Backends

Backends are the general term for the systems that process circuit jobs, both the physical quantum computers as well software simulators.

For the purposes of quantum software development, hardware and software backends are functionally interchangeable assuming the job in question falls within the capabilities of both backends, and the data is processed in the same fashion in both cases.

​

Backends

​

Characterization Data

A characterization is a snapshot of an IonQ QPU’s performance at a moment in time. While our quantum computers are continuously calibrated moment to moment, we periodically take measurements of gate fidelities and other statistics.

This data is listed in the UI (Click on “Show Details” on a backend) as well as made available via the API.

​

Status

The status of our systems can be found on status.ionq.co. The possible statuses are:

• Operational: The system is meeting spec both in terms of job quality and throughput.
• Degraded: The system is underperforming spec. The specific way it is underperforming will be noted on the status page.
• Partial Outage: The system is down while a component is remotely reconfigured.
• Major Outage: The system is down while two or more components are remotely reconfigured.
• Under Maintenance: The system is down while one or more components are under physical maintenance.

​

Hardware