Guo Z, Caulfield H J
Appl Opt. 1995 Dec 10;34(35):8116-24. doi: 10.1364/AO.34.008116.
Optical signals have some unique properties, such as unidirectional propagation and precisely predictable path delays in waveguides, which are not shared with their electronic counterparts. By taking advantage of these unique properties, we can use optical interconnections to achieve speed improvements in single-instruction stream, multiple-data streams (SIMD) computations. We first show how optical buses can be utilized advantageously in SIMD architectures to obtain fast solutions to several computational problems, including integer addition, counting and logical XOR, sorting, and fast Fourier transforms. We then present a new implementation of the optical buses to meet the unique requirements in highperformance optical-electronic computing systems. Such an implementation allows the transmission of messages at speeds ideal for optics and, in the meantime, the processing of data at speeds ideal for electronics, dealing successfully with the speed limitation by electronics in optical-electronic computers. The primary effects of this bimodal optical bus are twofold: reduction of fiber lengths and reduction of system latency. Reduced latency is a unique advantage to an optical bimodal bus. Together, these observations make optical-bus-based architectures appear to be a promising approach to SIMD processing.
光信号具有一些独特的特性，比如单向传播以及在波导中可精确预测的路径延迟，而这些特性是其电子信号对应物所不具备的。利用这些独特特性，我们可以使用光互连来提高单指令流多数据流（SIMD）计算的速度。我们首先展示如何在SIMD架构中有利地利用光总线，以快速解决几个计算问题，包括整数加法、计数和逻辑异或、排序以及快速傅里叶变换。然后我们提出一种光总线的新实现方式，以满足高性能光电子计算系统的独特要求。这样的实现方式允许以光学理想的速度传输消息，同时以电子学理想的速度处理数据，成功应对光电子计算机中电子学的速度限制。这种双峰光总线的主要作用有两方面：减少光纤长度和减少系统延迟。减少延迟是光双峰总线的独特优势。综合来看，这些观察结果使基于光总线的架构似乎成为SIMD处理的一种有前景的方法。
