A quantum computing device for performing fault-tolerant topological quantum computation comprising - a plurality of logical qubits (L1,..., L9) each corresponding to a square patch of ( d +1) × ( d +1) physical qubits in a joint quantum state corresponding to a surface code, the qubits of each square patch being classified as either data qubits or syndrome qubits and the surface code having a distance d of two or more, - one or more rectangular patches of N × w physical qubits in a joint quantum state serving as a data bus with a length N >=2 and a width w, - wherein, in order to be able to perform a multi-qubit operation between two or more logical qubits (L1, L2, L3) of the plurality of logical qubits (L1,..., L9), the data bus connects two or more of the logical qubits in the sense that each of the two or more square patches corresponding to the two or more logical qubits contains a physical qubit that is adjacent to a physical qubit of the data bus, wherein two physical qubits are called adjacent if there are means for performing two-qubit CNOT operations between them, - wherein the device is configured to o perform the multi-qubit operation fault-tolerantly up to an error level k, k being a natural number smaller or equal to d-2 Div 2 by completing h cycles of error correction with h being smaller or equal to d, before the data bus is disconnected, and o repeat the multi-qubit operation between the logical qubits mediated by the data bus r -times, r being a natural number where r = 1 means the data bus is established only once, and wherein the device is further configured to - speed up the multi-qubit operation by reducing the number h of error correction cycles performed during engagement of the data bus from d to a smaller value h < d, while the width remains w = d, or reduce the number of physical qubits required to perform the multi-qubit operation by folding the data bus into the temporal region by performing the full h = d cycles of error correction, but reducing the width w of the data bus to a value smaller than d, and - always choose the number of repetitions r of the multi-qubit operation according to the desired level of fault tolerance k such that the space-time volume V DB of the data bus including all of its repetitions given by V DB = w × h × r satisfies V DB > 4 k 2, whereby, if r = 1, then w or h are smaller than d, and, if w = 1,then h or r are smaller than d. - a plurality of logical qubits (L1,..., L9) each corresponding to a square patch of ( d +1) × ( d +1) physical qubits in a joint quantum state corresponding to a surface code, the qubits of each square patch being classified as either data qubits or syndrome qubits and the surface code having a distance d of two or more, - one or more rectangular patches of N × w physical qubits in a joint quantum state serving as a data bus with a length N >=2 and a width w, - wherein, in order to be able to perform a multi-qubit operation between two or more logical qubits (L1, L2, L3) of the plurality of logical qubits (L1,..., L9), the data bus connects two or more of the logical qubits in the sense that each of the two or more square patches corresponding to the two or more logical qubits contains a physical qubit that is adjacent to a physical qubit of the data bus, wherein two physical qubits are called adjacent if there are means for performing two-qubit CNOT operations between them, - wherein the device is configured to o perform the multi-qubit operation fault-tolerantly up to an error level k, k being a natural number smaller or equal to d-2 Div 2 by completing h cycles of error correction with h being smaller or equal to d, before the data bus is disconnected, and o repeat the multi-qubit operation between the logical qubits mediated by the data bus r -times, r being a natural number where r = 1 means the data bus is established only once, and o perform the multi-qubit operation fault-tolerantly up to an error level k, k being a natural number smaller or equal to d-2 Div 2 by completing h cycles of error correction with h being smaller or equal to d, before the data bus is disconnected, and o repeat the multi-qubit operation between the logical qubits mediated by the data bus r -times, r being a natural number where r = 1 means the data bus is established only once, and - speed up the multi-qubit operation by reducing the number h of error correction cycles performed during engagement of the data bus from d to a smaller value h < d, while the width remains w = d, or reduce the number of physical qubits required to perform the multi-qubit operation by folding the data bus into the temporal region by performing the full h = d cycles of error correction, but reducing the width w of the data bus to a value smaller than d, and - always choose the number of repetitions r of the multi-qubit operation according to the desired level of fault tolerance k such that the space-time volume V DB of the data bus including all of its repetitions given by V DB = w × h × r satisfies V DB > 4 k 2, whereby, if r = 1, then w or h are smaller than d, and, if w = 1,then h or r are smaller than d.