Architecture
Cluster architecture
HPC is often equated with a cluster computer, a collection of computers linked together over a high-speed network to perform highly complex computing tasks. These connected computers (usually called servers) work together to provide the processing power to analyze and process large data sets, simulate complex systems, and solve complex scientific and engineering problems.
An overview of the HPC cluster architecture.
The main components of the HPC cluster
compute - a collection of computers or servers that are the main power of the computer cluster.
memory - high-speed and high capacity memory and storage systems for handling large amounts of data.
network - high-speed network systems that connect all parts of the cluster together
Large number of connected computers
The computer cluster consists of a large number of compute nodes (machines) organized in blades and racks. Multiple racks make a computer cluster.
The supercomputer is built of the number of compute nodes
Modern HPC systems are hybrid computing systems equipped with a conventional CPU (AMD or Intel) and various accelerators. Nowadays, the dominant accelerators are graphics processors (Nvidia and AMD), but also FPGA, Many Integrated Core (MIC) from Intel (e.g. Xeon Phi - discountinued), and Tensor Processing Units (TPU).
An example of the hybrid CPU-GPU computer server. Supercomputer Supek at the University Computing Centre in Zagreb. Picture taken from https://wiki.srce.hr/display/NR/Arhitektura+Supeka.
Supercomputers
An extremely large cluster computers comprising of specially designed hardware optimized for parallel processing, including specialized processors such as GPUs, high-speed interconnection and large-scale shared storage systems. Supercomputers usually consists of millions of processing cores and can deliver sustained performance in petaflops.