Software-defined massive multicore networking via freespace optical interconnect

Abstract

This paper presents a new frontier where future computer systems can continue to evolve as CMOS technology reaches its fundamental performance and density scaling limits. Our idea adopts freespace circuit-switched optical interconnect in massive multicore networking on chips and modules to flexibly configure private cache-coherent networks for allocated groups of cores in a software-defined manner. The proposed scheme can avoid networking inefficiencies due to the core resource fragmentation by providing deterministically lower latencies and higher bandwidth while advancing the technology roadmap with lower power consumption and improved cooling. We also discuss implementation plan and challenges for our proposal.