Full write-ups for every modality, including photonic and neutral atom, live on qubit types. This page is only the head-to-head people search for.
The tradeoff
| Superconducting | Trapped ion | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | IBM, Google, Rigetti, IQM | IonQ, Quantinuum, Oxford Ionics, AQT |
| Temperature | About 15 millikelvin | Trap at room temperature |
| Gate time | 10 to 100 ns | 1 to 100 µs |
| Coherence | 100 to 500 µs | Typically longer than superconducting |
| Connectivity | Nearest neighbour (grid or heavy-hex) | All-to-all in a chain or trap |
| SDK you will meet | Qiskit, Cirq | IonQ SDK, Quantinuum / pytket, also Braket |
Superconducting wins on speed and fab scale. Trapped ion wins on fidelity and connectivity. Neither is "the" qubit. Hybrid cloud access (Braket, Azure) lets you try both without buying a fridge.
What to study
- Superconducting path: IBM courses, Qiskit Hello World, IBM platform page.
- Trapped-ion path: IonQ SDK, Quantinuum H-series, IonQ and Quantinuum platform pages.
- Hardware survey: hardware guide.