Current issues in high performance computing I/O architectures and systems

Abstract

The abundance of parallel and distributed computing platforms, such as MPP, SMP, and the Beowulf clusters, to name just a few, has added many more possibilities and challenges to high performance computing (HPC), parallel I/O, mass data storage, scalable architectures, and large-scale simulations, which traditionally belong to the realm of custom-tailored parallel systems. The intent of this special issue is to discuss problems and solutions, to identify new issues, and to help shape future research directions in these areas. From these perspectives, this special issue addresses the problems encountered at the hardware, architectural, and application levels, while providing conceptual as well as empirical treatments to the current issues in high performance computing, and the I/O architectures and systems utilized therein.