HOLMS - High Speed Opto-Electronic Memory Systems - Opto-Electronic PCB

In computer architecture bandwidth and memory latency represent a major bottleneck. One possibility for solving these problems is the use of optical interconnections with their inherent capability for large fanin and fanout, low skew, etc. Possibilities to produce integrated chips with optical and electronic connections have advanced and the barrier for their adoption in computer systems gets smaller. The European Union project "High-Speed Opto-Electronic Memory Systems" (HOLMS) aims at demonstrating the feasibility of an optical bus system for CPU memory access. The bus system is based on planar integrated free-space optics (PIFSO) in combination with fiber and PCB-integrated waveguide optics.   
C-LAB is responsible for the sub-project "Opto-electronic PCB" in which the entire PCB-embedded optical interconnection system will be designed and manufactured.

Project funded by: EU
Project duration: 04/2002-09/2005
Project partners: Siemens Business Services C-LAB (D), Siemens AG CT D2P (D), ILFA GmbH (D), ETH Zürich (CH), Heriot-Watt University at Edinburgh (GB), Supelec (F), Thales (F), Universität Hagen (D), Universität Paderborn (D)
Contact: Dr. Jürgen Schrage, C-LAB,  Projectmanager
Dr. Paul Lukowicz, ETH Zürich