Topic: Bounty[PAID OUT] : a bitstream for better utilizing the Cairnsmore1 157-294.5btc - page 11. (Read 21992 times)

Terms finalized, so now untill wehave a bitstream we should just see the bounty ticking up as more ppl join, just as a reminder: I would like to urge anyone who has these boards to donate 1btc per board, it's very likeley that it will turn out a good investment.

put me down for 5 BTC

Ok, Im giving you guys a couple of more hours on the terms, before finalizing them as they are uless any objections rise.

I'll throw 10 btc in the hat.

My 5 btc to this cause, is simple. I'd want the CM1 to be working to it's fullest potential quick as possible. While also ensuring if I'm paying this bounty, I'm keeping this an open source project. It would be more, but that is all I have in btc right now.

Aslong as a bitstream exist that is open source, uses all 4 cores and does within ~90% of what many of us expected the CM1 to do (800Mh/s) without any outside infulences. It doesn't bother me, if enterpoint makes use of, or even pays in this case Glasswalker.

I am part of the community that cares about results, the means of those results I am not too fussed by. It allows the community at large to make use of the bitstream, aswell as see the bitstream be improved in an open source way that has work so well with other projects so far.

Glasswalker will probably win the bounty, but whom ever it is, is soon to get a long of bitcoins, as their is a lot of interest in seeing these full operational that is for sure.

This may be perfect timing. My CM1's are scheduled to ship this week

Term update:
"9. glasswalkers solution, even if released by enterpoint will qualify for the bounty if all other qualifications are met"

I hope this pleases all ?

Were hoping to have hundreads of ppl pledge in to this, I cannot and will not maintain everyones conditions in the bounty, especially since everyone seems to be tossing in different terms, sorry. If someone else has the time and devotion to do this, I will gladly step down from organizing things.

"3. The bitstream does not include any forced donation of hashingpower."

I would change that to

"3. The bitstream does not include any form of online DRM/forced donation, e.g. relaying work to 3rd-party server"

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Furthermore, add 2 BTC from me.

FYI quick teaser for you

About 10 minutes ago I managed to close timing on the 175Mhz build. This means that according to the Xilinx tools, I have a viable 175Mhash/chip bitstream that should run stable on all 4 chips.

Now comes some additional work required to ACTUALLY run it on a hardware and verify this. And I need to test it for stability for 24h or so. So we're not "there" yet, but this is a fabulous leap forward. In addition, my machine is still chewing on it optimizing, and hopefully it will squeeze another 0.75ns out of the clock cycle. Which means I could push this to 200Mhash and keep it within "spec" (and honestly, the one enterpoint is testing now is using worse clocking code, and was out of spec by over 1.5ns and it was still semi-stable for them, showing the cairnsmore hardware can run a bit out of spec if needed).

Anyway, just a quick update, to be clear this is NOT yet a stable bitstream, but it's a jump forward. And barring any major bugs, within 24/48h I hope to deliver much better news to you

I'd like to chime in as well to ask for clarification on this. Since chances are it will be Enterpoint that release my work. That said I'll be the one opensourcing it after the fact, and I'm sure Yohan will have no trouble verifying that I am the source of the bitstream. That said if them releasing it on my behalf will exclude me from the bounty, then that may be a problem. So I'll need to discuss that with them if that's the case, so please let me know which way this will be in the "official" requirements?

Thanks!

I agree that you *should* because it's derived from ztex, and if you found a way to do it in pure ISE using some of ztex's notes that's awesome.

The main problem is that the icarus code as-is fails par because it can't fit it into the chip. I've tried several optimization options and it just downright fails. And based on posts from ngzhang himself, I was able to confirm he in fact uses a bit of a strange method, he synthesizes the sha256 core itself seperately in a seperate ise project, using some specific optimization flags, then he passes the ngd into the fpgaminer_top project, and synthesizes that using synplify pro, and THEN does an implementation phase based on the synthesized top level, and the already built sha256 core.

So I've reversed my build out of this. Plus my build now includes some custom logic, and a bunch of custom constraints, and completely different clocking code. Plus some other modifications.

But ultimately yes, closing timing is just a function of a massive smartxplorer run. I can hit lower clock rates fairly easily on a couple passes. But optimizing for 200Mhz is a problem. (my last smartxplorer run ran for nearly a week, and was unable to close 200Mhz, but it came damn close).

Anyway, if you want to try to pull this off on your own, then more power to you, My primary day to day job isn't FPGA development, so I'm probably not as skilled as someone who is a professional at this day in and day out . I'm always up for a little competition. Or if you want to collaborate, we can likely negotiate terms to share the bounty if you want to contribute to my existing effort.

Either way I'll keep pushing on this, and I hope to have the bitstream running very soon.

Whole bunch of the nicked pretty much wholesale from ztex's project files, which is where the hashing code comes from originally. Unless I've screwed something up the cairnsmorewip branch at https://github.com/makomk/Icarus/tree/cairnsmorewip should have them in. It's probably just a problem of running SmartXplorer against that to search for a seed that works well.

Can you please tell us what options you use? I think that is the biggest problem to get something out the works.

You should be able to build ngzhang's Icarus miner using just ISE's built-in synthesis tools, it's actually a relatively straightforward combination of bits from various existing miner projects that were originally meant to be built that way. The options to achieve this are a bit esoteric though - it's the nature of the beast really. I just did a SmartXplorer run on a dual-core and it hit Fmax = 166 MHz in under 24 hours; not quite what I was aiming for but not too shabby.

I'm happy to match Zefir and Entropy-uc with 50btc for a bitstream before the 31/8/12 as per Isokivi Bounty terms.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that Glasswalker is first over the line 

Incidentally:

 - http://www.BitcoinFunding.com
 - http://Booster.io
 - http://Propster.me

First draft of the bounty terms is up, 2nd post in this thread, you have 2 days to suggest changes or show approval.

I can't start a Kickstarter because I'm canadian, Kickstarter only works for US residents with a US SSN. You can't start a kickstarter if you're not. You can only contribute to a kickstarter from outside the US.

A bitcoin friendly kickstarter type site was one of the many projects I had planned for the Syndicate to develop and launch, but it's a long way off at this stage

As for the bounty group starting a kickstarter, the problem there is the one starting the kickstarter would be "responsible" for delivering on any promises. Might be a bit tricky to get around the limitations.

Why don't you guys just open a kick starter page?

Here, if you're lazy

http://www.kickstarter.com/