Todate the design of journal bearings depends on the solutions of Reynolds equation by-iterative techniques. In this paper, the Tri Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA) is modified to fit boundary valued two dimensional prob-lems and is used to find direct and rapid reliable solutions. With this direct technique, Sommerfeld numbers and attitude angles are derived with less than 2 percent deviation from the results of conventional bearing numerical analysis but around 50 times faster. The pressure distributions obtained from both iterative and direct techniques are compared with those acquired from experimental testing. The TDMA solutions show reliability for wide ranges of L/D and eccentricity ratios.