EAGER: Tackling the Variations and Instability of Nanophotonic Interconnection Network via Architecture Techniques

EAGER：通过架构技术解决纳米光子互连网络的变化和不稳定性

• 批准号: 1242657
• 负责人: Jun Yang
• 金额: $ 13万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-01 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1242657&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Tackling; Variations; Instability; Nanophotonic

In current designs of computer chips, electrical wires are used for communication between the different components of the chip. As technology scales down into the nanometer domain, the signal delay and power consumption caused by electrical wires start to dominate the overall delay and power consumption on the chip, mainly because wires do not scale as well as other logic components. A promising alternative to using electrical wires is to use optical waveguides for communication. Using nanophotonics for on-chip communication may lead to faster signal propagation, increased bandwidth density and reduced power consumption. However, many fundamental challenges face the integration of optical devices into commercial chips. This project addresses some of these challenges and its success will have a significant impact on the semiconductor industry.The two major challenges addressed in this project are process variations and thermal sensitivity of optical devices. The former refers to the drifts in resonance wavelengths of optical devices due to fabrication errors during the manufacturing process. The latter refers to similar drifts that result during operation due to temperature fluctuations within the chip. Both drifts are inevitable with current technology and cause the optical network to lose significant bandwidth. Instead of relying on device level innovations, the proposed research takes an architectural approach to endure and tolerate drifts in wavelength resonance. Specifically, it investigates different techniques to maximize the effective bandwidth at run-time in the presence of defects and changes in operating temperatures. These techniques treat bandwidth as a resource that is allocated, on-demand, to different nodes in a way that masks the resonance shifts of optical devices. Since the aggregated available on-chip bandwidth is usually larger than the instantaneous demand for bandwidth, the effect of the imperfect hardware is mitigated by appropriately assigning wavelengths to nodes, thus offering a reliable and near perfect optical communication layer to the other components of the system.

在当前的计算机芯片设计中，电线用于芯片不同组件之间的通信。随着技术规模缩小到纳米领域，电线引起的信号延迟和功耗开始主导芯片上的整体延迟和功耗，主要是因为电线不像其他逻辑元件那样可以扩展。一种很有前途的替代电线的方法是使用光波导进行通信。将纳米光子学用于片上通信可能导致更快的信号传播，增加带宽密度和降低功耗。然而，将光学器件集成到商用芯片中面临着许多根本性的挑战。这个项目解决了其中的一些挑战，它的成功将对半导体行业产生重大影响。该项目解决的两个主要挑战是工艺变化和光学器件的热敏性。前者是指在制造过程中由于制造误差造成的光学器件共振波长的漂移。后者是指由于芯片内的温度波动而在操作期间产生的类似漂移。这两种漂移在当前的技术条件下是不可避免的，并且会造成光网络带宽的大量损失。拟议的研究不依赖于器件级创新，而是采用架构方法来忍受和容忍波长共振的漂移。具体地说，它研究了在存在缺陷和操作温度变化的情况下最大化运行时有效带宽的不同技术。这些技术将带宽视为按需分配给不同节点的资源，这种方式掩盖了光学设备的共振位移。由于片上可用的聚合带宽通常大于对带宽的瞬时需求，因此通过适当地为节点分配波长来减轻不完美硬件的影响，从而为系统的其他组件提供可靠且近乎完美的光通信层。