HPC cluster, computer node, Socket, Core, thread, CPU

HPC cluster i s the relatively tightly coupled collection of compute nodes, the interconnect typical allows for high bandwidth, low latency communication.

Compute node is an individual computer, part of an HPC cluster. One computer node can have several sockets

NUMA nodes are CPU/Memory couples. The main take away is, that the cpu — memory access is always the fastest, when the cpu can access its local memory. NUMA Nodes are CPU/Memory couples. Typically, the CPU Socket and the closest memory banks built a NUMA Node. Whenever a CPU needs to access the memory of another NUMA node, it cannot access it directly but is required to access it through the CPU owning the memory.(https://itnext.io/vmware-vsphere-why-checking-numa-configuration-is-so-important-9764c16a7e73)

One Socket is a physical CPU, one physical CPU can have have multiple core and one CPU-core have more than one parallel thread. So the number of (logic)CPU is: #Socket * #core * # thread

A socket is the physical socket where the physical CPU capsules are placed. A normal PC only have one socket.

Cores are the number of CPU-cores per CPU capsule. A modern standard CPU for a standard PC usually have two or four cores.

And some CPUs can run more than one parallel thread per CPU-core. Intel (the most common CPU manufacturer for standard PCs) have either one or two threads per core depending on CPU model (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40163095/what-is-socket-core-threads-cpu).