Comparison between optical and electrical interconnects based on power and speed considerations

Abstract

Conditions are determined for which optical interconnects can transmit information at a higher data rate and consume lc3s power than the equivalent electrical interconnections. The analysis is performed for free-space optical intrachip communication links. Effects of scaling circuit dimensions, presence of signal fan-out, and the use of light modulators as optical signal transmitters are also discussed.

Rationale and challenges for optical interconnects to electronic chips

“…Since that time, a body of work (see, for example, [4] and [6]- [33]) has addressed potential benefits and limits of optics for interconnection [4], [7], [8], [12], [14]- [16], [20], [23], [24], [28], analysis of the relative benefits of optics versus electronics [4], [6], [9]- [11], [13], [21], [22], [26], [27], [30], [31], [33], and comparison of different kinds of optical approaches against one another [17]- [19], [25], [29]. Several of these papers review parts of this work (e.g., [20], [22], [27], and [28]).…”

“…[9], [26], [29]. An additional source of saving in power dissipation may be that we can avoid building resynchronization circuits (e.g., phase-locked loops, buffers), see Section II-C1.…”

A Multipath Analysis of Biswapped Networks

“…As regards the last of these factors, one cannot ignore the physical implementation of an interconnection network and, in particular, the actual physical locations of the 'wires' which constitute the interconnection network. It is known that over a distance of greater than a few millimetres, optical connections out-perform electronic connections in terms of power consumption, speed and crosstalk [6,7,10]. Based on these observations, interconnection networks known as Optical Transpose Interconnection Systems (OTIS) were devised where extra optical connections are added to (existing) electronic networks (OTIS networks originated in [11] but their study was initiated within the computer architecture community in [16] and independently, under the name of swapped networks, in [17,18,19]).…”

Single-image and double-image holographic coupler/optical fiber: a comparative study

“…2 Applications of this technology include (but are not limited to) optoelectronic devices, biomedical optical fibers, and optical arrays for optical computing. 3 - 5 There is a need for mathematical models that describe the behavior of these optical systems. To characterize a holographic interconnector, theories on the propagation of electromagnetic fields in optical waveguides and diffraction of light by volume holograms must be combined.…”