
Milestone claims
- QuEra and AWS: first publicly accessible neutral-atom machine; 256-atom analog processor on Braket from Nov 2022 (2022-11, vendor reported) quera.comaws.amazon.com
Timeline
- 2022-11: Announced
- 2022-11: First operational
- 2026-10-04: Status checked: operational
Comparable neutral atom machines
Closest in physical qubit count within the same technology. Counts of different qubit types are not interchangeable across technologies.
| Machine | Operator | Qubits | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| G-QuAT System Q | AIST | 260 | operational |
| Aramco Pasqal QPU | Saudi Aramco | 200 | operational |
| Pasqal SOL | CINECA | 140 | operational |
| Pasqal Fresnel | Pasqal | 100 | operational |
| Pasqal Ruby | GENCI | 100 | operational |
| Pasqal JADE | Forschungszentrum Julich | 100 | operational |