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Topic: Hardware for My Next Project (Read 2566 times)

sr. member
Activity: 520
Merit: 253
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June 27, 2013, 04:47:53 PM
#3
Wow, your approach is seriously interesting. I wonder how much of the current ASIC mining designs are simply hardcoded implementations of the old FPGA stuff -- obviously, there must be some ASIC specific design, but to the outside the entire mining industry seems like an endless scaling up of old ideas.

Designing for a specific FPGA and using its timing quirks to your advantage goes against all the basics I hear -- that FPGAs are meant for quick prototyping. This is a good sign of the old hacker spirit.

I've also wondered how much FPGA circuit designs are limited by programmers who are used to sequential designs. For example, could you design a clockless network that spits out the result of SHA256. I dabble in analog electronics, where you can do fairly complicated things without any clocking, so I like to imagine how far you could extend these ideas in the digital realm. Then again, I understand it's the analog properties of a circuit that introduce delay, and one way to deal with that delay is clocking.

Anyway, good luck with the project Smiley I do hope you would opensource it at some point, so we can all learn something after you've earned enough coin.
sr. member
Activity: 308
Merit: 250
June 21, 2013, 03:47:50 PM
#2

I will start from scratch and use Verilog coding. I will make custom circuits for everything to get the max performance. Timing analysis will be key in this project. Meeting all set-up and hold times with guard band will take some time, and will be a pain. But the good thing, there are multiple phase that can be used.

I will start on the project after I get the first release out of my WinMiner/Dominatrix project. With the Dominatrix Engine, I already have a software platform that I can tie in the FPGA too. Depending on the performance I get out of the FPGA, will depend if I release the code to the public. If I get awesome performance, then I will keep the code. If I get OK performance, then I will release the code to the public for free.




Interesting, but what do you hope to gain by keeping it closed source? And you might need a bigger heatsink than than!
newbie
Activity: 5
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June 21, 2013, 03:07:21 PM
#1
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