Chapter 18 - Optical interconnection networks for high-performance systems

Abstract

Large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) systems in the form of supercomputers and warehouse-scale data centers permeate nearly every corner of modern life from applications in scientific research, medical diagnostics and national security to film and fashion recommendations. Vast volumes of data are being processed at the same time that the relatively long term progress of Moore’s Law is slowing advances in transistor density. Data-intensive computations are putting more stress on the interconnection network, especially those feeding massive data sets into machine learning algorithms. High bandwidth interconnects, essential for maintaining computation performance, are representing an increasing portion of the total energy and cost budgets. Photonic interconnection networks are often cited as ways to break through the energy-bandwidth limitations of conventional electrical wires to solve bottlenecks and improve interconnect performance. In this chapter, we present an overview of the recent trends and potential solutions to this challenge.