High-density, low-power optical interconnects for computing systems

Abstract

Multicore architecture has been widely exploited in computing systems to increase performance under power-constrained environment, and realized the highest-performance supercomputers [1]. Mulicore systems are high-level integration of many power-efficient microprocessors with high-bandwidth interconnects, which requires high data rate per channel, high channel counts, or both. Optical transmission is inherently suited for high-bandwidth interconnects with low propagation loss as well as low dispersion, and the latest top-performance supercomputers have exploited many optical channels [2]. Recent advancements in optical interconnect technologies have demonstrated high-density packaging as well as low-power dissipation of high-speed optical channels, both of which are superior to electrical counterparts.