OP: Application-Aware Reconfigurable Silicon-Photonic Interconnected Computing Systems for Energy-Efficient and Scalable Data Centers

该项目解决了数据中心和计算系统的能源效率和可扩展性，这构成了我们网络基础设施的核心。由于我们的日常生活严重依赖于这些大型计算系统，并且需要处理的数据量呈指数级增长，因此项目的影响是双重的：(a)由于目前依赖电气互连和开关的系统的功率效率有限，因此可扩展性的提高远远超过了今天的可能性；(b)这些大型系统的总功耗显著降低，对世界各地的能源和环境部门有利。此外，通过采用创新的硅光子互连技术，该项目促进了一个新的技术领域，可以推动我们访问和处理数据的方式发生革命性变化。研究与教育的整合将贯穿整个项目，为光电、网络和计算机科学的跨学科互动提供丰富的平台。该项目将使学生和研究人员能够从不同的角度全面了解未来的数据中心网络技术。拟议的项目将通过在多插座刀片（msb）中集成高基数硅光子开关来追求可扩展、高吞吐量和节能的计算系统，该系统通过应用感知的可重构网络进行光互连。具体而言，该项目将进行以下重点研究任务：(1)设计/制造/测试用于高基数，全对全互连的非热敏硅光子开关；(2)光电印刷电路板（eo - pcb）光学多插座板的设计/制造/测试；(3)开发仿真框架，以评估所提出的应用感知光可重构数据中心架构在现实流量下的能效、性能和可扩展性；(4)拓扑重构和资源分配的全系统基准研究；(5)通过制造的硅光子开关和eo - pcb进行MSB内部和内部通信的概念验证物理层演示。

This project addresses energy efficiency and scalability of datacenters and computing systems, which form the core of our cyber-infrastructures. As our everyday lives are critically dependent on these large-scale computing systems, and the amount of data that need to be processed is increasing exponentially, the project impact is two-fold: (a) scalability improvement far beyond what possible today due to the limited power efficiency of current systems relying on electrical interconnects and switching, and (b) significant reduction of the overall power consumption of these large-scale systems with benefits for the energy and environment sectors around the world. In addition, by adopting innovative silicon photonic interconnect technologies, the project promotes a new technology sector that can drive transformative changes in the way we access and process data. Integration of research and education will be carried out throughout this project, which offers a rich platform for cross-disciplinary interaction of optoelectronics, networking, and computer science. The proposed project will allow students and researchers to gain comprehensive insight into future data center networking technologies from diverse perspectives. The proposed project will pursue scalable, high-throughput and energy-efficient computing systems by incorporating high-radix silicon photonic switches in Multi-Socket Blades (MSBs) which are optically interconnected through an application-aware reconfigurable network. Specifically, the project will pursue the following key research tasks: (1) design/fabrication/testing of athermal silicon photonic switches for high-radix, all-to-all interconnects; (2) design/fabrication/testing of optical multi-socket boards with Electro-Optic Printed Circuit Boards (EO-PCBs); (3) development of a simulation framework to evaluate energy efficiency, performance and scalability of the proposed application-aware optically-reconfigurable data center architecture under realistic traffic; (4) system-wide benchmarking studies for topology reconfiguration and resource allocation; (5) proof-of-concept physical layer demonstration of intra and inter MSB communication through the fabricated silicon photonic switches and EO-PCBs.