  In this paper, we examine the integration potential and explore the design
space of low power thermal reliable on-chip interconnect synthesis featuring
nanophotonics Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). With the recent
advancements, it is foreseen that nanophotonics holds the promise to be
employed for future on-chip data signalling due to its unique power efficiency,
signal delay and huge multiplexing potential. However, there are major
challenges to address before feasible on-chip integration could be reached. In
this paper, we present GLOW, a hybrid global router to provide low power
opto-electronic interconnect synthesis under the considerations of thermal
reliability and various physical design constraints such as optical power,
delay and signal quality. GLOW is evaluated with testing cases derived from
ISPD07-08 global routing benchmarks. Compared with a greedy approach, GLOW
demonstrates around 23%-50% of total optical power reduction, revealing great
potential of on-chip WDM interconnect synthesis.
