Abstract: Stair matrices and their generalizations are introduced. The definitions and some properties of the matrices were first given by Lu Hao. This class of matrices provide bases of matrix splittings for iterative methods.The remarkable feature of iterative methods based on the new class of matrices is that the methods are easily implemented for parallel computation. In particular, a generalization of the accelerated overrelaxation method (GAOR) is introduced. Some theories of the AOR method are extended to the generalized method to include a wide class of matrices. The convergence of the new method is derived for Hermitian positive definite matrices. Finally, some examples are given in order to show the superiority of the new method.

Key words: stair matrices, iterative method, parallel computation, generalization of the AOR method