Q-W

high bandwidth network employed in very large clusters, specifically the SC series developed by Compaq

commercial vendor of networking hardware and software.

Reduced Instruction Set Computer

Portable implementation of MPI-IO interface (not an acronym)

major Japanese initiative to develop robust and sophisticated cluster software environment

System Area Network; a network optimized for use as a dedicated communication medium within a commodity cluster

a software tool which is part of the node operating system or system middleware that manages the assignment of tasks to cluster nodes and determines the timing of their execution

Symmetric MultiProcessor, tightly coupled cache coherent multiprocessor with uniform memory access

Streaming SIMD Extensions

Wide Area Networks used to connect distant sites, even on a continental scale