Researchers at IBM have taken the wraps off an all new chip that represents a major development in processor design that will pave the way for the next generation of high-performance computers.
The chips integrate a technology called CMOS Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics that mates traditional silicon components with an advanced optical interface on the same chip at a density that far exceeds anything that has come before it.
According to Dr T C Chen, vice president of science and technology at IBM Research, "the development of the Silicon Nanophotonics technology brings the vision of on-chip optical interconnections much closer to reality. With optical communications embedded into the processor chips, the prospect of building power-efficient computer systems with performance at the exaflop level is one step closer to reality."
Using optical technology, chips will be able to communicate with other components in the same system - or even in a different server or rack - much, much faster than is currently possible. As a result, the latency between two CPUs could be greatly reduced, increasing performance and making the goal of exascale computing just a little bit closer.
IBM's breakthrough has enabled a ten-fold increase in the integration density of optical components compared to any previously announced technology. In addition, the techniques can be added to the start of an existing CMOS manufacturing facility without the need for any new or special tooling, making full-scale manufacturing a relatively simple exercise.
The next step for IBM will be to establish manufacturing capabilities by integrating these new processes into an existing commercial foundry.
More details on the project are available from IBM Research's Photonics page.
