Title :
Reconfigurable multiple-behavioural architecture using free-space optical communication
Author :
Guan, Tut San ; Barros, Silvano P V
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Queen Mary & Westfield Coll., London, UK
Abstract :
We describe a fully configurable, parallel architecture based on free-space optical communication. The noninterference and free-space transmission of light are exploited to provide parallel and arbitrary communications both within and among the processors. Matrix-addressed SLMs (spatial light modulators) are used to develop a computer model of the proposed scheme. Special instructions allowing users to configure both the topology and behaviour of the architecture are described. The resulting configurations faithfully reproduce the target architectures, including dataflow, pipelining, neural network, SIMD and MIMD. The use of optics also alleviates many communication bottlenecks usually associated with conventional computers. The architecture is proposed as the basis for a new kind of general/all purpose parallel computers
Keywords :
optical communication; optical information processing; optical interconnections; parallel architectures; parallel machines; reconfigurable architectures; spatial light modulators; MIMD; SIMD; computer model; configurable parallel architecture; free-space optical communication; free-space transmission; matrix-addressed SLMs; parallel computers; reconfigurable multiple-behavioural architecture; spatial light modulators; target architectures; Computer architecture; Concurrent computing; Neural networks; Optical computing; Optical fiber communication; Optical interconnections; Optical modulation; Parallel architectures; Pipeline processing; Reconfigurable architectures;
Conference_Titel :
Massively Parallel Processing Using Optical Interconnections, 1994., Proceedings of the First International Workshop on
Conference_Location :
Cancun
Print_ISBN :
0-8186-5832-0
DOI :
10.1109/MPPOI.1994.336615
