Fiber Optic Backplane Interconnect for Supercomputers

70100 Computing systems for fusion simulation must transfer terabits per second between processor units/boards in a supercomputer, but the electronic transmission of data is limited in bandwidth and by interference. Because optical approaches can achieve this speed and bandwidth and overcome electromagnetic interference, this project will design, develop, and test a fiber optic backplane interconnect for high speed communication in supercomputer systems. In Phase I, the fiber backplane optics will be designed and analyzed, as will the dense wavelength division multiplexing components and computer configuration. A laboratory working model fiber optic backplane interconnect will be assembled from available standard elements. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: In addition to the fusion simulation application, the optical backplane interconnection system should make supercomputers for weather forecasting and other simulations more productive. Other applications include medical imaging, plasma physics and diagnostics, and virtual environment visualization.