Jim Mitchell, Vice President, Photonics, Interconnects and Packaging at Oracle Labs, is a Waterloo alumnus who graduated not only with a degree in Mathematics/Physics Option, but with some extraordinary firsthand experience. As an undergraduate, he was one of the four developers of the first WATFOR FORTRAN compiler.
Mitchell now directs and develops novel technologies for silicon photonics (under contract with DARPA) and microelectronics packaging to enable very high performing, compact computer and electronic systems. He will be returning to campus to give a seminar lecture titled "What is Silicon Photonicsand Why is it Invading Datacenters?"
Today’s compute cycles are packaged and provided in two very different ways: by personal mobile devices, and by very large datacenters whose compute power, scale, and networks give each of us multiple supercomputers to augment our personal devices. Since the first electronic computers, all the connections within and between them have been electrical, but this is changing, and photons are taking over some of the work formerly done by electrons. This talk will discuss why this is happening, show the photonics technologies that are enabling it, and discuss the evolutionary paths that are likely as light enters the dark realm of electronics in modern datacenters.
What
is
Silicon Photonicsand
Why
is
it
Invading Datacenters?
September
26,
2013
2pm
DC
1302
A reception will follow in DC 1301 (Fishbowl lounge)