In:
ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Vol. 38, No. 3 ( 2010-06-19), p. 94-105
Abstract:
Continued device scaling enables microprocessors and other systems-on-chip (SoCs) to increase their performance, functionality, and hence, complexity. Simultaneously, relentless scaling, if uncompensated, degrades the performance and signal integrity of on-chip metal interconnects. These systems have therefore become increasingly communications-limited. The communications-centric nature of future high performance computing devices demands a fundamental change in intra- and inter-chip interconnect technologies. Optical interconnect is a promising long term solution. However, while significant progress in optical signaling has been made in recent years, networking issues for on-chip optical interconnect still require much investigation. Taking the underlying optical signaling systems as a drop-in replacement for conventional electrical signaling while maintaining conventional packet-switching architectures is unlikely to realize the full potential of optical interconnects. In this paper, we propose and study the design of a fully distributed interconnect architecture based on free-space optics. The architecture leverages a suite of newly-developed or emerging devices, circuits, and optics technologies. The interconnect avoids packet relay altogether, offers an ultra-low transmission latency and scalable bandwidth, and provides fresh opportunities for coherency substrate designs and optimizations.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0163-5964
DOI:
10.1145/1816038.1815975
Language:
English
Publisher:
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Publication Date:
2010
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2088489-8
detail.hit.zdb_id:
186012-4
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