Title :
Towards a comparison between chip-level optical interconnection and board-level exterconnection
Author :
Mule, Anthony V. ; Naeemi, Azad ; Glytsis, Elias N. ; Gaylord, Thomas K. ; Meindl, James D.
Author_Institution :
Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA
Abstract :
A preliminary comparison between two time-of-flight (ToF)-limited interconnect technologies, chip-level guided-wave optical interconnection and board-level electrical exterconnection, is presented. For a 20 megacell single-cycle chip architecture integrating 4.1 billion transistors implemented in 45 nm technology on a 572 mm2 die, it is found that all global interconnects of length greater than 32 mm could be replaced by optical waveguides with embedded air-gap cladding regions to allow a ToF-limited global clock frequency of 4.4 GHz. In the case of off-chip exterconnection, all interconnects of length greater than 36 mm could be replaced to enable a ToF-limited frequency of 4.0 GHz.
Keywords :
delay estimation; integrated circuit interconnections; integrated optoelectronics; optical interconnections; optical waveguides; 32 mm; 36 mm; 4 to 4.4 GHz; 45 nm; TOF-limited interconnect technologies; board-level electrical exterconnection; chip-level optical interconnection; embedded air-gap cladding regions; global interconnects; guided-wave optical interconnection; single-cycle chip architecture; time-of-flight propagation delay; time-of-flight-limited interconnect technologies; Clocks; Frequency; Integrated circuit interconnections; Optical interconnections; Optical propagation; Optical receivers; Optical waveguide components; Optical waveguides; Power system interconnection; Propagation delay;
Conference_Titel :
Interconnect Technology Conference, 2002. Proceedings of the IEEE 2002 International
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7216-6
DOI :
10.1109/IITC.2002.1014898
