High-performance computing (HPC) is the use of supercomputers, computer clusters, and parallel processing strategies to solve complex problems by processing data and performing calculations at high speeds. HPC is often associated with scientific research, computational science, and engineering applications, but it has also been applied to business uses such as data warehouses, line-of-business applications, and transaction processing. Some key points about HPC include:
- HPC integrates systems administration, network, and security management to ensure optimal performance.
- HPC can be used for both scientific and business purposes, depending on the specific application.
- High-performance technical computing (HPTC) is a related term that generally refers to the engineering applications of cluster-based computing, such as computational fluid dynamics and the building and testing of virtual prototypes.
- HPC can be used to solve large problems in science, engineering, and business by aggregating computing power in a way that delivers much higher performance than a typical desktop or workstation.
- Supercomputing is sometimes used as a synonym for HPC, 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".
- HPC systems often consist of compute servers networked together into a cluster, with software programs and algorithms running simultaneously on the servers. The cluster is networked to the data storage to capture the output.
- To operate at maximum performance, each component of an HPC system must keep pace with the others, including the compute servers, storage, and networking components.
