An element-by-element preconditioned Conjugate Gradient solver of 3D tetrahedral finite elements on an FPGA coprocessor

An element-by-element preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) iterative solver for the solution of 3D finite element analysis has been implemented into a FPGA-based 32-bit floating-point reconfigurable computer. The algorithm formulation has been chosen in order to optimize the match with the capabilities of the FPGA platform. It is capable of giving a speed-up of about 40 times compared to an optimized 64-bit software version running on a fast PC.