The Yonsei Quantum Initiative at Yonsei University (Songdo Campus, Incheon, South Korea) has announced an operational hardware upgrade for its on-premises IBM Quantum System One facility. Scheduled for November 2026, the university will replace its current 127-qubit IBM Eagle quantum processing unit (QPU) with IBM’s 120-qubit Nighthawk QPU, making Yonsei the second facility globally—after IBM Miami—to host a Nighthawk-based quantum computer.
The upgrade marks a transition in physical topology and interconnect design:
- Square Lattice Topology: Moving from Eagle’s heavy-hex layout (where qubits average ~2.5 neighboring connections) to Nighthawk’s square lattice structure gives each qubit 4 direct connections via 218 tunable couplers.
- 40% Computational Capacity Gain: By quadrupling adjacent connectivity, Nighthawk eliminates a substantial number of intermediate SWAP gates during circuit execution, reducing gate depth overhead and enabling ~40% more computational throughput at equivalent fidelity levels.
- Hybrid Quantum-HPC Workloads: Yonsei is actively deploying its QPU in a hybrid workflow with RIKEN’s Fugaku supercomputer (Japan) to study target mechanisms for Leigh syndrome, a severe genetic neurological disorder. The hybrid division of labor—using the QPU to filter key chemical candidate spaces before offloading heavy classical processing—is projected to compress long-term simulation timelines from decades to days.
[ Yonsei IBM System One Upgrade Architecture ]
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Previous On-Premises QPU (IBM Eagle) Upgraded On-Premises QPU (IBM Nighthawk)
• 127 Superconducting Qubits (Heavy-Hex Layout). • 120 Superconducting Qubits (Square Lattice).
• ~2.5 Average Neighbor Connections / Qubit. • 4 Direct Neighbor Connections / Qubit (218 Couplers).
• Higher SWAP-Gate Overhead in Complex Circuits. • ~40% Computational Gain / Reduced Gate Depth.To drive commercial application adoption alongside the November QPU installation, Yonsei will launch “Q-Bridge”—a quantum-classical integration software platform and domain-specific algorithm repository (“Q-Library”) designed to allow non-quantum enterprise partners to input industrial data, map target workflows, and execute hybrid algorithms. The initiative is also forming dual research nodes in collaboration with the University of Cambridge (Milner Therapeutics Institute) to apply Nighthawk-based quantum algorithms to AI-driven drug discovery and stem cell research.
Review the announcement on the Seoul Economic Daily here, inspect hardware architecture specs via IBM Quantum Documentation here, and examine the previous coverage of Yonsei Deploying Korea’s First On-Premises IBM Quantum System One here.
August 12, 2026