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UNICORE (Uniform Interface to Computing Resources) is an exhaustive grid middleware for the building up of compute grids. The architecture of UNICORE consists of three layers: client, server and target system. The client layer is implemented by a UNICORE client, which allows the user to define jobs and to monitor their execution. For this, a graphical user interface is provided. All jobs are described platform independently as so called Abstract Job Objects (AJO). AJOs are sent to the server layer, if applicable, together with necessary additive files. The communication between UNICORE client and server is based on the SSL protocol.

Every resource provider in a UNICORE grid is represented as a so called USite (UNICORE Site). Resources of a provider are called VSites (Virtual Site). One or more VSites are assigned to each USite. Jobs, sent to a USite, are received by a gateway, which forwards the jobs to a Network Job Supervisor (NJS), belonging to a VSite. The NJS interprets jobs in form of AJOs, which then need to be adopted for the respective target system (batch system). That adaptation is processed by a Target System Interface (TSI), which represents the target system layer.

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