IBM on Wednesday announced that it has successfully joined and cooled two cryogenic quantum "fridges," demonstrating a modular architecture designed to eventually link hundreds of quantum chips into more powerful quantum computers. Big Blue cast the development as a milestone on the company's path to delivering IBM Quantum Starling in 2029, which IBM expects will be the world's first fault-tolerant quantum computer and will integrate advances across error correction, processor design, decoding and systems engineering. "Bringing fault-tolerant quantum computers to industries depends on several fundamental advances," Jay Gambetta, director of IBM research and IBM fellow, said in a statement. "The successful connection and operation of these cryogenic modules signals a leap forward in that direction," he continued, "and will accelerate our progress alongside continued innovation in quantum hardware, software, and algorithms." Scaling Up in the Deep Freeze IBM explained that the quantum fridges, which are more than eight feet tall and eight feet wide, can be jointly cooled down to 4 Kelvin (the temperature of liquid helium) in under five days and reach a final temperature below 15 millikelvin shortly thereafter. "Temperature is a challenge because materials that are superconducting are only stable at extremely low temperatures," explained Luke Wang, an equity analyst with Morningstar Research Services in Chicago. "Qubits are also fragile, and temperature is one of the factors that can impact their performance," he told TechNewsWorld. IBM also noted that each module’s vacuum enclosure offers up to 12 times more wiring space than the most widely used IBM quantum systems, enabling more chip-to-chip connections both within and between modules. The company plans to install Nighthawk processors in the modules later this year for additional testing and aims to use the architecture to support at least 1,000 programmable qubits by 2027. "Superconducting qubits have to sit at a few