Partitioning Strategies of Wavelength-Routed Optical Networks-on-Chip for Laser Power Minimization

Abstract

Many researchers are currently at work to assess the congruent multiples in performance and energy efficiency that should be expected by the photonic integration of multiand many-core processors. However, such processors and their interconnection networks are typically viewed as monolithic resources, which fails to capture the most recent trends in the usage model of these computation-rich devices. In fact, partitioning of computation and communication resources is gaining momentum as a way of enabling application concurrency, and of consolidating software functions with heterogeneous requirements onto the same platform. Optical NoCs have never been embodied in this context. This work bridges this gap and proposes a partitioning technology for wavelength-routed ONoCs, including an algorithm for online allocation of wavelengths, that aims at their maximum reuse across partitions. This way, laser sources that are not in use at a given point in time can be powered-off, thus mitigating the most significant contribution to static power dissipation in optical NoCs.

A Group-Based Laser Power Supply Scheme for Photonic Network on Chip

“…This architecture requires longer waveguides, and the number of required microrings is higher than other designs, which consumes large on-chip resources. Reference [17] partitions computation and communication resources of the chip, and maximizes reuse across partitions by powered off laser sources that are not used during a certain period.…”

A network model for routing-fault-free wavelength selection in WRONoCs design

“…To overcome this flaw disruptive interconnect technologies are being investigated among which Optical Networks-on-Chip (ONoCs), where communication among core components at chip level exploits the potentials of silicon photonics to carry information by light. This technology has several advantages with respect to its electronic counterparts, including ultra-high communication bandwidth, lower power dissipation, and lower latency [4], beside increased flexibility in resource usage [3]. Despite optical technologies for long-distance communication are well assessed, their application at chip level still presents several challenges.…”