Highperformancecomputinghaschangedthewayinwhichscienceprogresses. During the last 20 years the increase in computing power, the development of e?ective algorithms, and the application of these tools in the area of physics and engineering has been decisive in the advancement of our technological world. These abilities have allowed to treat problems with a complexity which had been out of reach for analytical approaches. While the increase in perf- mance of single processes has been immense the increase of massive parallel computing as well as the advent of clustercomputershas opened up the pos- bilities to study realistic systems. This book presents major advances in high performance computing as well as major advances due to high performance computing. The progress made during the last decade rests on the achie- ments in three distinct science areas. Openandpressingproblemsinphysicsandmechanicalengineeringarethe drivingforcebehindthedevelopmentofnewtoolsandnewapproachesinthese science areas. The treatment of complex physical systems with frustration and disorder, the analysis of the elastic and non-elastic movement of solids as well as the analysis of coupled ?uid systems, pose problems which are open to a numerical analysis only with state of the art computing power and algorithms. The desire of scienti?c accuracy and quantitative precision leads to an enormous demand in computing power. Asking the right questions in these areas lead to new insights which have not been available due to other means like experimental measurements. Thesecondareawhichisdecisivefore?ectivehighperformancecomputing is a realm of e?ective algorithms.