The Case for Low-Power Photonic Networks on Chip

Packet-switched networks on chip (NoC) have been advocated as a natural communication mechanism among the processing cores in future chip multiprocessors (CMP). However, electronic NoCs do not directly address the power budget problem that limits the design of high-performance chips in nanometer technologies. We make the case for a hybrid approach to NoC design that combines a photonic transmission layer with an electronic control layer. A comparative power analysis with a fully-electronic NoC shows that large bandwidths can be exchanged at dramatically lower power consumption. Categories and Subject Descriptors

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: DAC
• Authors: Assaf Shacham, Keren Bergman, Luca P. Carloni
• Keywords: DAC 2007, Design Automation, Fully-electronic Noc, NoC Design, Photonic Transmission Layer