The EU gets its first Nighthawk & upcoming QPU retirements
15 April 2026
Nighthawk arrives in the EU
Premium and Flex Plans now have early access to ibm_berlin! It is the first IBM Quantum® Nighthawk r1 QPU in the EU (eu-de region) and the second Nighthawk in our global fleet, after ibm_miami in the US (us-east region). ibm_berlin features faster two-qubit gates than ibm_miami (68 ns versus 138 ns, median) while maintaining similar fleet-leading coherence (T of ~350 µs).
Since its release, Nighthawk has enabled research in regimes where classical simulation becomes increasingly challenging. Specifically, its architecture supports hardware-efficient workflows that map naturally onto grid-based (lattice) models. See recent papers from Phasecraft and Volkswagen, and their collaborators, demonstrating simulation at scale on Nighthawk.
Please note that ibm_berlin is currently an exploratory QPU that is still being tested and optimized as part of our continual cycles of learning. As such, it temporarily has the following limitations:
- Default repetition time has been temporarily increased from 250 µs to 4 ms, which impacts QPU time required to execute workloads. Users can manually select a shorter repetition time, but performance might be degraded.
- Dynamic circuits are not yet supported, and quality of mid-circuit measurements is limited.
Upcoming retirements
As we expand EU capacity and roll out the latest Nighthawk and Heron processors, ibm_brussels and ibm_strasbourg are scheduled to be retired on or around 30 April 2026.
Once these QPUs are retired, they will no longer accept jobs. If your workflows target ibm_brussels or ibm_strasbourg, please migrate to another active QPU ahead of the retirement date to take advantage of the latest systems. For guidance on retrieving data from past jobs, refer to the following documentation.