<title>Dynamic Optical Interconnections For Parallel Processors</title>

Abstract

Abstract This paper discusses the need for dynamically reconfigurable interconnection networks in parallel computing systemsand describes some of the important physical parameters, limitations and tradeoffs of optical and electronic interconnectionarchitectures. Several optical matrix -vector realizations of generalized crossbar networks are given and compared. These systems may utilize acousto-, electro-, or magneto-optic spatial light modulators as their active switching elements, and moderately large crossbar networks (64 X 64 to 512 X 512) appear feasible. Finally, the use of general optical sequential logicarchitectures to implement crossbar and multistage networks is considered. 1.0 Introduction This paper is concerned with the application of bulk (3 -D) optical components and optical interconnection architec-tures to data communication problems in digital systems. Efficient communication among the elements of these systems isrecognized as the key to faster computing and signal processing through the use of parallel processors and shared resources.This paper concentrates on dynamic, rapidly time -variable interconnections at the spatial scale size of processors (10° -108 m)