Sun Labs Sedna Project: Proximity Communication

[07/05/22]
"The Switch Is On
Changing the Way Data Moves", 18.May.07, Contrarian Minds
　http://research.sun.com/minds/2007-0518/
"Hans Eberle doesn't like inflated statements."

"The project started two years ago when his boss asked him to look into building a switch using Proximity Communication, a novel technology under development in Sun Labs."

"What was interesting to Eberle was Proximity Communication, which provided the ability to transfer data between chips without wires, at astonishing speeds."

"With the help of Robert Drost and the VLSI group in Sun Labs, plus folks from Sun's Physical Science Center in San Diego, California (not to mention his own small team), Eberle made good on a detailed two-year plan and now holds in his hands a mechanical sample."

""Today, the biggest [single-stage] switch has about 24 ports. We can easily do a 256-port switch and go up to 1000 ports."

This from a man who doesn't like inflated statements and would never promise anything he can't deliver."


"Bye-Bye Bottlenecks
Young inventor speeds chip-to-chip communication 100-fold", 15.Nov.04
　http://research.sun.com/minds/2004-1115/
"Dr. Robert Drost has been named as one of the world's top young innovators -- individuals under the age of 35 whose work in technology is having a profound impact."
若い・・・

"What Drost and other members of the team are trying to do is build a supercomputer with hundreds of thousands of processors talking to each other with bandwidth that's comparable to on-chip cache.

"It's a whole different computer when you can do that," Drost says."

Dr. Robert Drost, Distinguished Engineer
VLSI Research Project, Sun Microsystems Laboratories
　http://research.sun.com/people/mybio.php?uid=23854
Patents Awarded to Robert Drost
　http://research.sun.com/dmp/patents.php?uid=23854&show=all
40歳前で、既に 60の特許・・・


Contrarian Minds, The engineers, scientists, and dreamers of Sun Microsystems.
　http://research.sun.com/minds/
==========
[07/05/11]
"Sun nears proximity computing goal", 27 Apr 2007, vunet.com
　http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2188701/sun-pushes-forward-proximity
"The company showed off a prototype of a chip interconnect dubbed 'Sedna' at an open house of its Sun Labs research arm on Thursday."

"Nils Gura, a staff engineer at Sun Labs, claimed that the technique allows for connections 100 times more dense than current generation technologies."

"The technology is largely completed, according to Sproull, and just needs to be implemented into actual products."


Sedna Project: Multi-terabit data center switch based on Proximity Communication
　http://research.sun.com/projects/dashboard.php?id=148
Dr. Hans Eberle, Distinguished Engineer
Sedna Project, Principal Investigator
　http://research.sun.com/people/mybio.php?uid=76674

High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) V: Sun2, 2006-01-08
を書いたときは、Sedna Projectは気付かなかったのかなぁ？

Sedna Projectの Team Membersの多くは
VLSI Research: Develops high-speed circuit technologies and design methods that enable novel architectures.
　http://research.sun.com/projects/dashboard.php?id=6
と重なっています。VLSI Research Groupの Sedna Projectという位置付けでしょうか？
ただし、Principal Investigatorは兼任していません。

Dr. Ivan Sutherland, Sun Fellow and VP
VLSI Research Project, Principal Investigator
　http://research.sun.com/people/mybio.php?uid=14675
　http://research.sun.com/vlsi/Staff/ISutherland.html

"Pulling Back The Curtain At Sun Labs,
　Sun is working on faster switches, more efficient servers, new programming languages, and 3-D virtual workplaces", April 27, 2007, InformationWeek
　http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199202097


Sun Labs Virtual Open House
　http://frsun.downloads.edgesuite.net/sun/07D00952/index.html

Sun Labs Open House 2007
"Sun Labs' Open House 2007 Spotlights Innovation", April 26, 2007
　http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2007-04/sunflash.20070426.2.xml
"today opened the doors of Sun Labs for its annual Open House."

Projects on display at the 2007 Sun Labs Open House include:
　Project Fortress
　Project Sedna
　Project Darkstar
　MPK 20
　Search Inside the Music
　Project Pulsar
　Project Sun SPOT

Sun Labs Research Projects
　http://research.sun.com/projects/index.php


残念ながら、Sunは HPCS PhaseIIIに選ばれませんでしたが、HPCS PhaseIIで Sunと共同研究をしていた
Luxtera Inc.は 2006年 11月に DARPAのファンドに継続採択されています：
"uxtera Awarded Second DARPA Grant for Further Development of High Bandwidth CMOS Photonics Transceiver Technology
　Technology to focus on improved performance, smaller size and lower power", November 7, 2006
　http://www.luxtera.com/news_press_2006_1107.htm
".....today announced it has been awarded the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Electronic and Photonic Integrated Circuits (EPIC) Phase II contract based on successful completion of Phase 1 of the project - which resulted in the world’s first 40Gbps DWDM single CMOS chip transceiver. Phase II of the project will culminate in an even more highly integrated 40Gbps transceiver offering improved performance, smaller size and lower power than demonstrated in Phase I – bringing key additional circuitry onto the single monolithic CMOS chip."

High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) IV: Sun1, 2006-01-08
High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) PhaseIII, 2006-11-22