On Chip Photonic Interconnects

Photonic Interconnects for Computing Systems provides a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art technology and research achievements in employing silicon photonics for interconnection networks and high-performance computing, summarizing main opportunities and some challenges.

As the number of cores on a chip continues to climb, architects will need to address both bandwidth and power consumption issues related to the interconnection network. Electrical interconnects are not likely to scale well to a large number of processors for energy efficiency reasons, and the problem is compounded by the fact that there is a fixed total power budget for a die, dictated by the amount of heat that can be dissipated without special (and expensive) cooling and packaging techniques. Thus, there is a need to seek alternatives to electrical signaling for on-chip interconnection applications. Photonics, which has a fundamentally different mechanism of signal propagation, offers the potential to not only overcome the drawbacks of electrical signaling, but also enable the architect to build energy efficient, scalable systems. The purpose of this book is to introduce computer architects to the possibilities and challenges of working with photons and designing on-chip photonic interconnection networks.

In recent years, there has been a considerable amount of effort, both in industry and academia, focusing on the design, implementation, performance analysis, evaluation and prediction of silicon photonic interconnects for inter- and intra-chip communication, paving the way for the design and dimensioning of the next and future generation of high-performance computing systems. Photonic Interconnects for Computing Systems provides a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art technology and research achievements in employing silicon photonics for interconnection networks and high-performance computing, summarizing main opportunities and some challenges. The majority of the chapters were collected from presentations made at the International Workshop on Optical/Photonic Interconnects for Computing Systems (OPTICS) held over the past two years. The workshop invites internationally recognized speakers on the range of topics relevant to silicon photonics and computing systems. Technical topics discussed in the book include:Design and Implementation of Chip-Scale Photonic Interconnects;Developing Design Automation Solutions for Chip-Scale Photonic Interconnects;Design Space Exploration in Chip-Scale Photonic Interconnects;Thermal Analysis and Modeling in Photonic Interconnects;Design for Reliability;Fabrication Non-Uniformity in Photonic Interconnects;Photonic Interconnects for Computing Systems presents a compilation of outstanding contributions from leading research groups in the field. It presents a comprehensive overview of the design, advantages, challenges, and requirements of photonic interconnects for computing systems. The selected contributions present important discussions and approaches related to the design and development of novel photonic interconnect architectures, as well as various design solutions to improve the performance of such systems while considering different challenges. The book is ideal for personnel in computer/photonic industries as well as academic staff and master/graduate students in computer science and engineering, electronic engineering, electrical engineering and photonics.

As the number of cores on a chip continues to climb, architects will need to address both bandwidth and power consumption issues related to the interconnection network. Electrical interconnects are not likely to scale well to a large number of processors for energy efficiency reasons, and the problem is compounded by the fact that there is a fixed total power budget for a die, dictated by the amount of heat that can be dissipated without special (and expensive) cooling and packaging techniques. Thus, there is a need to seek alternatives to electrical signaling for on-chip interconnection applications. Photonics, which has a fundamentally different mechanism of signal propagation, offers the potential to not only overcome the drawbacks of electrical signaling, but also enable the architect to build energy efficient, scalable systems. The purpose of this book is to introduce computer architects to the possibilities and challenges of working with photons and designing on-chip photonic interconnection networks.

Dramatic increases in processing power have rapidly scaled on-chip aggregate bandwidths into the Tb/s range. This necessitates a corresponding increase in the amount of data communicated between chips, so as not to limit overall system performance. To meet the increasing demand for interchip communication bandwidth, researchers are investigating the use of high-speed optical interconnect architectures. Unlike their electrical counterparts, optical interconnects offer high bandwidth and negligible frequency-dependent loss, making possible per-channel data rates of more than 10 Gb/s. High-Speed Photonics Interconnects explores some of the groundbreaking technologies and applications that are based on photonics interconnects. From the Evolution of High-Speed I/O Circuits to the Latest in Photonics Interconnects Packaging and Lasers Featuring contributions by experts from academia and industry, the book brings together in one volume cutting-edge research on various aspects of high-speed photonics interconnects. Contributors delve into a wide range of technologies, from the evolution of high-speed input/output (I/O) circuits to recent trends in photonics interconnects packaging. The book discusses the challenges associated with scaling I/O data rates and current design techniques. It also describes the major high-speed components, channel properties, and performance metrics. The book exposes readers to a myriad of applications enabled by photonics interconnects technology. Learn about Optical Interconnect Technologies Suitable for High-Density Integration with CMOS Chips This richly illustrated work details how optical interchip communication links have the potential to fully leverage increased data rates provided through complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology scaling at suitable power-efficiency levels. Keeping the mathematics to a minimum, it gives engineers, researchers, graduate students, and entrepreneurs a comprehensive overview of the dynamic landscape of high-speed photonics interconnects.

This book provides a comprehensive synthesis of the theory and practice of photonic devices for networks-on-chip. It outlines the issues in designing photonic network-on-chip architectures for future many-core high performance chip multiprocessors. The discussion is built from the bottom up: starting with the design and implementation of key photonic devices and building blocks, reviewing networking and network-on-chip theory and existing research, and finishing with describing various architectures, their characteristics, and the impact they will have on a computing system. After acquainting the reader with all the issues in the design space, the discussion concludes with design automation techniques, supplemented by provided software.

This chapter introduces optical interconnects as a possible solution to the emerging performance wall in high-density supercomputer applications, arising from limited bandwidth and density of on-chip interconnects and chip-to-chip (processor-to-memory) electrical interfaces. The chapter focuses on the translation of system and link level performance metrics to photonic component requirements. The topics to be developed include the network topology, photonic link components, circuit and system design for photonic links.