Cairnsmore1 - Quad XC6SLX150 Board - page 124.

nbtcminer

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Quote from: Gomeler on May 03, 2012, 01:33:32 AM

If we could program the flash through the USB connection it would greatly simplify interacting with the devices. I really like the idea of being able to select which bitstream but this wouldn't be as important to me as reprograming via USB. I figure I'd load a bitstream and run it for a few weeks/months without touching the device. Just my opinion though.

+1
Most of the other devices currently on the market support this functionality!

yohan

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It probably won't be cheap and you get into an equation that it's probably cheaper just have more boards and keep it simple. This sort of stuff can make a horrible mess if it leaks or spills.

spiccioli

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nec sine labore

Quote from: yohan on May 03, 2012, 09:34:38 AM

It is 181.403mm x 126.492mm plus or minus a little tolerance.

Note the dual sets of heatsink holes on the latest CAD image. We have a fairly good northbridge type heatsink ordered for the front that will user the bigger pair. Optionally you can have a smaller standard one on the back if you like. We are hoping to offer some addition options for heatsinks e.g. like copper options and maybe a water coolers. We will also be looking at some other techniques as well that might work well but that's for us to experiment with here first.

Yohan

yohan,

I think that submerging them in fluid like this

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/ElectronicsChemicals/Home/Products/ElectronicLiquids/?WT.mc_id=Electronics_Redirect&WT.tsrc=Redirect

could make a good solution. Don't know how much it costs though.

spiccioli.

Glasswalker

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When you say we could mount heatsinks on the bottom of the board. Would that offer any benefit? (ie: is the board designed to provide a thermal interface on the bottom? which a heatsink could contact well to conduct heat away?)

yohan

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Activity: 462

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It is 181.403mm x 126.492mm plus or minus a little tolerance.

Note the dual sets of heatsink holes on the latest CAD image. We have a fairly good northbridge type heatsink ordered for the front that will user the bigger pair. Optionally you can have a smaller standard one on the back if you like. We are hoping to offer some addition options for heatsinks e.g. like copper options and maybe a water coolers. We will also be looking at some other techniques as well that might work well but that's for us to experiment with here first.

Yohan

Glasswalker

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Activity: 407

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What are the final dimensions of the board at this point?

spiccioli

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Activity: 1378

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nec sine labore

yohan,

awsome!

I really like the presence of temperature sensors and the use of a pci-e connector to power the board which makes using a normal rig PSU a snap!

spiccioli.

yohan

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Activity: 462

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There is a new CAD image now on http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/cairnsmore/cairnsmore1.html. This is the finalised prototype which has gone to manufacture. We are more or less on schedule and the first prototypes, assuming no problems in PCB manufacture (problems do occur regularly in PCB manufacture) will go on our assembly line next week. If that all goes exactly to plan then we will show some pictures of a real board either at the end of next week or the beginning of the week after.

Those of that have ordered you will get an update in the next 2-3 weeks when we have a better idea on when parts are going to arrive with us and also depending on how we are going to load our line for coming weeks.

It's our intention to try and give everyone that is on the order list (as is today) at least 1 unit on the early end of the schedule and gather as much feedback on performance as we can for as broad a range of customers as is possible. This will offer a level of assurance to purchasers of multiple units to see what they are getting before they have to pay for their entire orders.

Yohan

Lethos

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Keep it Simple. Every Bit Matters.

Glad to see a UK supplier of what looks like epic level FPGA.
Seriously mouth wide open at what i'm looking at here.

Garr255

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What's a GPU?

Quote from: Gomeler on May 03, 2012, 01:33:32 AM

If we could program the flash through the USB connection it would greatly simplify interacting with the devices. I really like the idea of being able to select which bitstream but this wouldn't be as important to me as reprograming via USB. I figure I'd load a bitstream and run it for a few weeks/months without touching the device. Just my opinion though.

+1

Gomeler

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Quote from: yohan on May 03, 2012, 01:26:47 AM

Our board should not need JTAG very often with the on-board bitstream storage. It shoul only be needed when an update is required.

It will also be possible to update the bitstream stored in a non-JTAG way if build the necessary function into the design. We can also store a few different bitstreams per FPGA which can be selected using a multi-boot technique.

If we could program the flash through the USB connection it would greatly simplify interacting with the devices. I really like the idea of being able to select which bitstream but this wouldn't be as important to me as reprograming via USB. I figure I'd load a bitstream and run it for a few weeks/months without touching the device. Just my opinion though.

yohan

sr. member

Activity: 462

Merit: 251

Our board should not need JTAG very often with the on-board bitstream storage. It shoul only be needed when an update is required.

It will also be possible to update the bitstream stored in a non-JTAG way if build the necessary function into the design. We can also store a few different bitstreams per FPGA which can be selected using a multi-boot technique.

Garr255

legendary

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What's a GPU?

I bet Cognitive shareholders would agree to issuing some shares to raise funds for a few of these!

BinaryMage

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Ad astra.

Quote from: Keninishna on May 02, 2012, 10:29:02 PM

CAD design looks sexy, This guy in this thread https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/algorithmically-placed-fpga-miner-255mhschip-supports-all-known-boards-49971 claims to be getting 227 mh/s on one of these cheap LX150s, in his latest design he says he can clock it to 180 mhz which would net around 270 mh/s!! I'm really hoping either he releases his bitstream or the enterpoint engineers can come up with something similar or even better, considering this is just 1 person. 1080 mh/s per board will make me piss myself.

Though I'm not willing to commit to the latter, I agree with the former. 1080 MH/s would give these boards ~1.5 MH/s per $, significantly better than BFL's ~1.25, and with lower power draw to boot!

Keninishna

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CAD design looks sexy, This guy in this thread https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/algorithmically-placed-fpga-miner-255mhschip-supports-all-known-boards-49971 claims to be getting 227 mh/s on one of these cheap LX150s, in his latest design he says he can clock it to 180 mhz which would net around 270 mh/s!! I'm really hoping either he releases his bitstream or the enterpoint engineers can come up with something similar or even better, considering this is just 1 person. 1080 mh/s per board will make me piss myself.

Glasswalker

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I have a couple questions.

Can you elaborate on what chip exactly is the Array Controller?

Also what are the finished dimensions of the board (based on these cad designs) I'm shopping around for rackmount case solutions, and need dimensions to decide on a case.

Also when you say there is potential (with software development) to be able to drive the jtag via the USB, does that mean we could reflash the bitstreams on the 4 LX150 FPGAs via USB from the PC? without needing third party JTAG hardware? When you say software development needed for this, do you mean someone will need to release PC software to flash it with? Or do you mean that firmware of some kind for the "array controller" needs to be written to support it?

Gomeler

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Sent out some feelers to some waterblock manufacturers to see if they'd be interested in manufacturing a two-sided waterblock that would be sandwiched by a pair of these boards. I'd like to mill my own, been a while since I tinkered with milling waterblocks, but having someone who does this for a living would yield something that the community could use. Waiting to see what they say, if some agree to being able to take on the project I'll be in touch with Enterpoint to get some exact dimensions for a preliminary waterblock design.

Quote from: Inspector 2211 on May 02, 2012, 01:21:37 PM

Quote from: roomservice on May 02, 2012, 01:19:27 PM

Quote from: rjk on May 02, 2012, 01:17:54 PM

Quote from: Glasswalker on May 02, 2012, 01:06:49 PM

Quote from: simon66 on May 02, 2012, 12:30:49 PM

ummm... Nice board but I think 1 hole in the center might be a problem for me. I had plans to water cool this baby. Oh well, I guess I have to suck it up lol. Thanks for the img btw.

The holes on the corners of each FPGA are setup to take standard northbridge heatsinks. Which means any northbridge standard waterblock should work just fine using through-hole mount available on this board.

Yeah but you can't mount 4 heatsinks or blocks with only 1 hole in the middle.

I would be more interested in one large heatsink which covers all four fpga.

What if the four FPGAs are not precisely co-planar?
Are you OK with one or two of them running hot because the heat sink does not completely touch it/them?

Not a problem with a custom milled heatsink, so long as any height differences are consistent between devices. If they aren't consistent then there is an issue on the manufacturing side of things.

Glasswalker

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Activity: 407

Merit: 250

Quote from: rjk on May 02, 2012, 01:17:54 PM

Quote from: Glasswalker on May 02, 2012, 01:06:49 PM

Quote from: simon66 on May 02, 2012, 12:30:49 PM

ummm... Nice board but I think 1 hole in the center might be a problem for me. I had plans to water cool this baby. Oh well, I guess I have to suck it up lol. Thanks for the img btw.

The holes on the corners of each FPGA are setup to take standard northbridge heatsinks. Which means any northbridge standard waterblock should work just fine using through-hole mount available on this board.

Yeah but you can't mount 4 heatsinks or blocks with only 1 hole in the middle.

Yes you can (if the middle hole you're looking at isn't actually for the heatsink).

The middle hole you see I believe is just for added support in mounting the board to it's chassis.

See the holes closer to the FPGA chips. They don't render as nice because of them not being plated holes. Those offer 2 distinct holes for each FPGA for heatsink mounting. It's stated they are standard northbridge hole spacing.

Inspector 2211

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Activity: 448

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Quote from: roomservice on May 02, 2012, 01:19:27 PM

Quote from: rjk on May 02, 2012, 01:17:54 PM

Quote from: Glasswalker on May 02, 2012, 01:06:49 PM

Quote from: simon66 on May 02, 2012, 12:30:49 PM

ummm... Nice board but I think 1 hole in the center might be a problem for me. I had plans to water cool this baby. Oh well, I guess I have to suck it up lol. Thanks for the img btw.

The holes on the corners of each FPGA are setup to take standard northbridge heatsinks. Which means any northbridge standard waterblock should work just fine using through-hole mount available on this board.

Yeah but you can't mount 4 heatsinks or blocks with only 1 hole in the middle.

I would be more interested in one large heatsink which covers all four fpga.

What if the four FPGAs are not precisely co-planar?
Are you OK with one or two of them running hot because the heat sink does not completely touch it/them?

roomservice

full member

Activity: 199

Merit: 100

Quote from: rjk on May 02, 2012, 01:17:54 PM

Quote from: Glasswalker on May 02, 2012, 01:06:49 PM

Quote from: simon66 on May 02, 2012, 12:30:49 PM

ummm... Nice board but I think 1 hole in the center might be a problem for me. I had plans to water cool this baby. Oh well, I guess I have to suck it up lol. Thanks for the img btw.

The holes on the corners of each FPGA are setup to take standard northbridge heatsinks. Which means any northbridge standard waterblock should work just fine using through-hole mount available on this board.

Yeah but you can't mount 4 heatsinks or blocks with only 1 hole in the middle.

I would be more interested in one large heatsink which covers all four fpga.

Topic: Cairnsmore1 - Quad XC6SLX150 Board - page 124. (Read 286370 times)