High-throughput network switch for the RHiNET-2 optically interconnected parallel computing system

We have produced a prototype network-switch board (the RHiNET-2/SW) for optical interconnection. Eight pairs of 800-Mbit/s x 12-channel optical interconnection modules and a one-chip CMOS ASIC switch LSI (a 784-pin EGA package) are mounted on to a single board. This board allows 8-Gbit/s/port parallel optical data transmission over a distance of up to 100 m, and the aggregate throughput is 64 Gbit/s/board. All of the electrical interfaces are composed of CMOS-LVDS logic. We have evaluated the skew of the signal and the reliability of each optical port by measuring the BER. No errors were detected during the 10(11)-bit packet data transmission at a data rate of 880 Mbit/s x 10 bits (8.8 Gbit/s/port). (This corresponds to a BER of less than 10(-11)). The skew between data channels in one I/O port was less than 141 ps. The fiber length was 50 m. This test result shows that we achieved a high-throughput and long-transmission-length RHiNET-2/SW system using optical interconnection, and that the reliability of the I/O ports in the RHiNET-2/SW is sufficient for the RHiNET-2 parallel computing system.