Insider Brief
NISQ, or Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum, describes current quantum computers that can run quantum algorithms but remain limited by noise, error rates and circuit depth.
NISQ systems are primarily used for research and experimentation, including testing quantum algorithms, error mitigation techniques and hybrid quantum-classical approaches.
The industry is beginning to move toward fault-tolerant systems through advances in quantum error correction, although NISQ hardware remains the dominant category of commercially available quantum computers.
Every quantum computer commercially available today belongs to the same category. Whether it is IBM‘s quantum systems, Google‘s superconducting processors, or IonQ‘s trapped-ion hardware. All of these are NISQ devices, whether the press releases say so or not.
