The AMOEBA switch: An optoelectronic switch for multiprocessor networking using Dense-WDM

We present a single-chip asynchronous multiprocessor optoelectronic bit-sliced arrayed (AMOEBA) crossbar switch, The AMOEBA switch addresses the challenge to produce a large-scale, nonblocking packet switch through dense integration of photonic devices directly onto silicon VLSI circuits, Optoelectronic-VLSI technology is used to integrate the switch fabric, routing controller, packet buffers, line interface circuits, and optoelectronic conversion devices on a single chip. We show how free-space optical interconnects and wavelength-and-space-division-multiplexe networking on single-mode fibers can provide switched interconnection between multiple nodes in a distributed computing environment. An optomechanical transceiver package accomplishes the free-space-to-fiber interfacing, We report the implementation and testing of the key components of a 16-channel AMOEBA prototype switch with a potential capacity of 12.8 Gb/s (or 800 Mb/s/channel), and capable of switching 16 million packets per second.