Hardware development by FPGA for an eigenvalue solver in MHD stability analysis

Tokuda, Shinji; Okubo, Hiroshi*; Fujisaki, Masahide*; Karube, Yukihiro*

An MHD (MagnetoHydroDynamic) stability code MARG2D has recently been developed which identifies the stability against ideal MHD perturbations in a tokamak. The code reduces the stability problem to an eigenvalue problem and solves the problem less than ten seconds when a massively parallel computer (SGI Altix 3700Bx2) is used. Real time stability analysis therefore becomes probable since the characteristic time is seconds for changing the pressure profile in ITER. To this end we are now developing by using FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) a special purpose computer that solves the eigenvalue problem. We report on the progress of this project, especially on matrix operations by FPGA with the study of performance.