Optical interconnect

Optical interconnect is a way of communication by optical cables. Compared to traditional cables, optical fibers are capable of a much higher bandwidth, from 10 Gbit/s up to 100 Gbit/s.

The technology is currently being introduced as a way to link computers to mobile devices, as well as on motherboards and devices within computers.

IBM has created a prototype optical interconnect using wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). They suggest that if successful, this technology could lead to the first computer capable of exascale computing (a computer that can perform a billion billion computations per second). A waveguide emits eight different colored beams into several different ports of a modulator, which allows eight signals to be transferred concurrently. This multi-wavelength beam travels through the chip, with optical switches controlling the direction.

See also

• Optical communication
• Optical Network on Chip
• Parallel optical interface
• Thunderbolt (interface)
• Interconnect bottleneck
• Optical fiber cable