Abstract

Various gigabit-per-second test beds for network computing are under development.¹ We believe that the high-speed optical bus link (HSBOL) shown in Fig. 1 offers another possibility. An effective data-transmission speed of approximately 10 Gbit/s makes a direct connection without bottlenecks between individual buses in high-performance computers placed within a distance of 3 km. The achievement of speed first demands the elimination of software bottlenecks by moving toward a light-weight protocol with hardware assistance by the bus-link MUX/DEMUX circuits in Fig. 1. We leave this to future studies and concentrate on the other demanding problem of developing optical transmitter and receiver modules. These must have a sufficient bandwidth for such a speed. Additional requirements for practical use should be fulfilled: a small size that permits installation on a computer I/O slot board, the ability to handle I/O signal speeds, and low cost.

© 1993 Optical Society of America