A high-speed optical multi-drop bus for computer interconnections

Michael Tan, Paul Rosenberg, Jong Souk Yeo, Moray McLaren, Sagi Mathai, Terry Morris, Joseph Straznicky, Norman P. Jouppi, Huei Pei Kuo, Shih Yuan Wang, Scott Lerner, Pavel Kornilovich, Neal Meyer, Robert Bicknell, Charles Otis, Len Seals

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Buses have historically provided a flexible communications structure in computer systems. However, signal integrity constraints of high-speed electronics have made multi-drop electrical busses infeasible. Instead, we propose an optical data bus for computer interconnections. It has two sets of optical waveguides, one as a fan-out and the other as a fan-in, that are used to interconnect different modules attached to the bus. A master module transmits optical signals which are received by all the slave modules attached to the bus. Each slave module in turn sends data back on the bus to the master module. Arrays of lasers, photodetectors, waveguides, microlenses, beamsplitters and Tx/Rx integrated circuits are used to realize the optical data bus. With ImW of laser power, we are able to interconnect 8 different modules at 10 Gb/s per channel. An aggregate bandwidth of over 25 GB/s is achievable with 10 bit wide signaling paths.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 16th Annual IEEE Symposium on High-Performance Interconnects, HOT Inteconnects
Pages3-10
Number of pages8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Event16th Annual IEEE Symposium on High-Performance Interconnects, HOT Interconnects - Stanford, CA, United States
Duration: 2008 Aug 262008 Aug 28

Publication series

NameProceedings - Symposium on the High Performance Interconnects, Hot Interconnects
ISSN (Print)1550-4794

Other

Other16th Annual IEEE Symposium on High-Performance Interconnects, HOT Interconnects
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityStanford, CA
Period08/8/2608/8/28

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Engineering(all)

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