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US 12,339,490 B2Granted
Clock signal distribution using photonic fabric
AssigneeCelestial AI Inc.
InventorsPhilip Winterbottom, Martinus Bos
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Various embodiments provide for clock signal distribution within a processor, such as a machine learning (ML) processor, using a photonic fabric.
Claims20
A circuit package comprising:
- an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) comprising a plurality of processing elements that include photonic-channel interfaces;
- and
- a plurality of photonic channels connecting the plurality of processing elements via the photonic-channel interfaces to form at least part of an electro-photonic network, a sub-plurality of the plurality of photonic channels being connected to an individual processing element of the plurality of processing elements, the individual processing element being configured to:
- select, for the individual processing element, a master photonic channel from the sub-plurality of photonic channels;
- select, for the individual processing element, a set of slave photonic channels from the sub-plurality of photonic channels;
- extract a received clock signal from the master photonic channel;
- generate, based on the received clock signal, a local clock signal used by the individual processing element to perform one or more local operations on the individual processing element;
- and
- transmit, over the set of slave photonic channels, a distributed clock signal to a set of the plurality of processing elements connected to the individual processing element, the transmitting the distributed clock signal comprising transforming the distributed clock signal from an electrical form to an optical form using the photonic-channel interface of the individual processing element, the transmitting the distributed clock signal further comprising transforming the distributed clock signal from the optical form to the electrical form at the set of the plurality of processing elements, the distributed clock signal being suitable for transmission across the set of slave photonic channels and for use as associated local clock signals by the set of the plurality of processing elements, the distributed clock signal being generated based on the received clock signal.
6 more elements
A method comprising:
- selecting, by an individual processing element of a plurality of processing elements, a master photonic channel from a plurality of photonic channels, the master photonic channel being selected for the individual processing element, the plurality of processing elements being part of an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) of a circuit package, the plurality of processing elements being connected together by a plurality of photonic channels to form at least part of an electro-photonic network within the circuit package;
- selecting, by the individual processing element, a set of slave photonic channels from the plurality of photonic channels, the set of slave photonic channels being selected for the individual processing element;
- extracting, by the individual processing element, a received clock signal from the master photonic channel in a digital format;
- based on the received clock signal in the digital format, generating, by the individual processing element, a local clock signal used by the individual processing element to perform one or more local operations on the individual processing element using a digital portion of the ASIC;
- and
- transmitting, by the individual processing element and over the set of slave photonic channels, a distributed clock signal to a set of the plurality of processing elements connected to the individual processing element, the distributed clock signal being generated based on the received clock signal in the digital format, the transmitting comprising:
- transforming the distributed clock signal from a digital format to an optical format;
- routing the distributed clock signal in the optical format across the set of slave photonic channels;
- receiving the distributed clock signal in the optical format at photonic interfaces of the set of the plurality of processing elements;
- and
- transforming the distributed clock signal to the digital format in the set of the plurality of processing elements using associated photonic channel interfaces.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.