ACTS
Advanced Communications Technology Satellite, a NASA-sponsored program. A joint NASA/ARPA collaboration will demonstrate high speed ATM/SONET transmission over the ACTS satellite, and will provide interface and operations experience in mating high speed terrestrial communications systems with high speed satellite communications systems.
AERONet
Aeronautics Network in NASA
AFS
Andrew File System
AHCPR
Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, part of the Public Health Service of the HHS
AIMS
Automated Instrumentation and Monitoring System
Algorithm
A procedure designed to solve a problem. Scientific computing programs contain algorithms.
ARPA
Advanced Research Projects Agency, part of DOD
ARPANet
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
ASTA
Advanced Software Technology and Algorithms, a component of the HPCC Program
ATDNet
Advanced Technology Demonstration Network
ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode, a telecommunications technology, also known as cell switching, which is based on 53-byte cells
Backbone Network
A high capacity electronic trunk connecting lower capacity networks, for example the NSFNET backbone
Bandwidth
A measure of the capacity of a communications channel to transmit information; for example, million of bits per second or Mb/s
Benchmark
A point of reference (artifact) to compare an aspect of systems performance (for example, a well-known set of programs); also, to conduct and assess the computation (or transmission) capabilities of a system using a well-known artifact
Bit
Acronym for binary digit
Bps, or B/s
An acronym for bytes per second
bps, or b/s
An acronym for bits per second
BRHR
Basic Research and Human Resources, a component of the HPCC Program
Browser
A system that provides access to and rendering of distributed information objects located at network-based repositories; that is, services allowing a user to locate, access, and display information composed of text and still images; to animate moving images; and to play associated sound tracks. Mosaic is an example of a public- domain browser.
Byte
A group of adjacent binary digits operated upon as a unit (usually connotes a group of eight bits)
C
C programming language
C++
C++ programming language, an object-oriented descendant of the C language
CAD
Computer Aided Design
CERT
Computer Emergency Response Team
CIAC
Computer Incident Advisory Center
CIC
Committee on Information and Communications of the NSTC
Computational Science and Engineering
The systematic application of computing systems and computational solution techniques to mathematical models formulated to describe and simulate phenomena of scientific and engineering interest
Computer Engineering
The creative application of engineering principles and methods to the design and development of hardware and software systems
Computer Science
The systematic study of computing systems and computation. The body of knowledge resulting from this discipline contains theories for understanding computing systems and methods; design methodology, algorithms, and tools; methods for the testing of concepts; methods of analysis and verification; and knowledge representation and implementation.
CRPC
Center for Research in Parallel Computation
CTC
Cornell Theory Center
Database
A collection of information
Database server
A system that provides database access services to users via client software systems
DCE
Distributed Computing Environment
DCRT
Division of Computer Research and Technology, part of NIH
DFS
Distributed File System
DII
Defense Information Infrastructure
DOC
Department of Commerce
DOD
Department of Defense
DOE
Department of Energy
ED
Department of Education
electronic mail
Encryption
A reversible transformation of the encoding of information into a form that is unintelligible to unauthorized recipients in order to ensure the privacy of the information being communicated Ð an algorithm, the encoded information, and a key are used to encrypt (transform) and decrypt (reverse-transform) information.
EPA
Environmental Protection Agency
ESnet
Energy Sciences Network
ESS
Earth and Space Sciences
Exa-
A prefix denoting 1018, or a million trillions of ... (for example, exabytes)
FDDI
Fiber Distributed Data Interface
Flops
Acronym for floating point operations per second. The term "floating point" refers to that format of numbers that is most commonly used for scientific calculation. Flops is used as a measure of a computing system's speed of performing basic arithmetic operations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing two numbers.
FNC
Federal Networking Council
ftp
file transfer protocol
G, or Giga-
A prefix denoting 109, or billions of ... (for example, Gflops or gigaflops; gigabytes, gigabits)
GAO
Government Accounting Office
Gateway
A system that interconnects networks (or applications) that communicate using different protocols, and bridges their differences by transforming one protocol (message) into another
GB
An acronym for Gigabyte
Gb
An acronym for Gigabit
Gb/s
Gigabits per second
GFDL
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
Gflops
Gigaflops, billions of floating point operations per second
GII
Global Information Infrastructure
Grand Challenge
A fundamental problem in science and engineering, with broad economic and scientific impact, whose solution can be advanced by applying high performance computing techniques and resources
GSII
Government Services Information Infrastructure
Heterogeneous system
A distributed system that contains more than one kind of computer
HHS
Department of Health and Human Services
High performance computing
Covers the full range of advanced computing systems including workstations, networks of workstations with servers, scalable parallel systems, vector parallel systems, and more specialized systems. Scalable input/output interfaces, mass storage systems, and archival storage are components of these systems. Included also are system software and software development environments that enable users to view their workstations and the rest of their computing environments as a unified system.
HiPPI
High Performance Parallel Interface, 800 Mb/s
HPCC
High Performance Computing and Communications
HPCCI
High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative
HPCCIT
High Performance Computing, Communications, and Information Technology Subcommittee, part of the CIC
HPCS
High Performance Computing Systems, a component of the HPCC Program
HPF
High Performance Fortran
HPSS
High Performance Storage System
html
Hypertext markup language, a text composition language that allows an author to compose the contents of a document (file) that may contain text, still and moving images, and audio (multimedia objects) and have embedded links to files (multimedia objects) located on other computing systems via uniform resource locators (URLs). The ability to embed links (URLs) to multimedia objects located at distributed servers on the Internet and the ability of browsers to link to and render multimedia objects is what realizes hypertext.
http
Hypertext transport protocol, the communications protocol used by WWW servers and client systems to identify sources of information and transfer the files containing html-based multimedia objects
I/O
Acronym for Input/Output
IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force
IITA
Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications, a component of the HPCC Program
Interconnectivity
The ability of two or more computers to easily locate and communicate with each other over an infrastructure that provides the speed and clarity to accomplish a proposed task
Internet
The global collection of interconnected, multiprotocol computer networks including Federal, mid-level, private, and international networks.
Interoperability
The ability of any two computers that are interconnected to understand each other and perform mutually supportive tasks such as client/server computing
IP
Internet Protocol
ISS
Image Server Systems
JNNIE
Joint NSF-NASA Initiative on Evaluation
JPL
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
K, or Kilo-
A prefix denoting 103, or thousands of ... (for example, kilobits/second)
Kb/s
Kilobits per second or thousands of bits per second
Kerberos
A cryptographic-based network system that provides a mechanism for client/server computing authentication
LANL
Los Alamos National Laboratory
LLNL
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
M, or Mega-
A prefix denoting 106, or millions of ... (for example, Mbps, or megabits per second; Mflops)
MB
Megabyte
Mb
Megabit
Mb/s
Megabits per second or millions of bits per second
MBONE
Multicast backbone
Metacenter
A virtual supercomputing center composed of the networked high performance computing resources at several supercomputing centers
Mflops
Megaflops, millions of floating point operations per second.
MILNET
Military Network
MIMD
Multiple Instruction Multiple Data
MOSIS
Metal Oxide Semiconductor Implementation Service
MP
Massively Parallel
MPI
Message passing Interface
MPP
Massively parallel processor
MRAs
Metacenter Regional Alliance
Multicast
A mode of communications that allows for simultaneous distribution of information to multiple designated recipients in a single transmission
NAPs
Network Access Points, networks or switches where multiple networks interconnect to exchange traffic
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Challenge
A fundamental application that has broad and direct impact on the Nation's competitiveness and the well-being of its citizens, and that can benefit from the application of HPCC technology and resources
National Information Infrastructure (NII)
The integration of hardware, software, and skills that will make it easy and affordable to connect people with each other, with computers, and with a vast array of services and information resources
NCAR
National Center for Atmospheric Research
NCBI
National Center for Biotechnology Information
NCI
National Cancer Institute, part of NIH
NCO
National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and Communications
NCRR
National Center for Research Resources, part of NIH
NCSA
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
NERSC
National Energy Research Supercomputer Center
Network
Computer communications technologies that link multiple computers to share information and resources across geographically dispersed locations
NIH
National Institutes of Health, part of HHS
NIST
National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of DOC
NLM
National Library of Medicine, part of NIH
NOAA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, part of DOC
NREN
National Research and Education Network, a component of the HPCC Program
NSA
National Security Agency, part of DOD
NSF
National Science Foundation
NSFNET
NSF computer network program
NSI
NASA Science Internet
NSL
National Storage Laboratory
NSTC
National Science and Technology Council
OMB
Office of Management and Budget
Ops
Acronym for operations per second. Ops is used as a rating of the speed of computer systems and components. In this report ops is generally taken to mean the usual integer or floating point operations depending on what functional units are included in a particular system configuration.
Optoelectronic
A descriptor of technology which combines optical and electronic components
ORNL
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
OS
Operating system
OSTP
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Parallel processing
Simultaneous processing by more than one processing unit on a single application
PC
Personal computer
Peta-
A prefix denoting 1015, or a thousand trillion of ... (for example, petabits)
PICS
Partnership in Computational Sciences
PMEL
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Port
Transport a computer program from one computer system to another
Portable
Property of some computing software that allows the software to be run with little or no change on many kinds of computing systems
Prototype
The original demonstration model of what is expected to be a series of systems. Prototypes are used to prove feasibility, but often are not as efficient or well-designed as later production models.
PSC
Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center
PVM
Parallel Virtual Machine
RAID
Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks
R&D
Research and development
Scalable
A system is scalable if it can be made to have more (or less) computational power by configuring it with a larger (or smaller) number of processors, amount of memory, interconnection bandwidth, input/output bandwidth, and amount of mass storage.
SDSC
San Diego Supercomputer Center
SIMD
Single Instruction Multiple Data
SONET
Synchronous Optical Network
STEP
Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data
Superlinear
A relationship that is greater than a simple linear relationship (for example, multiple or fraction), but one that is not an exponential or geometric relationship
T, or Tera-
A prefix denoting 1012 or trillions of ... (for example, terabits, teraflops)
T1
Network transmission of a digital signal at 1.5 Mb/s (DS-1)
T3
Network transmission of a digital signal at 45 Mb/s (DS-3)
TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TRP
Technology Reinvestment Program
URL
Uniform Resource Locator
VA
Department of Veterans Affairs
vBNS
Very high speed Backbone Network Services
VLSI
Very large scale integration
VR
Virtual reality
WAIS
Wide Area Information Service
Web
A reference to the World Wide Web; a subset of the Internet supported by a related set of protocols, services, and software tools including browsers.
Wireless technologies
Communications technologies that utilize radio, microwave, or satellite communications channels versus wire, coaxial or optical fiber
WWW
World Wide Web