What is HPC cluster

What is an HPC cluster

An HPC cluster is a collection of many separate servers (computers), called nodes, which are connected via a fast interconnect network.

There may be different types of nodes for different types of tasks.

Each of the HPC clusters listed on this site has:

• The login nodes or head nodes : where users log in to submit jobs or to run directly compilations and applications requiring limited resources.
• The controller node receives user jobs from head nodes and distribute jobs on compute nodes
• The compute nodes : where program must be executed
• The storage nodes

All cluster nodes have the same components as a laptop or desktop: CPU cores, memory and disk space. The difference between personal computer and a cluster node relies on the quantity, quality and power of the components.