XPS: EXPL: CCA: Optical Data Containers

XPS：EXPL：CCA：光学数据容器

• 批准号: 1533842
• 负责人: Michael Huang
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Rochester
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1533842&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: XPS; EXPL; CCA; Optical; Data

Computer systems today are all built around what is called the von Neumann architecture where the computation subsystem and the memory subsystem are separately designed and considered. This model has served the industry well for several decades. It does, however, create a bottleneck (referred as the von Neumann bottleneck) between the two subsystems. The increasing scale and dependence on data in modern computers put more and more stress on the von Neumann bottleneck, limiting computer speed and increasing energy costs. New technologies to address this problem can significantly improve all computers including modern data centers and supercomputers that are shouldering ever more responsibilities in science, medicine, engineering, business and commerce, and everyday life of an average citizen. This project is an effort to develop one such technology.The research centers around a novel nano-scale device recently developed by one of the investigators of the project. The device is called a coupled-disk resonator or CDR for short. CDR contains two flat disks very closely placed together. The fascinating property is that, thanks to technology, these disks can be shrunk down to nano-scale and placed in close proximity precisely. As a result, they can interact with light in a variety of controllable ways that allow computer designers to build superior optical communication systems than possible today. More excitingly, the CDRs can be manipulated to perform (simple) computations directly without having to convert optical signals first to electronic signals as is the case today. The potential outcome is not only high-performance communication channels, but smart ones that can significantly mitigate the von Neumann bottleneck. In this project, the investigators will study and experiment with the designs of both the device and the system built with these devices in an effort to bring this potential technology closer to reality.

今天的计算机系统都是围绕所谓的冯诺依曼架构构建的，其中计算子系统和内存子系统是分开设计和考虑的。这种模式几十年来一直很好地服务于该行业。然而，它确实在两个子系统之间造成了瓶颈（称为冯诺依曼瓶颈）。现代计算机的规模不断扩大，对数据的依赖性也越来越大，这给冯·诺依曼瓶颈带来了越来越大的压力，限制了计算机的速度并增加了能源成本。解决这一问题的新技术可以显着改善所有计算机，包括现代数据中心和超级计算机，它们在科学、医学、工程、商业和普通公民的日常生活中承担着越来越多的责任。该项目就是开发此类技术的努力。该研究以该项目的一名研究人员最近开发的一种新型纳米级设备为中心。该装置称为耦合盘谐振器，简称CDR。 CDR 包含两个非常紧密地放置在一起的扁平磁盘。令人着迷的特性是，借助技术，这些磁盘可以缩小到纳米级，并精确地紧密放置。因此，它们可以以各种可控方式与光交互，使计算机设计人员能够构建比当今更先进的光通信系统。更令人兴奋的是，可以操纵 CDR 直接执行（简单）计算，而无需像今天的情况一样首先将光信号转换为电子信号。潜在的结果不仅是高性能通信通道，而且是可以显着缓解冯·诺依曼瓶颈的智能通信通道。在这个项目中，研究人员将研究和实验该设备以及使用这些设备构建的系统的设计，以努力使这一潜在技术更接近现实。