Patent ID: 8295071

Claim:
A computer system, comprising: a central processing unit; a system memory; a bus bridge coupled to the central processing unit and the system memory and operable to allow communication between the central processing unit and the system memory, wherein the central processing unit both reads data from the system memory and writes data to the system memory through the bus bridge, and wherein the system memory comprises: a carrier substrate; a controller attached to the carrier substrate and configured to transfer data signals between the system memory and the central processing unit via the bus bridge, the controller further being operable to transmit and receive optical signals; and first and second memory modules attached to the carrier substrate proximate the controller, each memory module including a module substrate and a memory device attached to the module substrate, the second memory module including an optical transmitter/receiver unit operatively coupled to the memory device, the first memory module being positioned or configured to provide a first optical path for optical signals between the controller and the optical transmitter/receiver unit of the second memory module.