Optical interconnections for the massively parallel computer

The introduction of optical interconnections to internode connections in the RWC-1 massively parallel computer testbed, which was designed to demonstrate fundamental internode communications, and uses eight pairs of 12-channel compact optical modules, has enabled 48-b parallel data transmission at 100 MHz (600-MB/s throughput), to be achieved in fibers up to 20-m long. The latency caused by the additional delay time due to OE/EO-conversion in module is only 15 ns. This high throughput, over a long transmission length, along with the compactness, and low latency of optical interconnections make these interconnections applicable to massively parallel computing. The introduction of optical interconnections will do much to alleviate the communication bottlenecks in the computer systems.