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Topic: 896 mh/s firmware release - Butterfly Labs - page 3. (Read 18548 times)

sr. member
Activity: 360
Merit: 250
Hi,
is it generally possibly to write and run my own firmware on the bitforce single?
Nope.

Well, I would not say that it's generally not possible.
BFL has not publicly documented the design and has at this point in time no interest that clients running not BFL released logic on the singles.
However it's a FPGA based product. How to use the JTAG connectors in the single is already  known. If you want to use the microcontroller or usb also you have to do some reverse engineering.

Other products are open source or have at least a good documentation (schematic etc.) to use it for other tasks also.
I don't understand why BFL keeps so many information as a secrete and doesn't use the power of the community to improve the products. BFL's main advantage is the good  source for the FPGA's.
rjk
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
1ngldh
Hi,
is it generally possibly to write and run my own firmware on the bitforce single?
Nope.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
Hi,
is it generally possibly to write and run my own firmware on the bitforce single?
sr. member
Activity: 360
Merit: 250
@BFL-Engineer - see above.  The 792 f/w needs to be re-examined.

Will investigate.

Regards,
BF Labs Inc.

@BFL:
 1. Any update regarding the 792 firmware issue?
 2. Any update regarding faster firmware versions? It's now ~1 week after the announcement here https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.928022

If the generating process of a new firmware is a very time consuming process, it would help us all to communicate it this way to us and give us raw release dates.
Up to now, I understood BFL like the difference in the firmwares is trivial and you already have faster firmwares (at least up to 1050) but it's getting more and more unlikely that they will run with a specific customer unit. However, I've waited ~3 month for my singles (with full prepayment) and if there is faster firmware I would like to have it asap to run it now.
legendary
Activity: 4592
Merit: 1851
Linux since 1997 RedHat 4
Give it 4-6 weeks Smiley

OK that is a troll comment but ... I made it coz ...

I discussed with luke-jr about adding a simple change to cgminer to reduce the stale share count (when you use --no-submit-stale) by 0.425% i.e. an extra 3.5MH/s on a 832MH/s core hashing at 816MH/s
(he still has veto over what goes in)
and his reply was that he wouldn't do it coz it wasn't possible without messing up his code and he was awaiting the updated details about the BFL commands and that would resolve it ... apparently soon.
i.e. this relates to what I have already asked for from BFL 3 weeks ago and they said no.
So ... I also wonder how long that will be ...
legendary
Activity: 922
Merit: 1003
Just a note - cannot seem to get the 792 firmware to work.  Has anyone else reported issues?

After flashing, it says it is OK but under No processors where it should say [ 2 ]  it shows [ 0 ].

Tried this on 2 singles and have re-downloaded the file - same result.

Would be nice to have this as 2 units won't run 800 reliably and having to drop to 768, well, is no fun  Sad
I have had the same result, after flashing with the 792 firmware, units do not work.  Haven't contacted BFL yet, but wanted to confirm your result.

All rev2 singles.

No problems with 768, 800, 808, 816, 824, 832.  Extremely poor performance with 864, 872. Haven't tried 880, 896, since I didn't think there would be any point.

@BFL-Engineer - see above.  The 792 f/w needs to be re-examined.

Will investigate.

Regards,
BF Labs Inc.
Yes I can also confirm that the 792 is not working.

@BFL-Engineer: any word on a fix for the 792 firmware? I can also confirm that it is not working for me.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1005
I've got the 800 mh/s firmware loaded on my 2 new Singles with the stock power bricks, and the total power use according to my power meter is 145 watts (or about 72.5 watts each).

So it looks like the slower firmware uses a bit less power.

That's expected, same as a video card. Generally speaking, the power draw versus clock speed is linear.

In that case, are the faster bitstreams more likely to burn out the power bricks faster? More heat?
I have a 6" wally-world fan blowing on all 4 of my singles + power bricks.  It's kept them nicely cool, but they were getting super hot before I made that change.
rjk
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
1ngldh
I've got the 800 mh/s firmware loaded on my 2 new Singles with the stock power bricks, and the total power use according to my power meter is 145 watts (or about 72.5 watts each).

So it looks like the slower firmware uses a bit less power.

That's expected, same as a video card. Generally speaking, the power draw versus clock speed is linear.

In that case, are the faster bitstreams more likely to burn out the power bricks faster? More heat?
Hard to say, the bricks are rated for something like 120 watts, but they do get a bit hot. Usually for more than 2 or 3 singles, it's a good idea to use a standard power supply with converted connectors.
legendary
Activity: 952
Merit: 1000
I've got the 800 mh/s firmware loaded on my 2 new Singles with the stock power bricks, and the total power use according to my power meter is 145 watts (or about 72.5 watts each).

So it looks like the slower firmware uses a bit less power.

That's expected, same as a video card. Generally speaking, the power draw versus clock speed is linear.

In that case, are the faster bitstreams more likely to burn out the power bricks faster? More heat?
rjk
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
1ngldh
I've got the 800 mh/s firmware loaded on my 2 new Singles with the stock power bricks, and the total power use according to my power meter is 145 watts (or about 72.5 watts each).

So it looks like the slower firmware uses a bit less power.

That's expected, same as a video card. Generally speaking, the power draw versus clock speed is linear.
sr. member
Activity: 344
Merit: 250
I've got the 800 mh/s firmware loaded on my 2 new Singles with the stock power bricks, and the total power use according to my power meter is 145 watts (or about 72.5 watts each).

So it looks like the slower firmware uses a bit less power.
sr. member
Activity: 392
Merit: 250
I prefer to keep mine on ice in the cooler. In a pinch I can settle for a mini fridge.
sr. member
Activity: 348
Merit: 250

I think you're going to end up with a very warm mini-fridge and a burnt out motor.

And a jacked up electric bill.

And an even WARMER garage.
And condensation-killed Singles.
And warts on his...actually, never mind. Lets just leave the poor dude alone...

All the responses made me laugh.  However, I agree.  A mini fridge may be good at cooling food/beverages and keeping them cool, but it's not designed to cool items that continuously produce heat.  I'd even be slightly nervous about putting the Single in a large chest-style freezer, although that might actually pan out...Never tried such a thing.
legendary
Activity: 952
Merit: 1000

I think you're going to end up with a very warm mini-fridge and a burnt out motor.

And a jacked up electric bill.

And an even WARMER garage.
And condensation-killed Singles.
And warts on his...actually, never mind. Lets just leave the poor dude alone...
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1005

I think you're going to end up with a very warm mini-fridge and a burnt out motor.

And a jacked up electric bill.

And an even WARMER garage.
And condensation-killed Singles.
legendary
Activity: 1795
Merit: 1208
This is not OK.

I think you're going to end up with a very warm mini-fridge and a burnt out motor.

And a jacked up electric bill.

And an even WARMER garage.
legendary
Activity: 952
Merit: 1000
I live in Florida and honestly today is the first day that I consider to be a true indicator of summer approaching. I came down around 10am and my garage was 97.2* F. My house has no AC so I plan on sticking my singles in an extra mini fridge that I have and sealing it up the best I can. Hopefully, it will be able to keep them from throttling and shouldn't consume too much extra electricity.

I think you're going to end up with a very warm mini-fridge and a burnt out motor.

And a jacked up electric bill.
legendary
Activity: 1795
Merit: 1208
This is not OK.
I live in Florida and honestly today is the first day that I consider to be a true indicator of summer approaching. I came down around 10am and my garage was 97.2* F. My house has no AC so I plan on sticking my singles in an extra mini fridge that I have and sealing it up the best I can. Hopefully, it will be able to keep them from throttling and shouldn't consume too much extra electricity.

I think you're going to end up with a very warm mini-fridge and a burnt out motor.
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
896 seems to be beyond the limit for most chips already.

TWO chips.
Quite likely, with TWO completely unrolled, pipelined miners on each of them.
Or a "sea of miners" on them, as brilliantly demonstrated by Bitfury on the Spartan6 platform.

Huh?  It was beyond the limit for 3 of mine already.

I was just trying to point out that the 896 MH/s are spread out over TWO FPGAs, not just one.
Maybe you meant to say "beyond the limit for most Singles".

Is it the limit of the chips, hardware to keep it cool, outside temperature or some combination of the previously mentioned?

Hard to say, probably a combination of things.
Does anyone have a walk-in freezer where he could test whether freezing temperatures help?

In any case, there is a thermal resistance Tr1 from the die to the heat spreader and a thermal resistance Tr2 from the heat spreader to the heat sink and finally there is a thermal resistance Tr3 from the heat sink to the room air.
Tr1 cannot be modified, but we have already established that Tr2 is not at its optimal level, because the heat sink does not contact the whole heat spreader, only part of it. Also, I suspect that co-planarity of the FPGAs, or rather the lack of it, may contribute to a higher-than-desired Tr2 value.

I live in Florida and honestly today is the first day that I consider to be a true indicator of summer approaching. I came down around 10am and my garage was 97.2* F. My house has no AC so I plan on sticking my singles in an extra mini fridge that I have and sealing it up the best I can. Hopefully, it will be able to keep them from throttling and shouldn't consume too much extra electricity.
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1000
Amen to that brother - go GPUMAX  Grin
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