VITA Architectures for Optical Study Group
VITA members recognize the need for higher density, higher performing interconnect technologies to meet the speeds of 10 gigabit serial channels and higher that will be used in next generation critical embedded systems. As the transfer rates continue to increase, it is clear that optical technology offers many advantages. Since optical interconnects work best as a point-to-point connection, future systems are going to need much higher density supporting hundreds of connections in a single board or line-replaceable unit (LRU).
Achieving the projected level of combined performance and connector density is no easy challenge. The lead-time to develop technologies and supporting specifications is very long. To that end, VITA is launching a study group now to research potential technologies and propose an architecture that could become part of future solutions.
Mission
The mission of the VITA Architectures for Optical Study Group is to research and determine the feasibility of developing a standard architecture for optical interconnects suitable for deployment in critical embedded systems. The study group will focus on high-density options for backplanes and connections between line-replaceable units, mezzanines, and daughter cards. Critical embedded systems are high-performance, distributed computing systems, and they manage high bandwidth I/O; involve real-time processing; and are environmentally constrained in size, weight, and power (SWaP).
The study group will explore the needs and ascertains the interest in developing a standard. The study group can move to working group status by meeting defined working group formation criteria as defined by the VITA Standards Organization.
Existing standards and those under development by Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs), and appropriate industry alliances, community collaboration efforts, and other groups will be used whenever practical. The Study Group will proactively reach out to such groups to facilitate their early involvement.
Individuals and companies that are interested in participating should contact exec@vita.com, Subject: VITA Architectures for Optical Study Group.
New material will be posted here as discoverd by the Study Group.
White papers and Reports
IGI Group, a Boston-based market research and publishing firm on the fiber optics markets, has several relevant reports.
IGI Group: Active Optical Cables Market Report 2011
IGI Group: Light Peak Special Report from the Field
IGI Group: Military & Aerospace Fiber Optics Market Report Series
Fiber Optic Connectors in Military and Commercial Applications, Bishop & Associates, January 2011
NEW-HIP Program Advances Avionics Networks, DARPA, January 2011
Pluggable Optical Backplane Technology, Xyratex, 2007
A terabit capacity passive polymer optical backplane based on a novel meshed waveguide architecture, February 2009
Integration technologies for pluggable backplane optical interconnect systems, January, 2007
IBM: Silicon Integrated Nanophotonics, Development of on-chip optical interconnects for future multi-core processors, March 4, 2010
IEEE Photonics Winter Topicals: C-LAB Demonstrates Pluggable Optical "Board-to-Board" Connection, February 8, 2010
ISSCC 2009: Optical I/O Technology for Tera-Scale Computing (requires registering)
Terabit Capacity Passive Polymer Optical Backplane
Reconfigurable intelligent optical backplane for parallel computing and communications (requires registering)
Optical Backplanes, Board and Chip Interconnects (requires purchase)
Optical Backplane Technology for a Large Sonnet Multi-Service Switch
Multimode Waveguides of Photodefinable Epoxy for Optical Backplane Applications
Reconfigurable computing with optical backplanes an economic argument for optical interconnects (requires purchase)
Singlemode polymer waveguide for optical backplanes
Fully Optical Backplane System Using Polymeric Waveguides
Integration technologies for pluggable backplane optical interconnect systems
Polymer-Based Optical Waveguides: Materials, Processing, and Devices, Advanced materials, Hong Ma, K.-Y. Jen, and Larry R. Dalton, October 2, 2002
Presentations
NEMI Cost Analysis: Optical Versus Copper Backplanes, Part I: Benchmarking Copper
Optical PCB Overview, IBM Research, November 2009
Articles and Webcasts
New, more effective optical fibers have semiconductive core, Gizmag, Ben Coxworth, March 1, 2011
Imec to investigate high-bandwidth optical I/O between CMOS chips, EE Times Europe, Julien Happich, January 25, 2011
IBM chips: Let there be light signals, Tech Reviews, Stephen Shankland, December 1, 2010
IBM Claims Breakthrough in Laser-Based Chips, The Wall Street Journal, Don Clark, December 1, 2010
Making the shift to optical interconnect with PCIe Gen3, EETimes, Reginald Conley, October 25, 2010
Light on Silicon Better than Copper?, Duke University, Office of News & Communications, October 21, 2010
Intel: Light Peak switches on in 2012, EETimes, Rick Merritt, September 16, 2010
Get on the Optical Bus, IEEE Spectrum, Clint Schow, Fuad Doany, Jeffrey Kash, September, 2010
Intel’s Optical Breakthrough Downloads an HD Film in a Second …, Fine HD , Sam Biddle, July 28, 2010
Intel says light beams can replace electronic signals for future computers, EDN, Rick Nelson, July 28, 2010
Intel Turns to Light to Transfer Data Inside PCs, PCWorld, Agam Shah, July 27, 2010
Light without logic, Optical devices are finally going inside computers, but only in parts, The Economist, May 13, 2010
Leti integrates lasers with CMOS for monolithic optical interconnect, EDN, Ron Wilson, April 9, 2010
Optics Are No Longer An Illusion , ConnectorSupplier.com, Bob Hult, March 2010
Air Force researchers to speed optical interconnect development for chips, boards, and systems, Military & Aerospace, John Keller, March 11, 2010
IBM Nanophotonic Switch Promises Faster Energy-Efficient Computing, Semiconductor International, Alexander E. Braun, March 4, 2010
Complex modulation comes to optical fiber, Test & Measurement World, Martin Rowe, March 1, 2010
Engineers explore life beyond 10 Gbit links. Designers rally around 25G, but next step still a mystery, EE Times, Rick Merritt, February 8, 2010
Optical Communications: Are 100G networks ready for prime time?, OptoIQ, Gail Overton, January 3, 2010
Oclaro supplying VCSELs for Intel's Light Peak optical connectivity platform, OptoIQ, Gail Overton, October 27, 2009
Intel's Light Peak optical links could arrive in 2010, DeepTech, CNET News, Stephen Shankland, October 8, 2009
Tips and Trends: Make copper viable at 10G, TechOnline Inda, Allard Van der Horst, Phyworks, March 22, 2009
Five Misconceptions About the 10G Optical Market, Nyquist Capital, May 30, 2007
Electrical duobinary signaling for backplane transmission at 25 Gbits/s and beyond, EE Times, Mary Mandich and Jeffrey Sinsky, April 11, 2005
Patents
US Patent 7587115 - Integrated functionality in optical backplane: A functional optical device for use in an optical backplane system is provided that includes one or more input fibers, one or more output fibers, and a functional portion configured to operate on an optical input received via the one or more input fibers to provide an optical output via the one or more output fibers. The one or more input fibers and the one or more output fibers of the functional optical device are terminated in a fixed configuration based on a fixed termination layout of at least one group of multiple fibers of an optical backplane interconnect.
US Patent 5937133 - Optical backplanes: It is an object of this invention to provide an optical backplane for the routing and protection of optical fibres and to also provide a method of producing such an optical backplane.
WO/1994/018587 - Optical backplanes: The present invention relates to the implementation of optical backplanes using mass produced optical components and subsystems such as holograms and CD-type laser diodes.
US Patent 6970649 - WDMA free space broadcast technique for optical backplanes and interplanar communications.
Patent application title: An optical connector, a communication system and a method of connecting a user circuit to an optical transceiver.
Datasheets and Technical Notes
FlexPlane™ Optical Circuitry, by Molex 
Avago Fiber Optics: Breaking Bandwidth and Performance Barriers in Supercomputing