The architecture and experimental demonstration of a novel optical time-division multiple-access (TDMA) interconnect is presented in detail. Optical multiplexing and synchronization is used to overcome the electronic multiple-access bottlenecks associated with gigahertz-bandwidth multiprocessor communication systems. A self-clocking optical TDMA interconnect is described that may be more practical to implement than other shared-medium multiple-access protocols, such as frequency division or code division. An experimental optical TDMA interconnect is reported that uses a 100-MHz repetition rate, mode-locked laser with external modulators to generate the base-band data, and operates at a multiplexed data rate of 5 Gbits/s accommodating up to 50 channels. System measurements reveal bit error rates of less than 10 -9 , low channel crosstalk, and subnanosecond multiaccess capability. A power budget analysis predicts that 100 Gbit/s systems with 1000 nodes are feasible.