Why HPC

why LPC/MPC/HPC on getafix?

• Centralised and more reliable computer systems than trying to do it on your desktop.
• No need to leave your laptop computer running overnight.
• Easier for sysadmins to install dedicated software for you.
• Easier for you to run simultaneous calculations exploring the parameter space sooner, faster.
• ITS staff have a lot of experience managing linux clusters.
• See UQ Resources for an exhaustive list of computational resources available to SMP researchers.

• What is LPC? --- Low-performance computing. Generally any really simple calculation. Could be using matlab or a compiled language or mathematica where the calculation time measures in a few hours and not days. Minimal thought has gone into the calculation.
  * What is MPC? --- Medium-performance computing. Generally a calculation that will take days of CPU time. Generally some serious thought needs to go into the algorithmic development (otherwise could take the age of the universe). Could be using matlab or a compiled language or even mathematica where the calculation could use some form of either multi-threading using OpenMP parallelisation or uses optimised pre-parallelised linear algebra packages such as lapack via Intel's Intel MKL. This does include just using single co-processors (eg. one Intel Phi or one GPU).
  * What is HPC? --- High-performance computing. Highly optimised algorithms using MPI to spread the load over more than several nodes/co-processors. May also involve a blend of OpenMP and CUDA/Phi's to run on several CPU-based cores as well as many-cores/shaders. Requires a PhD-level of commitment/time/energy/thought with a world-class goal in mind due to the requirement to think heavily about the software and hardware limitations/bottlenecks.