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Topic: FPGA development board "Icarus" - DisContinued/ important announcement - page 49. (Read 207279 times)

hero member
Activity: 504
Merit: 500
 ummm, the X6500 is $580 for only 200MH.... = $2.9/MH  This Icarus build, even at $620 and 360MH will be cheaper per MH. = $1.722~/MH  Even at my guess of $648, its $1.8/MH. He has plenty of room to work with there.  If it was me I'd start em at $700, or $1.94/MH, for the first round and move down from there as bulk improved costs..

250 and not 200: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.584606

  That still puts X6500 more expensive. ;p  Not trying to argue with ya, m8. But your orginal comment of it in comparison to the x6500 is off a bit.  Also, X6500 started out at 200. Icarus is in the same boat and has been stated as such by the developer that he is still working on optimizing the mining code.

  Point is, from the range Ng has hinted to thus far, his mark-up will be much less than others and his end-user price per MH is better...
staff
Activity: 4242
Merit: 8672
 ummm, the X6500 is $580 for only 200MH.... = $2.9/MH  This Icarus build, even at $620 and 360MH will be cheaper per MH. = $1.722~/MH  Even at my guess of $648, its $1.8/MH. He has plenty of room to work with there.  If it was me I'd start em at $700, or $1.94/MH, for the first round and move down from there as bulk improved costs..

250 and not 200: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.584606

The X6500 is only at that speed due to not very well optimized mining code which hasn't been touched for sometime.  They were saying in #bitcoin-fpga that now that the board production was all sorted some time was going to get spent on the mining code. It's using the same -3 grade parts which ZTEX gets 190MH/s per FPGA on (and ZTEX's code is OSS).  While it's possible that they flubbed the power design or the clock signal quality and can't actually get it to that speed, I think thats unlikely.

It appears that Icarus is using the "slower" -2 speed grade part— which is probably the best part to use in terms of $/MH from a parts cost perspective.  But the parts cost only matter if they're passed on to the buyer.
hero member
Activity: 504
Merit: 500
  He gave us enough of a range on price to do some math with. Less than $648 and more than $550(since he stated $500 was a bit less than his costs).

Too much more that his costs and it's going to lose attractiveness vs the X6500

  ummm, the X6500 is $580 for only 200MH.... = $2.9/MH  This Icarus build, even at $620 and 360MH will be cheaper per MH. = $1.722~/MH  Even at my guess of $648, its $1.8/MH. He has plenty of room to work with there.  If it was me I'd start em at $700, or $1.94/MH, for the first round and move down from there as bulk improved costs..
staff
Activity: 4242
Merit: 8672
  He gave us enough of a range on price to do some math with. Less than $648 and more than $550(since he stated $500 was a bit less than his costs).

Too much more that his costs and it's going to lose attractiveness vs the X6500 — yes, it's a more flexible board (it looks beautiful and deserves a good price) but for people who are primarily interested in mining the amount of premium they'd pay for that over a more minimal design probably isn't great.  (the idea of increased resale value is good, but it's pretty theoretical... and probably not worth that much in present day dollars)

Fortunately it looks like all the boards out there already have pretty healthy margins— they have to because of the small quantities we're talking about... so there should hopefully be room to take some of the increased parts costs without making it uncompetitive.

hero member
Activity: 504
Merit: 500
Those are pretty cool. Would love to know what the final price is going to be.

  He gave us enough of a range on price to do some math with. Less than $648 and more than $550(since he stated $500 was a bit less than his costs).

  I am still gonna stick to within 10% or so of my orig speculation once he crunches all the math on parts and labor costs involved. Unless he plans to order 500+ chips at once and contracts with an ultra cheap assembler in hopes you forum peoples will buy them before a cheaper design can be built.....
member
Activity: 86
Merit: 10
Those are pretty cool. Would love to know what the final price is going to be.
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
So when can we expect to be able to order this ? :p

Same problem as BFL creation. No concrete offers and pricing and release dates Sad At least this one is real.
legendary
Activity: 1540
Merit: 1002
So when can we expect to be able to order this ? :p
staff
Activity: 4242
Merit: 8672
Well ATM I think we should just focus on making this board really good for mining and mining only. All these extra parts make the device even more expensive I think. Please tell me when I can get an FPGA module of size smaller than a 5870 ( half size of a GPU ) and gets 500 Mhash/s and price is under $500 and consumption is under 20W.

Your request for a pony is being processed. You are #6182382813 in line. Please stand by.
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
Alot of I/Os are routed to connectors so you may develop some neaty devices. For example, if you want, there will be no problem to develop and connect module with Ethernet, monitor, PC keyboard, USB host, etc...

exactly.

example1: build an WIFI daughter board and connect to the FX connector on the top, then implement some logic in FPGA, and then write some code, finally, Icarus can solo mining in a corner.

example2: connect some Power relay and a GSM module with it, write some code, then you can control your lamp with some SMS from your phone.

etc.

Well ATM I think we should just focus on making this board really good for mining and mining only. All these extra parts make the device even more expensive I think. Please tell me when I can get an FPGA module of size smaller than a 5870 ( half size of a GPU ) and gets 500 Mhash/s and price is under $500 and consumption is under 20W.
hero member
Activity: 592
Merit: 501
We will stand and fight.
Alot of I/Os are routed to connectors so you may develop some neaty devices. For example, if you want, there will be no problem to develop and connect module with Ethernet, monitor, PC keyboard, USB host, etc...

exactly.

example1: build an WIFI daughter board and connect to the FX connector on the top, then implement some logic in FPGA, and then write some code, finally, Icarus can solo mining in a corner.

example2: connect some Power relay and a GSM module with it, write some code, then you can control your lamp with some SMS from your phone.

etc.
legendary
Activity: 1029
Merit: 1000
Alot of I/Os are routed to connectors so you may develop some neaty devices. For example, if you want, there will be no problem to develop and connect module with Ethernet, monitor, PC keyboard, USB host, etc...
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
What is this "other purpose" you keep talking about Huh I thought these were on good for mining. Maybe good for WPA too ?
hero member
Activity: 592
Merit: 501
We will stand and fight.
Icarus will for sell in a few days.

price?  just guess.

Hopefully <$500 per unit?

Any plans to have volume pricing?

 Grin

maybe slightly higher, but not much. in effect, 500$ is enough for the manufacture cost, but months work is a REALISTIC problem.

the slot is to connect to a motherboard? so would not need either USB and power cable?

yes, the slot is used for connect to a motherboard. but in mining purpose, this architecture is highly NOT recommend. i design 2 of "link port" for cross boards connect. In fact, just 1 USB port could support hundreds of Icarus. (But by present firmware's coding bugs, this function can not work well. Grin) So, using a complex motherboard just for remove the power cable is inefficent.

This looks great. Wouldnt it be possible to run this with passive cooler?
Whats the price going to be?

highly NOT recommend. because of the chip packaging, a low thermal resistance cooling method is needed. relation to the size,  a 25mm fan is enough. now i use a NIDEC ball-bearing fan, high quality.


the slot is to connect to a motherboard? so would not need either USB and power cable?

Doesn't look like any of the traces from DIMM connector reach the USB microcontroller.  It does look like it could get power from the edge connector though.  That combined with a convenient way of mounting multiple cards would make the backplane worth it.  If backplane handled data to well that would just be awesome.

this function only need a slightly UCF code modification. certainly, you need build a mother board. the DIMM connector provide near 100 GPIOs, JTAG, and power.
attention: the FPGA's config bitstream CAN be stored on board. on this board, each FPGA has 1 64Mb SPI flash with it, so it can boot up when power on in 500ms.
this means the upper computer's work is simply transform the mining data. maybe a hacked router is fairy enough for it.
the bitstream download can be finish with a XILINX platform cable.

I'm hoping this will be the unit that puts us at $2/Mhash... so $600 would be perfection Wink

EDIT: Math fail Wink

maybe lower. but please, this is a good development board, not just a mining machine. I think it's much ease for resell if you want to give up mining bitcoins  Grin .

This really is an exciting development. Board looks very nice compared to other hacks.

What is price ?

What is memory connector for ? I think it is just for the power and the data uses USB.

This is a development board. not just for mining. the DIMM connector is mainly for other purpose.

When this is intended as a bitcoin miner, why the 6 layer pcb?

Heck, I can imagine it would be doable on a double layer board with minimal I/O, if not even single layer if the power for both chips can be supplied by a single power converter. The thing I want is a pcie card with nothing on it except 2 fpgas, and the power circuit.

I am willing to bet this can be done with double layer and around USD 1/mhash.

there is enough of product as you say, isn't it?  Grin beyond that, there is another side: a 6 layers PCB's heat dissipation is much better than a 2 layer PCB, so the FPGA chips' core temperature will lower than just using a 2 layers PCB . there are about 3 complete copper planes in the PCB, and all signals has reference planes. and it's necessary for diff-pairs routing.


Great work.
For a such heavy routing 6 layer PCB its necessary. I'm waiting for a price...
I like the idea for routing I/Os, maybe I buy one... If you will sell those..

certainly they are for sell, if you don't need a "open box can use" mining code, i can ship you 1 today.
now we are debugging around the mining control software. and this will lasts some days.

 Excellent work, Ngzhang!!


  Speculation on price; Those particular spartans are $158 for <60, the boards have a LOT of components and the PCBs not cheap. High amp regulator $30+. Maybe saved a few bukcs on a low end uart? Not seeing it but am not real familiar with them. Not sure if he has a license fee attached but will add it in case.


  builders markup included result = XLX $386, PCB+License $145, Components $110, usb and power cable $7

 =   ~$648  or $1.80/MH  

Did I miss any thing?

and i do all of this for free?  Grin

relax, it will not reach 648$.  Grin

中国人的骄傲。。。。。

speak english please...
hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
Oooo, those are sexy
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1079
Gerald Davis
IMHO that is enormous price if it were true. I was hoping $1/Mh was the maximum price point. Guess not ... Sad

The FPGA alone is going to be $150 ea.  So @ 180MH just the FGPA is $0.83 per MH.  Kinda unlikely that everything else including PCB, minor components, USB interface, assembly, and retail markup are <$0.17 per MH.
hero member
Activity: 504
Merit: 500
  Excellent work, Ngzhang!!


  Speculation on price; Those particular spartans are $158 for <60, the boards have a LOT of components and the PCBs not cheap. High amp regulator $30+. Maybe saved a few bukcs on a low end uart? Not seeing it but am not real familiar with them. Not sure if he has a license fee attached but will add it in case.


  builders markup included result = XLX $386, PCB+License $145, Components $110, usb and power cable $7

 =   ~$648  or $1.80/MH 

Did I miss any thing?

IMHO that is enormous price if it were true. I was hoping $1/Mh was the maximum price point. Guess not ... Sad

  I am hopefully wayy off.  My price speculation is bloated so I don't get my hopes up too much. ;p
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
  Excellent work, Ngzhang!!


  Speculation on price; Those particular spartans are $158 for <60, the boards have a LOT of components and the PCBs not cheap. High amp regulator $30+. Maybe saved a few bukcs on a low end uart? Not seeing it but am not real familiar with them. Not sure if he has a license fee attached but will add it in case.


  builders markup included result = XLX $386, PCB+License $145, Components $110, usb and power cable $7

 =   ~$648  or $1.80/MH 

Did I miss any thing?

IMHO that is enormous price if it were true. I was hoping $1/Mh was the maximum price point. Guess not ... Sad
hero member
Activity: 504
Merit: 500
  Excellent work, Ngzhang!!


  Speculation on price; Those particular spartans are $158 for <60, the boards have a LOT of components and the PCBs not cheap. High amp regulator $30+. Maybe saved a few bukcs on a low end uart? Not seeing it but am not real familiar with them. Not sure if he has a license fee attached but will add it in case.


  builders markup included result = XLX $386, PCB+License $145, Components $110, usb and power cable $7

 =   ~$648  or $1.80/MH 

Did I miss any thing?
legendary
Activity: 1029
Merit: 1000
Great work.
For a such heavy routing 6 layer PCB its necessary. I'm waiting for a price...
I like the idea for routing I/Os, maybe I buy one... If you will sell those..
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