High Performance Computing (HPC) Overview

High Performance Computing (HPC) integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into a multidisciplinary field that combines digital electronics, computer architecture, system software, programming languages, algorithms and computational techniques. HPC technologies are the tools and systems used to implement and create high performance computing systems. Recently, HPC systems have shifted from Supercomputing to computing clusters and grids. Because of the need of networking in clusters and grids, High Performance Computing Technologies are being promoted the use of a collapsed network backbone, because the collapsed backbone architecture is simple to troubleshoot and upgrades can be applied to a single router as opposed to multiple ones.

The term is most commonly associated with computing used for scientific research or computational science. 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). HPC has also been applied to business uses such as data warehouses, line of business (LOB) applications, and transaction processing.

High-performance computing (HPC) as a term 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 potential for confusion over the use of these terms is apparent.

Because most current applications are not designed for HPC technologies but are retrofitted, they are not designed or tested for scaling to more powerful processors or machines. Since networking clusters and grids use multiple processors and computers, these scaling problems can cripple critical systems in future Supercomputing systems. Therefore, either the existing tools do not address the needs of the high performance computing community or the HPC community is unaware of these tools. A few examples of commercial HPC technologies include:

1. the simulation of car crashes for structural design
2. molecular interaction for new drug design
3. the airflow over automobiles or airplanes

In government and research institutions, scientists simulate galaxy creation, fusion energy, and global warming, as well as work to create more accurate short- and long-term weather forecasts. The world’s tenth most powerful supercomputer in 2008, IBM Roadrunner (located at the United States Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory) simulated the performance, safety, and reliability of nuclear weapons and certifies their functionality.