Optically connected memory for disaggregated data centers

Recent advances in integrated photonics enable the implementation of reconfigurable, high-bandwidth, and low energy-per-bit interconnects next-generation data centers. We propose evaluate an Optically Connected Memory (OCM) architecture that disaggregates main memory from computation nodes OCM is based on micro-ring resonators (MRRs), it does not require any modification to DRAM modules. calculate energy consumption real photonic devices integrate them into a system simulator performance. Our results show (1) capable interconnecting four DDR4 channels computing node using two fibers with 1.02 pJ (2) performs up 5.5× faster than disaggregated 40G PCIe NIC connectors nodes.