9422452 Wills This activity will study a highly parallel computer that features a three dimensional, optical interconnection network. The extremely compact system is design to process high throughput data streams in applications such as image processing. The high density and large I/O bandwidth result from optical communication channels between Si-based processors. By using integrated optoelectronic devices operating at wavelengths to which silicon is transparent, through-wafer vertical optical communications channels are formed between stacked silicon circuitry. Thin film optoelectronic devices are bonded directly to SI integrated circuits to realize this self contained vertical optical interconnect. To construct the system, silicon chips containing a digital processor, network interface, and router, plus analog interface circuitry for the thin film devices, are fabricated through a standard IC foundry. The chips are then post processed to integrate the thin film optoelectronic devices using standard, low cost, high yield microfabrication techniques. Two dimensional planes of these chips are then stacked to form the three dimensional system which is connected by the vertical optical channels. The use of integrated through-wafer optical interconnect will lead, long term, to extremely dense systems (4096 processors in a four inch cube with high throughput (820 Gbits/sec external I/O bandwidth, 3.2 Tbits/sec aggregate bandwidth). The proposed system will accelerate an established, interdisciplinary collaborative group of faculty and students in the areas of parallel computational architectures, analog circuits, optoelectronic devices and integration, and crystal growth. It is this type of collaboration that enables the realization of a revolutionary, predominantly electronic system with simple point-to-point optoelectronic interconnects, and helps to identify for each of the researchers the critical points and trade-offs which must be considered from a system perspective.
