Low latency high throughput memory-processor interface

Scaling to ExaFLOPS computing, or 100 times faster than the present version of the Fujitsu K-supercomputer, presents well known challenges, among which are power dissipation, memory capacity and access bandwidth, data locality and fault tolerance. The optimum Amdahl's speed-up strategy is multi faceted, with greater memory bandwidth and lower access latency being generally recognized as areas to improve. To this end, evolutionary compute node architecture is considered based on a multichip interposer platform and a millimeter wave memory interface. The interposer serves as the compute node physical platform and wiring distribution layer connecting the chip multiprocessor (CMP) with on-interposer memory to an organic board. For example, the interposer may be composed of glass to reduce through-via parasitic and support one multi-GFLOPS CMP with sufficient on-interposer DRAM for balanced operation. The memory interface consists of dense arrays of millimeter waveguide with integrated mm wave transceivers and should support 40 Gb/s per channel for an aggregate throughput of 1 TB/s with estimated latency of 10-15 clock cycles. This paper examines channel impediments, design and construction. Data transmission on a 72 GHz carrier frequency and 12 Gb/s OOK modulation will be presented at the conference if available.