FPGA based coprocessor to calculate the energy of dipolar system

In this paper an FPGA based coprocessor is presented, interfaced with the CPU to the computer through the PCI bus; it allows a faster evaluation of the energy of a crystal, which is usually the heaviest part of a Monte Carlo simulation. The work is part of a global project aimed to design and build a parallel system made up by a cluster of accelerated workstations communicating through one among the most advanced modern network technologies. First estimations of performance show a big acceleration with respect to the execution of the same application on an Intel CPU based mother-board.