# Glossary

### QPU Endpoint

A QPU Endpoint is a collection of services that enables users to run a job on a QPU.

### Gateway

A service that enables highly available on-demand access for running jobs on the QPU. See [qcs-qpu-gateway](https://docs.rigetti.com/qcs/guides/access-a-qpu/qcs-qpu-gateway "mention")

### Compilation and Translation

When preparing a program to run on a QPU, it usually goes through two compilation steps. The first is `quilc`, the optimizing compiler. The second compiles your program down to the machine code needed to run your program on a QPU's control system. While these are both technically compilation steps, we've historically referred to the latter as "translation" to differentiate it from `quilc` compilation. See [how-programs-are-built-and-run](https://docs.rigetti.com/qcs/guides/how-programs-are-built-and-run "mention")for more details on these compilation steps.