Active Optical Backplane for Three-Dimensional Optoelectronic Computing

Current high temperature performance computing systems are limited by interconnection speeds rather than by their processing elements. In the interconnection hierarchy, backplane interconnnections impose the most serious speed limitations on 3-D optoelectronic computing systems. Physical Optics Corp proposes an Active Optical Backplane (AOB) which will upgrade the architecture of 3-D optoelectronic computing systems and produce much higher modulation speeds (to 1000 Gbit/sec) among processing elements. When compared with existing electronic backplanes (EB) and Passive Optical Backplanes, the AOB has the same advantage of system compatibility as EBs while keeping the modulation speed projected for POBs. Unlike POBs, the proposed AOB performs both modulation and demodulation on the backplane itself. As a result, the electronic packaging issue is automatically solved without modifying existing connectors from card boards to the backplane. Among all backplane buses investigated, Futurebus+ has the widest data bit width (up to 128 bits), and highest user acceptability. Futurebus+ will be incorporated into this program. Phase I will demonstrate a AOB with on-board modulation and demodulation, with physical layers and protocol in Phase II.