Book excerpt: Performance Computing: Modern Systems and Practices is a fully comprehensive and easily accessible treatment of high performance computing, covering fundamental concepts and essential knowledge while also providing key skills training. With this book, students will begin their careers with an understanding of possible directions for future research and development in HPC, domain scientists will learn how to use supercomputers as a key tool in their quest for new knowledge, and practicing engineers will discover how supercomputers can employ HPC systems and methods to the design and simulation of innovative products. This new edition has been fully updated, and has been reorganized and restructured to improve accessibility for undergraduate students while also adding trending content such as machine learning and a new chapter on CUDA. - Covers enabling technologies, system architectures and operating systems, parallel programming languages and algorithms, scientific visualization, correctness and performance debugging tools and methods, GPU accelerators, and big data problems - Provides numerous examples that explore the basics of supercomputing while also providing practical training in the real use of high-end computers - Helps users with informative and practical examples that build knowledge and skills through incremental steps - Features sidebars of background and context to present a live history and culture of this unique field