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Dr. Alan F. Benner
Senior Technical Staff Member
IBM Systems & Technology Group |
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About the Presenter
Alan Benner is a Senior Technical Staff Member in the IBM Systems and Technology Group, working on architecture, design, and development of optical and electronic networks for high-performance servers and parallel systems. Dr. Benner has worked on several generations of network technology for RS/6000 SP, Cluster 1600, and Cluster 1350 systems. Dr. Benner earned a B.S. at Harvey Mudd College (Physics, 1986), and MS. and Ph.D (1992) from the University of Colorado at Boulder's Optoelectronic Computing Systems Center, researching nonlinear interactions between wavelength-multiplexed optical fiber solitons. He has also done research work at AT&T Bell Laboratories on photonic networks and components. He has written 2 editions of a book on Fibre Channel, and co-authored several of the specifications for the InfiniBand architecture. He has over 20 technical publications and 25 issued patents in the U.S. and other countries. Dr.Benner is currently working on I/O and networking infrastructure for Cell-based blade servers. ton |
As clusters for supercomputing and grid computing have steadily grown in size and performance, the interconnect requirements have pushed a steady migration toward use of more optical technology closer to the processors. However, there have been ongoing challenges in packaging and integration of datacom optics, that have limited system cost/performance capabilities. This presentation will describe how optical interconnect is being used in servers and high-performance computing systems, where the barriers to greater use have been, and where the opportunities appear to be most promising for POF technology over the coming years.
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