On Litecoin we do have a memory add-on for CM1 going into manufacture. I don't want anyone to think we have Litecoin mining now running on CM1. We don't and won't for at least some time to come give our current workload. This new module will simply be available anyone that wants to try and implement it on a CM1. On the big boards we will come back to Litecoin at some point but no promises when that might be.
I _might_ be interested in one such CM1 board with memory add-ons in order to try and hack a solution together in my spare time (which is very little these days between work and babies, and it is doubtful I would have enough time). Couple questions:
1) Have you done any sizing to estimate/optimize both the amount of memory and # of memory ports that would be optimal for scrypt and CM1? Otherwise the board configuration is a stab in the dark.
2) Would such a board come with the necessary IP blocks needed to interface with the add-on memory ports during Verilog development? This would make development easier and is usually provided with development boards.
3) If someone did successfully develop a scrypt miner, would you offer any business terms to make it available for others?
We don't think the memory solution for CM1 will be the most optimal Litecoin solution possible with FPGAs and interconnect bandwidth may be, or not, somewhat of a limitation. There is a local FPGA with the memory that may help in this solution. Whilst we think CM1s will remain profitable (more earning than electric cost) in Bitcoin mining for some time to come yet but we would like to see the many CM1 owners with a way forward with their boards into Litecoin.
We don't have them yet in final form but all the elements for the accessing the memory have been done before by the team before so I would anticipate we could get that knocked together into a workable form some time in September.
Someone made the comment that GPUs are ASICs. If you are working on that basis FPGAs are also ASICs. However it is worth saying that FPGAs can often compete with, and often beat, GPUs albeit usually with a different structural approach. Outside maybe a few people already working on FPGA Litecoin solutions I doubt anyone actually has the knowledge to say which will be better - GPU or FPGA at the moment. Our point here is that there is a awful lot of CM1s out there with potentially nothing to do in maybe 6-12 months time when we foresee Bitcoin being no longer profitable and provided CM1s operate in profit no reason not to do Litecoin at whatever level a CM1 can achieve.
I will also say that anyone having a serious attempt to do a Litecoin solution should talk to us partly so we know what is happening but it will also allow us to offer some limited help maybe technically or even some form of financial reward for a solution. On the latter this might be royalty (say based on memory module sales), or a straight payment in some form, or even a bounty. We have not discussed this or set anything up yet so I can't say more at this point about what we might do.