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Topic: "Avalon" ASIC, announcement & pre-order. pre-order over. project started. - page 32. (Read 98445 times)

hero member
Activity: 651
Merit: 500
legendary
Activity: 1792
Merit: 1047
Great News!

Hope that the pre-orders get filled!

So we can't pre-order until the websites up?
legendary
Activity: 952
Merit: 1000
All these asic preorderings looks like scam. Yes, and the BFL's preorderings also does not look good. There are no photos, no documents, no ID papers, links, prototype tests, nothing, but everybody are in "final stage" and take money.
Take it elsewhere.
full member
Activity: 177
Merit: 101
All these asic preorderings looks like scam. Yes, and the BFL's preorderings also does not look good. There are no photos, no documents, no ID papers, links, prototype tests, nothing, but everybody are in "final stage" and take money.
legendary
Activity: 1484
Merit: 1005

At ~600W per unit, what heat management solution will be used?

I would guess it will be computationally split between 6-10 dies...  This would enhance yield.  I doubt they would be making 4000mm^2 dies as that's pretty much unheard of.  And then those smaller dies would be cooled with $10 HSFs.
sr. member
Activity: 252
Merit: 250
Inactive



I'm glad to see you enter the asic market, ngzhang.

I'm sure it will be a quality product.  Clever move by using open wrt.


Technical questions:

How many asic chips per pcb?
Unit dimensions?
Cgminer has DD WRT support on mipsel chip.  Do you foresee any problem with open wrt/chip and cgminer? (This question is better put to the miner dev's, but knowing what type of embedded chip is important)
At ~600W per unit, what heat management solution will be used?



hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
Coin Generator
I'm interested in buying one Smiley
legendary
Activity: 3430
Merit: 3080
I agree broadly, mining software allocating 60GH/s of work is not going to be an insignificant load on the CPU that's running the show, particularly if the CPU is just an off the shelf ARM Cortex (imagine a single Cortex running 60GH/s of FPGAs). Avalon could potentially be a pretty power efficient device should this be the case.
You are kidding right ? 60GH/s -> ~15 nonce ranges/s. If the CPU load is anything but a small blip even on a Raspberry Pi, change your miner software.

the controller itself only cost about 15USD. running open-wrt OS. Cheesy

Well, it appears then that with the right kind of lean hardware and software combination, it's achievable. If that's all possible with <2% rejects/invalids, it would be impressive.
legendary
Activity: 952
Merit: 1000
Very interesting! Your MHs/$ beats the competition, and that's what I care the most about.
hero member
Activity: 592
Merit: 501
We will stand and fight.
the controller itself only cost about 15USD. running open-wrt OS. Cheesy
legendary
Activity: 4592
Merit: 1851
Linux since 1997 RedHat 4
I agree broadly, mining software allocating 60GH/s of work is not going to be an insignificant load on the CPU that's running the show, particularly if the CPU is just an off the shelf ARM Cortex (imagine a single Cortex running 60GH/s of FPGAs). Avalon could potentially be a pretty power efficient device should this be the case.
You are kidding right ? 60GH/s -> ~15 nonce ranges/s. If the CPU load is anything but a small blip even on a Raspberry Pi, change your miner software.
Well ... I know one person mining with 2 MiniRigs ~51GH/s that uses less than 2% on his CPU.
I'll get the info later about the CPU and the downclock it's running also ...
hero member
Activity: 896
Merit: 1000
I agree broadly, mining software allocating 60GH/s of work is not going to be an insignificant load on the CPU that's running the show, particularly if the CPU is just an off the shelf ARM Cortex (imagine a single Cortex running 60GH/s of FPGAs). Avalon could potentially be a pretty power efficient device should this be the case.
You are kidding right ? 60GH/s -> ~15 nonce ranges/s. If the CPU load is anything but a small blip even on a Raspberry Pi, change your miner software.
legendary
Activity: 3430
Merit: 3080
Though of course there are the advantages of having it self contained also.
Mainly to simplify it's use for the technically challenged Smiley

IMO it simplifies clusters. And we know ngzhang has been considering this point quite a lot with his FPGA boards.
Also, if the system is only one board, it simplifies the communications between the ASIC and the CPU
Not to mention the fact that one 60GH board on a computer is one thing, 10x60GH board one one single computer may be a problem to allocate work from the pool at a decent rate. With this architecture, the problem is up to the pool, not the computer.

But it's just my opinion.

I agree broadly, mining software allocating 60GH/s of work is not going to be an insignificant load on the CPU that's running the show, particularly if the CPU is just an off the shelf ARM Cortex (imagine a single Cortex running 60GH/s of FPGAs). Avalon could potentially be a pretty power efficient device should this be the case.
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 540
Though of course there are the advantages of having it self contained also.
Mainly to simplify it's use for the technically challenged Smiley

IMO it simplifies clusters. And we know ngzhang has been considering this point quite a lot with his FPGA boards.
Also, if the system is only one board, it simplifies the communications between the ASIC and the CPU
Not to mention the fact that one 60GH board on a computer is one thing, 10x60GH board one one single computer may be a problem to allocate work from the pool at a decent rate. With this architecture, the problem is up to the pool, not the computer.

But it's just my opinion.
legendary
Activity: 4592
Merit: 1851
Linux since 1997 RedHat 4
Hmm - actually I'm a little surprised - the embedded linux - what will it be?

There are some advantages to having the device just a device and not a completely contained computer.
. Things like having less hardware to fail and thus less problems
. Allowing a much broader choice of network configuration
. Not having to regularly update the controller software
. Self contained means an all in one failure point?
. Self contained means a higher cost due to supplying hardware that many already have (a computer)

Though of course there are the advantages of having it self contained also.
Mainly to simplify it's use for the technically challenged Smiley

I wonder if you would consider two versions:
The second one as a pure mining device like we have now with most FPGA - a USB device you plug into a computer with multiple internal mining devices to also solve the issue of having a single failure that wipes out everything?

Just putting out ideas - since you've said it not final yet Smiley
hero member
Activity: 592
Merit: 501
We will stand and fight.
Hi Dr.Zhang,

I am glad to hear this news.

How could customers inside of China to order it ?  Through taobao ?  or contact with you via email directly ?

我也在具体考虑这件事。不过国内的话,很容易吧。
full member
Activity: 137
Merit: 100
Hi Dr.Zhang,

I am glad to hear this news.

How could customers inside of China to order it ?  Through taobao ?  or contact with you via email directly ?
legendary
Activity: 1441
Merit: 1000
Live and enjoy experiments
You seem to be more prudent and open than your competitor.
Wow, impressive.
hero member
Activity: 592
Merit: 501
We will stand and fight.
it's a linux embedded system. which is running cgminer or something like that.

Will that be open-source ?
Will we be able to log on the unit to mess everything up ?

yes,

yes
hero member
Activity: 607
Merit: 500
it's a linux embedded system. which is running cgminer or something like that.

Will that be open-source ?
Will we be able to log on the unit to mess everything up ?

i am counting on this Cheesy
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