Knowledge Base - Glossary

• shared memory
  A structure of multiprocessor computers that allows memory to be simultaneously accessed by multiple processors. At NAS, the Endeavour supercomputer is a global shared memory system that allows a single processor to access the memory of the processors around it, if they are needed to execute its job. See KB article 410 for more information on the Endeavour system.
• SUP
  Secure Unattended Proxy; a client that allows users to perform remote operations on specific hosts within the NAS systems without the use of SecurID authentication at the time of operation. Users must obtain "SUP keys" using SecurID authentication, after which those keys can be used to perform operations from unattended jobs and/or scripts for one week after the time the key is generated. See KB article 145 for more information on using SUP.
• SBU
  Standard Billing Unit; a common rate used for allocating and tracking computing time at the NAS facility and the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS), using the "Westmere" nodes of Pleiades as a baseline. A job that occupies one Westmere node for one hour is charged one SBU, regardless of how many cores in the node are actually used. Use of other node types is charged based on how efficiently they are in comparison to the Westmere nodes. See KB article 271.
• SFEs
  Secure Front Ends; the bastion hosts protecting the NAS high-end computing enclave. Users must connect to the SFEs from their localhost to access the supercomputing and archival resources at NAS. See KB article 54.