Appendix VI: High-Performance Computing
Introduction to HPC
High-performance computing (or computation, HPC) does not necessarily mean superfast transaction processing or the lightning execution of batch work. It is normally applied to scientific work more often than not involving iterations of similar code and equations. The work carried out is normally that which the computer can handle in a time amenable to progressing some study or other. The term supercomputer usually means those HPC systems at the top of the performance league at any point in time.
There are huge HPC problems that have eluded analysis because of the time it would take to solve them, and the solvers were keen to still be alive by the time the results were delivered. The ...