Computer clusterA computer cluster is a group of autonomous computers that work together so that they can be viewed as a single system. Unlike grid computers, computer clusters have each node set to perform the same task, controlled and scheduled by software. The newest manifestation of cluster computing is cloud computing.
Grid computingGrid computing is the use of widely distributed computerresources to reach a common goal. A computing grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve many files. Grid computing is distinguished from conventional high-performance computing systems such as cluster computing in that grid computers have each node set to perform a different task/application.
Parallel computingLarge supercomputers such as IBM's Blue Gene/P are designed to heavily exploit parallelism.Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level, instruction-level, data, and task parallelism.
Torus interconnectA torus interconnect is a switch-less network topology for connecting processing nodes in a parallel computer system. IntroductionIn geometry, a torus is created by revolving a circle about an axis coplanar to the circle. While this is a general definition in geometry, the topological properties of this type of shape describes the network topology in its essence. Geometry illustrationIn the representations below, the first is a one dimension torus, a simple circle.Processor (computing)In computing and computer science, a processor or processing unit is an electrical component (digital circuit) that performs operations on an external data source, usually memory or some other data stream. The term is frequently used to refer to the central processing unit (CPU), the main processor in a system. It can also refer to other specialized processors such as graphics processing units (GPU), quantum processing units (QPU), and digital signal processors (DSP).
InfiniBandInfiniBand (IB) is a computer networking standard used in high-performance computing that features very high throughput and very low latency. It is used for data interconnect both among and within computers. InfiniBand is also used as either a direct or switched interconnect between servers and storage systems, as well as an interconnect between storage systems. It is designed to be scalable and uses a switched fabricnetwork topology.
Volunteer computingVolunteer computing is a type of distributed computing in which people donate their computers' unused resources to a research-oriented project, sometimes in exchange for credit points. The fundamental idea behind it is that a modern desktop computer is sufficiently powerful to perform billions of operations a second, but for most users only between 10–15% of its capacity is used. Common tasks such as word processing or web browsing leave the computer mostly idle.
Computer performanceIn computing, computer performance is the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system. Outside specific contexts, computer performance is estimated in terms of accuracy, efficiency and speed of executing computer program instructions. When it comes to high computer performance, one or more of the following factors might be involved: Short response time for a given piece of work.High throughput (rate of processing work tasks).Low utilization of computing resources.
Graphics processing unitA graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a component on a discrete graphics card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and game consoles.
Bus (computing)In computer architecture, a bus (historically also called a data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer or, more rarely, between computers. It encompasses both hardware (e.g., wires, optical fiber, bus slots) and software, including communication protocols. At its core, a bus is a shared physical pathway, typically composed of wires or traces on a circuit board, that allows multiple devices to communicate.
Administrative domainAn administrative domain is a service provider holding a securityrepository permitting to easily authenticate and authorizeclients with credentials. This particularly applies to computer network security. This concept is captured by the 'AdminDomain' class of the GLUE information model. An administrative domain is mainly used in intranet environments.
Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network ComputingThe Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC, pronounced –rhymes with "oink") is an open-sourcemiddleware system for volunteer computing (a type of distributed computing). Developed originally to support SETI@home, it became the platform for many other applications in areas as diverse as medicine, molecular biology, mathematics, linguistics, climatology, environmental science, and astrophysics, among others.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.