2023/01/17 by James Kruchowski, V. A. Sokolov, Kruchowski, James +15
Engineering · #FOS: Electrical engineering #Optical Network Technologies #Photonic and Optical Devices #Semiconductor Lasers and Optical Devices #Signal Processing (eess.SP) #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2301.10169
openalex publication_date 2023/01/17 · openalex created_date 2023/01/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
As data rates for multi-gigabit serial interfaces within multi-node compute\nsystems approach and exceed 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps), board-to-board and\nchip-to-chip optical signaling solutions become more attractive, particularly\nfor longer (e.g. 50-100 cm) links. The transition to optical signaling will\npotentially allow new high performance compute (HPC) system architectures that\nbenefit from characteristics unique to optical links.\n To examine these characteristics, we built and tested several optical\ndemonstration vehicles; one based on dense wavelength division multiplexing\n(DWDM), and others based on multiple point-to-point links carried across\nmultimode fibers. All test vehicles were constructed to evaluate applicability\nto a multi-node compute system. Test results, combined with data from recent\nresearch efforts are summarized and compared to equivalent electrical links and\nthe advantages and design characteristics unique to optical signaling are\nidentified.\n