Director: Keren Bergman
Assistant Director: Ali Niknejad

CUBIC was founded with a vision to flatten the computation-communication gap, delivering seamless Edge-to-Cloud connectivity with transformational reductions in the global system energy consumption. The CUBIC community of like-minded leading researchers is a tightly integrated organization with a shared Grand Challenge: Realize robust, scalable wireless Edge to Cloud connectivity at > 10 Tbps with sub-pJ/bit energy efficiencies, while enhancing bandwidth densities by >100X over capacity-constrained channels. CUBIC will strive to meet the Grand Challenge with a systems driven, cross-layer, vertically integrated research strategy based on: 1) developing photonic, wired, and wireless connectivity solutions that adapt to the requirements of distributed data-centric application drivers (adaptive functional connectivity); 2) leveraging the intrinsic high computational capacity of scaled CMOS technologies to enhance communication capacity (high-capacity robust connectivity via massive compute); 3) develop dense photonic and electronic connectivity fabrics to enable full utilization of distributed compute resources (ultra-dense connectivity to enhance compute); and 4) co-optimize and co-design from systems-to-devices to exploit synergies across the system stack (systems-to-devices research). Two center-wide System Connectivity Platforms will serve as focal points for CUBIC system validation, technology integration, and research breakthrough demonstrations: 1) The Socket-to-Socket Distributed AI/ML/HPC Fabric Platform (SoSFab) will demonstrate end-to-end data path transporting intra-socket bandwidth densities to systemwide photonic connectivity; and 2) The Real Time Antenna-to-Compute Wireless Testbed (ReACT) will integrate CUBIC massive mmWave frontend modules and digital beamforming circuits with high-performance radio baseband systems to demonstrate real-time scalable and robust wireless connectivity from antenna to compute.

CUBIC’s research strategy will be executed via three closely coordinated technical themes, each structured to facilitate application-driven cross-layer co-design from devices-to-systems: Theme 1 (Connectivity Networks and Systems) drives the cross-cutting system level connectivity, security, and applications challenges to enable pervasive, flexible optical connectivity in the Cloud, and robust and dynamic Edge wireless networks; Theme 2 (Wireline and Lightwave Interconnects) enables pervasive system-wide photonics-based high-bandwidth density connectivity with extreme energy efficiency; Theme 3 (Wireless Circuits and Technology) realizes low latency, reliable wireless connectivity with massive capacity, guaranteed security, and low cost of access.