Use of siilicon photonics (SiP) for computer network interfaces
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsShree Rathinasamy, Victor B. Teeter
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A silicon photonics (SiP) chip includes MAC and PHY blocks interconnected by optical waveguides (560) to provide network interface for a computer system. The SiP chip may be formed in a package mounted to the computer's motherboard. In an example, the computer system is a blade server module mounted in a datacenter chassis.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising a silicon photonics chip (SiP chip) comprising a network interface circuit for communicating over a network with devices outside of the SiP chip;
- wherein the network interface circuit comprises:
- a plurality of function blocks;
- and
- one or more optical waveguides each of which interconnects two or more of the function blocks;
- wherein the function blocks comprise:
- a first function block comprising a media access controller (MAC) for communicating over the network;
- and
- a second function block comprising a physical layer interface device (PHY) for communicating over the network.
A method for providing transferring data between a computer system and a network, the method comprising at least one of:
- (1) transmitting the data from the computer system to the network;
- (2) receiving the data from the network by the computer system;
- wherein operation (1) comprises:
- (1a) receiving the data by a silicon photonics chip (SiP chip) of the computer system, the SiP chip comprising a network interface circuit comprising:
- a plurality of function blocks;
- and
- one or more optical waveguides each of which interconnects two or more of the function blocks;
- wherein the function blocks comprise:
- a first function block comprising a media access controller (MAC) for communicating over the network;
- and
- a second function block comprising a physical layer interface device (PHY) for communicating over the network;
- and
- (1b) operating the MAC and the PHY to transmit the data by the SiP chip to the network;
- wherein operation (2) comprises operating the MAC and the PHY to receive the data by the SiP for the computer system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.