Names, Terms, and Acronyms

ACENET is a consortium of post-secondary institutions in Atlantic Canada serving the computationally intense and large scale data research needs of its researchers. ACENET is a regional partner of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. URL: https://www.ace-net.ca/

Advanced computing utilizes high-performance computing, scientific visualization, data analysis, data science, storage, and/or cloud systems to perform computations.

Advanced research computing (ARC) includes (but is not limited to) high performance computing, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, big data, visualization, storage, software, portals, and platforms involved with research at Canadian academic and research institutes.

Arbutus is a cloud managed by BC DRI Group, located at the University of Victoria, and is a national system. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more information.

Béluga is a compute cluster located at l'École de technologie supérieure, Université du Québec and is one of the national systems. Its login nodes can be accessed via SSH by connecting to beluga.computecanada.ca. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Beluga for more information.

Cedar cloud is managed by BC DRI Group, located at Simon Fraser University, and is a national system. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more information.

Cedar is a compute cluster located at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, or,  and is one of the national systems. Its login nodes can be accessed via SSH by connecting to cedar.computecanada.ca. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cedar for more information.

NOTE: Depending on context, "cedar" might be intended to refer to Cedar Cloud.

The Centre for Advanced Computing supports Advanced Computing Research in partnership with Compute Ontario and Queen's University. URL: https://cac.queensu.ca/

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system, storage, and networking resources and services in a way that does not necessarily always require the active management by a person. Typically a cloud will provide the ability to create one or more virtual machines located within a virtual network with appropriate amounts of disk space. Each virtual machine may or may not be mapped to an externally accessible Internet address. (If not, then such machines must be accessed through the cloud management interface.)

NOTE: Access to our clusters' clouds is via OpenStack web interfaces, however, before one can log in and use such, one must request access. See: https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more details.

A cluster is a set of computers that inter-operate and function as a single computer system. Normally when one refers to a cluster, one is referring to a compute cluster as opposed to a cluster of computers that is being used to operate a cloud.

A compute cluster is a set of computers that inter-operate and function as a single computer system. Programs are executed on compute clusters using scheduling software. Computer clusters typically have high speed interconnections between all computers within the cluster to allow them to communicate with high bandwidth and low latency. The latter is typically very important when single jobs need to make use of more than one compute node.

A compute node is a computer in a compute cluster.

Compute Ontario is a federation of consortia in Ontario serving the Advanced Research Computing and big data needs of researchers. CO is a regional partner of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. URL: https://computeontario.ca/

A data transfer node (DTN) is a special node that Compute Canada has exposed to the Internet in order to enable the transfer of large amounts of data. Transferring data using login nodes can trigger limits that will prevent the successful transfer of large amounts data. Data transfer nodes are configured differently so large amounts of data can be transferred successfully. Every cluster typically has at least one data transfer node.

Digital research infrastructure is a collection of tools, services, and hardware that allows researchers to help realize their digital research aims (e.g., compute, storage, cloud, etc.). It is comprised of research data management (RDM), research software (RS), and advanced research computing (ARC). Link: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/digital-research-infrastructure/en

East Cloud is a cloud managed by Calcul Québec, located at the Université de Sherbrooke, and is a national system. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more information.

Graham is a compute cluster located at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and is one of the national systems. Its login nodes can be accessed via SSH by connecting to graham.computecanada.ca. Its Globus endpoint is computecanada#graham-dtn. See https://docs.computecanada.ca/wiki/Graham for more information.

NOTE: Depending on context, "graham" might be intended to refer to Graham Cloud.

High-performance computing (HPC) involves using supercomputers, which have specialized computing and networking hardware, to be able to achieve high levels of performance relative to conventional computers.

HPC4Health is a consortium supporting Advanced Research Computing whose members include Ontario hospitals and health research institutions. HPC4Health is a partner of Compute Ontario. URL: http://www.hpcforhealth.ca/

A login node is a special node that a cluster has exposed to the Internet in order to allow external access to that cluster in order to submit jobs on that cluster.

Narval is a compute cluster located at l'École de technologie supérieure, Université du Québec and is one of the national systems. Its login nodes can be accessed via SSH by connecting to narval.computecanada.ca. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Narval for more information.

The national systems are systems funded and supported nationally through the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, its members, and partners. Important national systems include these clusters: Cedar, Graham, Narval, Niagara, and Béluga; and these clouds: Arbutus (West Cloud), East Cloud, and Graham Cloud.

Niagara is a compute cluster located at the University of Toronto in Ontario and is one of the national systems. Its login nodes can be accessed via SSH by connecting to niagara.computecanada.ca. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Niagara for more information.

Prairies DRI Group is a consortium of institutions in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba serving the advanced research computing needs of researchers at its partners' and members' institutions and is also a regional partner of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. The Prairies DRI Group was formerly part of Westgrid.

Research data management is part of DRI that helps enable researchers to find and access data.

Research software is part of DRI that helps enable researchers to access and use data.

SciNet is supports Advanced Research Computing research in partnership with Compute Ontario, the University of Toronto, and others. URL: https://www.scinethpc.ca/

Westgrid is a former regional consortium that has evolved in to two separate organizations: BC DRI Group and Prairies DRI Group