O. Stucky University of Heidelberg (Germany) R. L Shoemaker University of Arizona (United States) R. Manner University of Heidelberg (Germany) P. H. Bartels University of Arizona (United States)
The drastically reduced costs and improved performance of fiber optic components in recent years offers an opportunity to economically incorporate high-bandwidth optical communication links within a large-scale multiprocessor system. In this paper, the design, implementation, and initial performance of a fiber optic bus for a tightly coupled multiprocessor system are discussed. This optical bus ulitizes a multiple fiber-multiple star configuration with data rates of up to 80 MHz. It transmits bus control line information by repetitively scanning the control lines and transmitting their states as a packet of bits. It is currently being used for a 30-processor system called the Heidelberg Polyp, which has a custom bus design. However, the design approach is a general one that could easily be adapted to other buses, especially asynchronous buses such as the VME bus.
O. Stucky,
R. L Shoemaker,
R. Manner,
P. H. Bartels,
"Optical Interconnection For Multiprocessor Computer Bus Systems," Optical Engineering 28(11), 281185 (1 November 1989). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.7977118
O. Stucky, R. L Shoemaker, R. Manner, P. H. Bartels, "Optical Interconnection For Multiprocessor Computer Bus Systems," Opt. Eng. 28(11) 281185 (1 November 1989)