Comparisons between electrical and optical interconnects for on-chip signaling

We present a comparison between electrical wires driven by repeaters and optical interconnects from both delay and power perspective. This involved properly modeling the power and delay of each component in an optical signaling system as well as repeated wires. We show that it is favorable to switch to optical interconnects for global signaling, on both power and delay account, for long wires. Whereas, shorter wires favor an electrical operation on lower power grounds.