An electronic system with components communicating over optical channels, a board initialization and continuity check and a method of transferring data over the optical channels. The system include a backplane with board to board signal wiring and a shared optical bus. Optical gratings are attached to the backplane and to circuit boards to pass optical energy between an optical transceiver and board/backplane. An optical transceiver at each end of each optical jumper relays optical signals between the optical jumpers and the connected circuit board or the backplane. Optical jumpers optically connect the circuit boards to the backplane.