Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff

Term

Definition

API

Application Programming Interface

ARCCA

Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff (University)

ASIC

Application-Specific Integrated Circuit

BIOS

Basic Input/Output System

CE Mark

An assurance that an item meets all essential requirements of all applicable EU directives

CFS

Cluster File System

Cluster Management Node

A node providing infrastructural, management and administrative support to the cluster, e.g. resource management, job scheduling etc.

CMS

Cluster Management System

Compute Node

A node dedicated to batch computation

Core

One or more cores contained within a processor package. A dual-core processor is a single chip that contains two distinct processors or “execution cores” in the same integrated circuit

CPU

Central Processing Unit

CU

Cardiff University

DDR2

Double Data Rate Two (memory)

DIMM

Dual In-line Memory Module

EMC

ElectroMagnetic Compatibility

FB-DIMM

Fully Buffered DIMM (dual inline memory module)

FC

Fibre Channel

FPGA

Field Programmable Gate Array

Gb

Gigabit (Amount of memory equal to 1024 Megabits (1,073,741,824 bits) of information)

GB

Gigabyte (Amount of memory equal to 1024 Megabytes (1,073,741,824 bytes) of information)

Gbps

Gigabits per second

GCC

GNU Compiler Collection

GEO

GEO 600 Gravitational Wave detection project. More information is available. 

GFS

Global File System

Globus

An open source software toolkit used for building grids. More information on Globus is available.

GPFS

General Parallel File System

GPU

Graphics Processing Unit

HEC

High End Computing

HPC

High Performance Computing

HPCC

High Performance Computing Challenge (Benchmarking Suite)

HS

High Speed

HS-LL

High Speed Low Latency (in terms of interconnect)

HSM

Hierarchical Storage Management

INSRV

Cardiff University Information Services Directorate

IPMI

Intelligent Platform Management Interface

ITT

Invitation to Tender

LAN

Local Area Network

LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

LIGO

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory 

Linux

Variant of the Unix-type operating system, originally created by Linus Torvalds

Login Node

A node providing user access services for the cluster

LTO-3

A generation of the Linear Tape Open

Lustre

A software distributed file system, generally used for large scale cluster computing

MEG

MagnetoEncephaloGraphy

MPI

Message Passing Interface

MTBF

Mean Time Between Failure

MTTF

Mean Time To Failure

MWE

Modern IT Working Environment – Cardiff University's full IBM portal technology stack

NFS

Network File System

NIC

Network Interface Controller

Node

An individual computer unit of the system comprising a chassis, motherboard, processors and all additional components

OS

Operating System

PCI

Peripheral Component Interconnect

PCIe

PCI Express

PCI-X

Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended

Processor

A single IC chip package (which may be single-core, dual-core, or quad-core)

QAA

Qualify Assurance Agency for Higher Education

RAID

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

RAM

Random Access Memory

SAN

Storage Area Network

SAS

Serial Attached SCSI

SATA

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment

SCSI

Small Computer System Interface

SIMD

Single Instruction, Multiple Data

SMP

Symmetric MultiProcessor

SOA

Service Oriented Architecture

SSH

Secure Shell

Storage Node

A node providing access to the storage

TB

Terabyte

TCO

Total Cost of Ownership

TCP

Transmission Control Protocol

TFlops

TeraFlops = 1012 FLOPS (Floating Point Operations Per Second)

TOE

TCP Offload Engine

UNIX

An operating system conforming to the Single UNIX® Specification as defined by the Open Group, which will also embrace those operating systems which can be described as Unix-like or Unix-type (or equivalent).

UPS

Uninterruptible Power Supply

USB

Universal Serial Bus

WEEE

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (EC directive 2002/96/EC)

X86-64

A 64-bit microprocessor architecture