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Hardware–Software Integrated Silicon Photonics for Computing Systems

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Silicon Photonics III

Part of the book series: Topics in Applied Physics ((TAP,volume 122))

Abstract

A wealth of high-bandwidth and energy-efficient silicon photonic devices have been demonstrated in recent years. These represent promising solutions for high-performance computer systems that need to distribute extremely large amounts of data in an energy-efficient manner. Chip-scale optical interconnects that employ novel silicon photonics devices can potentially leapfrog the performance of traditional electronic-interconnected systems. However, the benefits of silicon photonics at a system level have yet to be realized. This chapter reviews methodologies for integrating silicon photonic interconnect technologies with computing systems , including implementation challenges associated with device characteristics. A fully functional co-integrated hardware–software system needs to encompass device functionality, control schema, and software logic seamlessly. Each layer, ranging from individual device characterization, to higher layer control of multiple devices, to arbitration of networks of devices, and ultimately to encapsulation of subsystems to create the entire computing system is explored. Finally, results and implications at each level of the system stack are presented.

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Acknowledgments

The work of David M. Calhoun is supported by the Columbia Optics and Quantum Electronics IGERT Ph.D. Fellowship under NSF IGERT (DGE-1069240). The authors gratefully acknowledge support from AFOSR STTR grants FA9550-12-C-0079 and FA9550–12-C-0038. The authors gratefully acknowledge additional support for this work by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program through contract PO1319001 and PO1426332 with Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, 500 West 120th Street, 1300 S. W. Mudd, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    David M. Calhoun, Qi Li, Dessislava Nikolova, Christine P. Chen, Ke Wen, Sébastien Rumley & Keren Bergman

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  1. David M. Calhoun
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  2. Qi Li
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  6. Sébastien Rumley
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Correspondence to David M. Calhoun .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nanoscience Laboratory, University of Trento, Department of Physics, Povo, Italy

    Lorenzo Pavesi

  2. Measurement Science and Standards, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    David J. Lockwood

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Calhoun, D.M. et al. (2016). Hardware–Software Integrated Silicon Photonics for Computing Systems. In: Pavesi, L., Lockwood, D. (eds) Silicon Photonics III. Topics in Applied Physics, vol 122. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10503-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10503-6_5

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