MilestoneError correctionConfirmed
China's Zuchongzhi 3.2 runs error correction below the surface-code threshold
Dec 22, 2025
A USTC team reported in Physical Review Letters that its 107-qubit Zuchongzhi 3.2 chip ran a distance-7 surface code, an error-correcting layout, with logical errors shrinking as the code grew (by a factor of 1.4). Microwave-only control kept qubits from leaking out of their working states.
Why it matters
Below threshold, bigger codes give fewer errors, the basic condition for scaling up error correction; Quantum Computing Report calls it the first such result from a group outside the US.
Sources (2)
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Quantum Computing Report
USTC’s Zuchongzhi 3.2 Achieves Below-Threshold QEC Milestone
“The team achieved a logical error suppression factor of Λ = 1.40(6) using a distance-7 (d=7) surface code, proving that the system has moved beyond the regime where error correction introduces more noise than it removes.”
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Global Times
China's superconducting quantum prototype 'Zuchongzhi 3.2' achieves key breakthrough
“its superconducting quantum computing prototype "Zuchongzhi 3.2" achieved quantum error correction below the fault-tolerance threshold on a surface code with a code distance of seven”
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