"Macrochip" computer systems enabled by silicon photonic interconnects

Kannan Raj; John E. Cunningham; Ron Ho; Xuezhe Zheng; Herb Schwetman; Pranay Koka; Michael McCracken; Jon Lexau; Guoliang Li; Hiren Thacker; Ivan Shubin; Ying Luo; Jin Yao; Mehdi Asghari; Thierry Pinguet; Jim Mitchell; Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy

doi:10.1117/12.842818

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15 February 2010 "Macrochip" computer systems enabled by silicon photonic interconnects

Kannan Raj, John E. Cunningham, Ron Ho, Xuezhe Zheng, Herb Schwetman, Pranay Koka, Michael McCracken, Jon Lexau, Guoliang Li, Hiren Thacker, Ivan Shubin, Ying Luo, Jin Yao, Mehdi Asghari, Thierry Pinguet, Jim Mitchell, Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy

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Proceedings Volume 7607, Optoelectronic Interconnects and Component Integration IX; 760702 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.842818
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2010, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

In this paper we present a computing system that uniquely leverages the bandwidth, density, and latency advantages of silicon photonic interconnects to enable highly compact supercomputerscale systems. We present the details of an optically enabled "macrochip" which is a set of contiguous, optically-interconnected chips that deploy wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) enabled by silicon photonics. We describe the system architecture and the WDM point-to-point network implementation of a "macrochip" providing bisection bandwidth of 10 TBps and discuss system and device level challenges, constraints, and the critical technologies needed to implement this system. We present a roadmap to lowering the energy-per-bit of a silicon photonic interconnect and highlight recent advances in silicon photonics under the UNIC program that facilitate implementation of a "macrochip" system made of arrayed chips.

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Kannan Raj, John E. Cunningham, Ron Ho, Xuezhe Zheng, Herb Schwetman, Pranay Koka, Michael McCracken, Jon Lexau, Guoliang Li, Hiren Thacker, Ivan Shubin, Ying Luo, Jin Yao, Mehdi Asghari, Thierry Pinguet, Jim Mitchell, and Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy ""Macrochip" computer systems enabled by silicon photonic interconnects", Proc. SPIE 7607, Optoelectronic Interconnects and Component Integration IX, 760702 (15 February 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.842818

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