"Milestone of technology": New ion trap quantum computer in Jülich Electromagnetic fields hold ytterbium ions in a vacuum. This allows calculations with Qubits, now available in Jülich. JION – short for “Jülich trapped-ION quantum computer” – is a digital, gate-based ion trap quantum computer. It was officially commissioned on Thursday at the Jülich Research Centre, marking a “milestone of technology”, according to NRW Minister-President Hendrik Wüst (CDU). Both science and industry are to use hybrid computing power from quantum computers and classical high-performance computers of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) for real-world applications. On the occasion of the inauguration, new quantum computing projects were launched. There are different technical approaches to quantum computers, including ion traps. Electrically charged atoms serve as information carriers, stored within electromagnetic traps. JION’s Qubits consist of ionized ytterbium atoms, held in a vacuum by electromagnetic fields and precisely controlled for calculations. Unlike superconducting systems, the quantum processor does not need to be operated at temperatures near absolute zero. According to the information, the system is operational but still under development. Initially, only a few Qubits are available, but by mid-2027, there should be ten. The supplier is the Siegen-based company Eleqtron, a spin-off from the University of Siegen founded in 2020. In 2024, the company, together with partners, delivered the QSea demonstrator with ten Qubits to the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Hamburg. JUNIQ links JION with supercomputers JION was realized as part of the development partnership "Ionenfallen-Quantencomputer in NRW" (EPIQ) and is intended to enable applications in industry and science, for example in optimization tasks in logistics, traffic, and process engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and materials research, as well as in the currently highly hyped field of machine learning. To this end, the system is integrated into the Jülich User Infrastructure for Quantum