An extended fiber-optic backplane for multiprocessors

Author

Ramanan, A.V. ; Jordan, H.F. ; Sauer, J.R. ; Blumenthal, D.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Colorado Univ., Boulder, CO, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1994

fDate

4-7 Jan. 1994

Firstpage

462

Lastpage

470

Abstract

This paper describes a parallel by wavelength, packet-switched, extended photonic backplane for multiprocessors. Packet-switching is implemented with minimal optoelectronic conversion at switching nodes, with the payload data maintained in optical format. Since, currently it is not possible to provide efficient asynchronous storage in optics, the deflection routing protocol is used to avoid static buffering at nodes. Space-time switching at nodes is utilized to reduce contention for spatial channels. The ShuffleNet topology yields packet flight times that grow logarithmically with size of the system. With current technology, our approach can support up to 100 bits in parallel at network cycle times of the order of 4ns. The architecture is capable of supporting hundreds to thousands of processors separated by distances up to a few hundred meters.<>

Keywords

multiprocessing systems; optical fibres; optical switches; packet switching; protocols; system buses; ShuffleNet topology; deflection routing protocol; extended photonic backplane; fiber-optic backplane; multiprocessors; packet flight times; packet-switched; parallel by wavelength; space-time switching; spatial channels; static buffering;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

System Sciences, 1994. Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Hawaii International Conference on

Conference_Location

Wailea, HI, USA

Print_ISBN

0-8186-5090-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HICSS.1994.323152

Filename

323152