RISC-Based 10K+ Core Finite Difference Method Accelerator for CFD

Abstract

Computational limitations of computers have emerged as a critical barrier to the advancement of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Consequently, exploring novel accelerator architectures tailored for large-scale CFD applications and closely integrated with CFD algorithmic characteristics holds significant value. Through an in-depth analysis of the finite difference method (FDM) for solving Navier–Stokes (N-S) equations, we propose a specialized accelerator architecture for FDM-based CFD (FAcc). Implemented on a 28 nm process, FAcc integrates 16,384 differential computing cores (FCores). Experimental validation demonstrates FAcc’s capability to solve N-S equations of varying complexities by flexibly configuring boundary conditions. Compared to conventional approaches, FAcc achieves significant acceleration performance, with its programmability underscoring adaptability to high-precision, large-scale CFD simulations. As the first CFD-focused accelerator designed from the instruction set architecture (ISA) level, FAcc bridges a critical gap in domain-specific hardware for CFD, offering a paradigm shift in high-performance fluid dynamics computation.

Keywords

• CFD
• accelerator
• FDM
• ISA