A 100 MBPS LED THROUGH-WAFER OPTOELECTRONIC LINK FOR MULTICOMPUTER INTERCONNECTION NETWORKS

Through-wafer optoelectronic interconnect offers some architectural al ternatives that are not available with mire-based interconnects. In or der to compete with wire-based technologies, optoelectronic interconne cts must provide reasonable performance in terms of bandwidth, bit err or rate (BER), and power, using inexpensive and manufacturable devices . This paper presents a 100 Mbps link design under development as part of a scalable three-dimensional multicomputer network for a 4096 node system. Empirical and analytical data for emitters, detectors, receiv ers, and optical coupling is used to examine the tradeoffs between lin k power and bit error rate (BER). Because multicomputer networks deman d extremely low BERs (10(-15)-10(-20)), hop-by-hop error correction ci rcuitry is incorporated to optimize BER, providing a robust channel. T his approach employs a novel adaptation of the widely used wormhole ro uting protocol to minimize overhead and maximize compatibility with ex isting interconnect techniques. (C) 1991 Academic Press.