Recent advances in integrated photonics enable the implementation of reconfigurable, high-bandwidth, and low energy-per-bit interconnects in next-generation data centers. We propose and evaluate an Optically Connected Memory (OCM) architecture that disaggregates the main memory from the computation nodes in data centers. OCM is based on micro-ring resonators (MRRs), and it does not require any modification to the DRAM memory modules. We calculate energy consumption from real photonic devices and integrate them into a system simulator to evaluate performance. Our results show that (1) OCM is capable of interconnecting four DDR4 memory channels to a computing node using two fibers with 1.07 pJ energy-per-bit consumption and (2) OCM performs up to 5.5x faster than a disaggregated memory with 40G PCIe NIC connectors to computing nodes.

翻译：集成光子的最近进展使得能够在下一代数据中心实施可重新配置、高带宽和低能量/位互连。 我们建议并评价一个光学连接内存(OCM)结构,该结构将主内存与数据中心的计算节点分列。 OCM以微环共振器为基础,不需要修改 DRAM 内存模块。 我们计算了真实光学装置的能量消耗,并将其纳入一个系统模拟器,以评价性能。 我们的结果显示:(1) OCM能够将四个DRD4内存渠道与使用1.07 PJ每位能量消耗量的两根纤维计算节点连接起来,(2) OCM比40G PCINI 连接器的分类内存速度快到5.5倍。