Abstract

High performance in a computer system chiefly depends on the bandwidth available in its interconnection network; although low latency is also valuable, concurrency can be used to tolerate latency when it is high. The tradeoff between bandwidth and aspect ratio for conventional transmission lines increasingly presents a packaging problem for high bandwidth networks—one that optical interconnect should be able to solve. For general-purpose computers, point-to-point transmission of small packets over relatively long distances is needed. Broadcast and beam deflection capabilities seem to have no role to play here. The choice between guided and free-space optics and the extent to which optics is used depend on how, and how well, some crucial “engineering details” are addressed as optical interconnect technology matures.

© 1997 Optical Society of America