Optical interconnection subsystem used in the RWC-1 massively parallel computer

Optical interconnection between the nodes of the RWC-1 massively parallel computer has been implemented. A one-node testbed system and an eight-node parallel processing system have been produced to demonstrate large-throughput small-skew low-latency and highly reliable optical internode connection. Each node was interconnected through dc-coupled 24-bit synchronized parallel optical interconnection at 100 MHz using 50-m-long single-mode ribboned fibers. The skew in a 24-bit data signal was suppressed to within 650 to -380 ps, and the OE/EO conversion delay time was 15.2 ns. We ran a parallel-processing program on the eight-node system as an evaluation, and the 50-m-long optically interconnected system performed as well as a 10-m-long electrically interconnected system. This clearly shows that optical interconnection will overcome the communication bottleneck in multinode computer systems.