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Zurich, Switzerland, 17 December 2007—The performance
of tomorrow’s supercomputers will be dictated by their
ability to exchange large volumes of data instantly between the
hundreds of thousands of processors of which they are built.
Using optical networks to transfer data throughout the system
using light, researchers at IBM and Corning Inc., under a project
sponsored by the US Department of Energy/NNSA, have succeeded
in demonstrating the world’s most advanced and powerful
optical packet switch. This novel switch is capable of transmitting
2.5 Terabits of data—equivalent to 20 high-definition movies—in
a single second.
Today’s supercomputers, such as IBM’s Blue Gene system,
are based on tens of thousands of relatively simple and power-efficient
processors that work in parallel to solve a problem collectively.
To grow future supercomputing performance and accommodate the resulting
spiking data flows in the system, IBM researchers have been investigating
the use of light for data transmission—on the chips themselves,
between two processors and throughout complex communication networks.
Optical data transmission is very promising by virtue of its high
capacity, the ability to transfer data with minimum losses over
larger distances and low power consumption.
Motivated by these
prospects, a team of computer scientists at the IBM Zurich Research
Laboratory and optical engineers at the US-based company Corning
Inc. set out to design and develop a high-performance optical communication
network by focusing on the most critical components—the switches.
The function of a switch is to control data flows and prevent congestion
within the complex network of data highways.
As a result of the
joint four-year project entitled OSMOSIS (Optical Shared MemOry
Supercomputer Interconnect System), IBM and Corning researchers
have now demonstrated the most powerful optical packet switch.
It combines 64 optical data links, each running at 40 Gigabit per
second, which transmit up to 2.5 Terabits per second. For comparison,
this corresponds to 20 HD DVD movies in a single second.
“We
will need such powerful optical interconnect systems in the future
if we want to scale supercomputing capabilities and efficiency
well beyond the petaflop range,” explains Ronald Luijten,
OSMOSIS project leader at IBM’s Zurich Research Lab. “Such
systems could, for example, accelerate discoveries in the fields
of biomedicine and biology, and may even empower computers to design
such complex, large-scale systems as new drugs.”
One of the
main challenges in the development of the optical packet switch
is the lack of optical memory, as it is not yet known how to store
and retrieve optical data bits easily and in a cost-effective manner.
Luijten’s team, which was responsible for the switch design,
overcame this issue by adopting a hybrid electro-optical approach
using electronics to buffer and schedule data and optics—leading-edge
Corning semiconductor optical amplifiers—for the transmitting
and switching processes. They developed a state-of-the-art electronic
controller that can compute an optimal switch configuration during
each packet slot of 51.2 nanoseconds, thereby operating practically
bufferless while maximizing throughput and reliability.
“The
function of the controller, which is the intelligence of the switch,
is to perform scheduling and resolve contention,” explains
Luijten. The controller board—one of the most complex designs
ever developed—was awarded the 2007 Mentor Graphics Award
for outstanding circuit board design.
Further information on IBM's OSMOSIS project.
Further information on the Mentor
Graphics Design Award.
About the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory
The IBM Zurich Research Laboratory (ZRL) is the European branch
of IBM Research. This worldwide network of some 3500 employees in
eight laboratories around the globe is the largest industrial IT
research organization in the world. ZRL's spectrum of research activities
ranges from basic science and fundamental research in physics and
mathematics, to the development of computer systems and software,
to the design of novel business models and services.
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OSMOSIS team. 