A five-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer, which is programmable and reconfigurable, has been demonstrated by researchers from the Joint Quantum Institute in the US. The team's computing architecture is such that the researchers can programme multiple algorithms into their trapped-ion processor, which is a first. Although the computer is relatively small at five qubits and the algorithms they process fairly simple, the researchers say that there are a variety of ways to scale up this architecture to build a functional quantum computer in the future.

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