Method and apparatus for flexible coherent and scale-out computing architecture

1. A system for communicating and switching in a scale-out architecture comprising:

a first functional unit, the first functional unit comprising one or more systems on a chip (SoC), each SoC having one or more integrated photonic interfaces;

a second functional unit, the second functional unit being a switch, the switch having one or more integrated photonic interfaces;

one of the first functional unit integrated photonic interfaces coupled to one of the second functional unit integrated photonic interfaces thereby forming a photonics link; and

wherein the first functional unit comprises:

one or more processing units, wherein each processing unit includes a central processor unit (CPU) coupled to a bus;

one or more accelerator functions coupled to the bus;

a flexible fabric controller coupled to the bus and coupled to a first input of a multiplexer/demultiplexer; and

a fixed input output controller coupled to the bus and coupled to a second input of the multiplexer/demultiplexer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the communicating and switching can handle both coherent and non-coherent traffic using a coherent scale-out protocol through the photonics link.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising an output of the multiplexer/demultiplexer coupled to the one or more integrated photonic interfaces.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the flexible fabric controller provides scheduler decisions for the switch.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the second functional unit comprises:

a first interface unit coupled to a fabric crossbar;

a second interface unit coupled to the fabric crossbar; and

a configurable fabric controller coupled to the first interface unit and the second interface unit and the fabric crossbar.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the first interface unit further comprises one or more sets of an integrated photonics module coupled to one or more photonic ports and to an input output (I/O) controller wherein the I/O controller is also coupled to the fabric crossbar.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the second interface unit further comprises one or more sets of an integrated photonics module coupled to one or more photonic ports and to an input output (I/O) controller wherein the I/O controller is also coupled to the fabric crossbar.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the second interface unit further comprises one or more sets of an integrated photonics module coupled to one or more photonic ports and to an input output (I/O) controller wherein the I/O controller is also coupled to the fabric crossbar.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the configurable fabric controller incorporates a scheduler, the scheduler to switch traffic between different I/O controllers.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the configurable fabric controller incorporates a scheduler, the scheduler receiving scheduling decisions from the first functional unit through the photonics link.

11. The system of claim 5 wherein the fabric crossbar is coupled to on-chip memory.

12. The system of claim 5 wherein the fabric crossbar is coupled to off-chip memory through an optical link.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the optical link further comprises an entity from the group consisting of multiple optical fibers, multiple wavelengths per optical fiber, and multiple optical fibers and multiple wavelengths per optical fiber.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein each SoC has on-chip memory selected from the group consisting of attached level 3 memory, shared memory, and level 3 memory and shared memory.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein each SoC has no on-chip memory attached selected from the group consisting of level 3 memory, shared memory, and level 3 memory and shared memory.