The simultaneous optical multiprocessor exchange bus

Low latency, high bandwidth interconnection networks that directly link arbitrary pairs of processing elements without contention are very desirable for parallel computers. Most communication networks in parallel machines have made compromises due to the limitations of electronics. Many of the optical interconnection schemes proposed have simply replaced the point-to-point copper wiring with fiber optics and have not made use of the unique properties of optics. This paper proposes an optical interconnect architecture for over a hundred processors, which contains a dedicated channel for each processor to eliminate global arbitration and to provide bandwidth that scales with the number of processors in the machine. Unlike electrical buses, this architecture is not limited by the medium (fiber optics) used to connect the transmitters and receivers. Each processor has an array of receivers, one receiver for each processor channel. The architecture of the receiver array permits a variety of different parallel programming models to be efficiently supported.