Photonic Integration for Datacenters
Technology Description:
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) will develop and demonstrate a technology platform that integrates efficient photonic interfaces directly into chip "packages." The simultaneous design and packaging of photonics with electronics will enable higher bandwidth network switches that are much more energy efficient. Traditional electronic switches toggle connections between wires, each wire providing a different communication channel. Having a limited number of communication channels means that electronic switches can lead to “fat” hierarchical networks, consuming energy each time data has to travel through one switch to another. By developing a platform that directly integrates efficient photonics into first-level chip packages, layers of traditional network hierarchy can be eliminated, reducing the power, latency, and cost of datacenters. Photonic interconnects integrated directly into chip packages can enable switches with a much larger port count than traditional electronic switches. These new, larger switches will connect more servers using fewer levels of required switching. The team estimates that an improvement in the network metrics (either cost or power) will enable a more than linear improvement in the overall transactional efficiency because faster networks and faster endpoint data-rates can be deployed, reducing the total number of computational and storage systems necessary to satisfy user transactions.
Potential Impact:
If successful, developments from ENLITENED projects will result in an overall doubling in datacenter energy efficiency in the next decade through deployment of new photonic network topologies.
Security:
The United States is home to much of the world’s datacenter infrastructure. Photonic networks add resilience that can bolster the energy security of this critical driver of economic activity.
Environment:
Reducing the overall energy consumption of datacenters cuts energy-related emissions per bit of data transmitted and processed.
Economy:
Photonic networks can lower the costs associated with operating datacenters, improving American economic competitiveness in this fast-developing area.
Contact
ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Olga Spahn
Project Contact:
Prof. Clint Schow
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
schow@ece.ucsb.edu
Partners
Lucidean Inc.
Related Projects
Release Date:
06/10/2016