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From: arnief@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Arnie Frisch)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,sci.electronics,sci.physics,comp.lsi
Subject: Re: Electro-optic bus
Message-ID: <7903@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 31 Jul 90 20:36:26 GMT
References: <AGLEW.90Jul23203937@oberon.crhc.uiuc.edu> <1965@trlluna.trl.oz>
Reply-To: arnief@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Arnie Frisch)
Followup-To: comp.arch
Distribution: comp
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
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In article <1965@trlluna.trl.oz> aduncan@rhea.trl.oz.au (Allan Duncan) writes:
>From article <AGLEW.90Jul23203937@oberon.crhc.uiuc.edu>, by aglew@oberon.crhc.uiuc.edu (Andy Glew):
>
>...
>Overall, there is little, if any, advantage in electro-optic busses.  If
>it was all optic, then that might be different, but even then you are
>only talking pipes, as the trip time to an adjacent slot is significant.
>
There are two significant advantages to electro-optic busses:

	1. No crosstalk.  A significant factor in wide bus high speed
	   applications.

	2. Wide bandwidth as a function of the separation of the
	   transmitter and receiver.  Reduction of dispersive effects,
	   such as skin effect.

For these reasons, most computer manufacturers are looking at
architectures including optical busses for advanced machines.

Arnold Frisch
Tektronix Laboratories