High Performance Computing

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The term high performance computing (HPC) refers to the use of (parallel computer) supercomputers and computer clusters, that is, computing systems comprised of multiple (usually mass production) processors linked together in a single system with commercially available Connectivity (computer science). This is in contrast to Mainframe computer computers, which are generally monolithic in nature. While a high level of technical skill is undeniably needed to assemble and use such systems, they can be created from off-the-shelf components. Because of their flexibility, power, and relatively low cost, HPC systems increasingly dominate the world of supercomputing. Usually, computer systems in or above the teraflop-region are counted as HPC-computers.

The term is most commonly associated with computing used for scientific research. A related term, High-performance technical computing (HPTC), generally refers to the engineering applications of cluster-based computing (such as computational fluid dynamics and the building and testing of virtual prototypes). Recently, HPC has come to be applied to business uses of cluster-based supercomputers, such as data warehouses, line-of-business application and transaction processing.

Evolving the "HPC" Concept It should be noted that there is an evolution that is happening with regards to the nomenclature surrounding the "HPC" acronym. The ‘old’ definition of HPC, High Performance Computing, was the natural semantic evolution of the 'supercomputing' market, referring to the expanded and diverse range of platforms, from scalable high-end systems to COTS clusters, blade servers and of course the traditional vector supercomputers used to attack the most complex data- and computational-intensive applications. A key trend that is currently taking root is the shift in focus towards productivity – or more precisely, how systems and technology are applied. This encompasses everything in the HPC ecosystem, from the development environment, to systems and storage, to the use and interoperability of applications, to the total user experience – all combined to address and solve real world problems.

The more current and evolving definition of HPC refers to High Productivity Computing, and reflects the purpose and use model of the myriad of existing and evolving architectures, and the supporting ecosystem of software, middleware, storage, networking and tools behind the next generation of applications.

Top 500 The most powerful high performance computers can be found on the TOP500 list. The TOP500 list (which consists of the top 500 most powerful computing systems of any kind in the world, including many which are not HPC systems) is updated twice a year, once in June at the ISC European Supercomputing Conference and again at a US Supercomputing Conference in November.

Many ideas for the new wave of grid computing were originally borrowed from HPC.

See also

Interconnect Driven Server
High-performance technical computing
Distributed computing
Parallel computing
Quantum computing
Metacomputing
Supercomputer
List of open problems in computer science#High performance computing

High-performance computing (HPC) is a term that arose after the term "supercomputing." HPC is sometimes used as a synonym for supercomputing; but in other contexts, "supercomputer" is used to refer to a more powerful subset of "high performance computers," and the term "supercomputing" becomes a subset of "high performance computing." The potentially confusing overlap of these usages is apparent.

One addendum to the main article is that "high performance computers" and their kin, "supercomputers," are not always assembled from commodity components. In the case of most major vendors (Cray, IBM, Silicon Graphics, etc.), it is probably more accurate to say that the machines are typically based on commodity parts but often add custom components to these in order to boost performance.

External links

Top 500 supercomputers
HPCwire.com Leading Source for Global News and Information Covering the Ecosystem of High Productivity Computing
OpenSolarisHPC OpenSolaris in High Performance Computing
LinuxHPC.org Linux High Performance Computing and Clustering Portal
WinHPC.org Windows High Performance Computing and Clustering Portal
Cluster Builder
Rocks Clusters Open-Source High Performance Linux Clusters
Infiscale Cluster Portal. Free GPL HPC Solutions
Dell High Performance Computing Center
Sun Grid Engine open source batch-queuing system, supported by Sun Microsystems
TORQUE Resource Manager
Project Kusu GPLv2.0 HPC Cluster Toolkit

High Performance Computing
Information about access arrangements to the UK's national HPC facilities and services is available here.

High Performance Computing Research Group
Department of Electronics and Computer Science. Formerly the High Performance Computing Centre (HPCC), the Parallel and Distributed Computing Group (PDC) and the Concurrent ...

High Performance Computing At Sussex University
S ussex H igh P erformance C omputing I nitiative

High Performance Computing
NVIDIA Tesla - GPU Computing Solutions for HPC ... With the world’s first teraflop many-core processor, NVIDIA® Tesla™ computing solutions enable the necessary transition to ...

High-performance computing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
High-performance computing (HPC) uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computing problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are ...

High Performance Computing
Welcome to the High Performance Computing facility at The University of Nottingham. New users start here. Welcome to the University of Nottingham HPC Facility.

ISS - HPC
Date: Monday March 12th 2007, 12:15pm – 4:30pm Location: Great/Little Woodhouse Rooms, University House, University of Leeds. Title: Applications and Challenges of High ...

High Performance Computing Projects
Distributed computing in background, courses, links; at Liverpool University.

High Performance Computing Facility - UCLan
Welcome . Welcome to the High Performance Computing Facility. The Facility is a cross Faculty initiative at UCLan involving the Faculties of Health, Science and Technology.

High Performance Systems
c] The High Performance Systems Group (HPSG) was formed by Professor Graham R. Nudd in 1984. Currently, it includes 14 members: 4 lecturers, 2 post-doctoral students, and 9 ...