Design for switched optical datapaths in computer systems

Recognising the advantages of photonics for scalability and bandwidth, we aim to design computer systems using switched optical datapaths. For acceptable system performance, we must address issues of cost, stability and latency. Starting from the system design perspective, we have identified integrated digital control of optical devices and multiwavelength coding as enabling technologies. Avoiding optical buffering, bit level synchronization and regeneration, we present an architecture which has applications to storage, desk area networks and optical chip interconnects. We draw upon well-understood computer networking concepts, and use wavelength striping of the packets to achieving low latency and high capacity.