Ultrahigh-bandwidth low-latency reconfigurable memory interconnects by wavelength routing

Abstract

One embodiment provides a computer system. The computer system includes a plurality of processing units, a plurality of memory channels, and an arrayed waveguide grating router (AWGR). A respective processing unit is coupled to an array of tunable optical transceivers. A respective memory channel is coupled to a plurality of memory banks. Each memory bank is associated with a unique optical wavelength and can be accessed via the corresponding wavelength. Each memory channel is coupled to an individual output port of the AWGR, and the tunable optical transceivers of each processing unit are respectively coupled to different input ports of the AWGR, thereby allowing each processing unit to communicate with any memory bank associated with any memory channel using an appropriate tunable optical transceiver tuned to the corresponding optical wavelength associated with the memory bank.