HPC computer architectures are parallel computer architectures. A parallel computer is built out of

• compute units,
• main memory,
• and a high speed network.

• To provide knowledge about parallel computer architectures, in particular: the distinction between shared and distributed memory systems

• elementary processing elements like CPUs, GPUs, many core architectures
• vector systems, and FPGAs
• the NUMA architecture used for symmetric multiprocessing systems where the memory access time depends on the memory location relative to the processor
• network demands for HPC systems (e.g. high bandwidth and low latency)
• typical network architectures used for HPC systems, like fast Ethernet (1 or 10 Gbit) or InfiniBand