Towards compelling cases for the viability of silicon-nanophotonic technology in future manycore systems

Many crossbenchmarking results reported in the open literature provide optimistic expectations on the use of optical networks-on-chip (ONoCs) for high-performance and low-power on-chip communication in future manycore systems. The goal of this paper is to highlight key methodological steps for a realistic assessment of the emerging nanophotonic technology. Building on this methodology, the paper provides an accurate energy efficiency comparison between an ONoC and an ENoC counterpart both at the level of the system interconnect and of the system as a whole. As a result, the paper points out the most promising directions for the development of the technology for the sake of practical relevance, and confirms that the technology has potential based on a characterization methodology with uncommon cross-layer visibility