Optical add/drop interconnect bus for multiprocessor architecture
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus, comprising:
- an optical bus to interconnect processors of a multiprocessor system;
at least one electrical-to-optical (“
E-O”
) transmitter coupled to receive electrical signals from one of the processors and to convert the electrical signals to first optical signals to be guided onto the optical bus;
optical-to-electrical (“
O-E”
) receivers coupled to receive second optical signals from the optical bus and to convert the second optical signals to electrical signals for the processors; and
first optical couplers coupling the at least one E-O transmitter and the O-E receivers to the optical bus, wherein the at least one E-O transmitter comprises;
an input port to receive a continuous wave (“
CW”
) optical input;
an optical splitter to split the CW optical input into a first portion and a second portion;
a modulator to modulate the electrical signals onto the first portion of the CW optical input; and
an output port to output the second portion of the CW optical input to a next E-O transmitter of a next processor.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An optical bus interconnects two or more processors in a multiprocessor system. One or more electrical-to-optical (“E-O”) transmitters are optically coupled to the optical bus using optical couplers. The E-O transmitters receive electrical signals from the processors and convert the electrical signals to optical signals to be guided onto the optical bus. Optical-to-electrical (“O-E”) receivers are also coupled to the optical bus using the optical couplers. The O-E receivers receive optical signals from the optical bus and convert the optical signals to electrical signals for the processors.
87 Citations
13 Claims
-
1. An apparatus, comprising:
-
an optical bus to interconnect processors of a multiprocessor system; at least one electrical-to-optical (“
E-O”
) transmitter coupled to receive electrical signals from one of the processors and to convert the electrical signals to first optical signals to be guided onto the optical bus;optical-to-electrical (“
O-E”
) receivers coupled to receive second optical signals from the optical bus and to convert the second optical signals to electrical signals for the processors; andfirst optical couplers coupling the at least one E-O transmitter and the O-E receivers to the optical bus, wherein the at least one E-O transmitter comprises; an input port to receive a continuous wave (“
CW”
) optical input;an optical splitter to split the CW optical input into a first portion and a second portion; a modulator to modulate the electrical signals onto the first portion of the CW optical input; and an output port to output the second portion of the CW optical input to a next E-O transmitter of a next processor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
Specification