Home made bitcoin miner... | Bitcointalksearch.org

opentoe

legendary

Activity: 1274

Merit: 1000

Personal text my ass....

Quote from: BitCoinLoft on March 16, 2013, 11:18:54 AM

I am building a homebrew FPGA miner. I know after ASICs this won't be a big deal Undecided

but, hey I've really discovered FPGA's just soon after disovering Bitcoin and it would be nice to tinker with it and they don't cost much. I've seen couple of people pushing around 400 Mhash/s from XILINX based boards costing under $200.

Be smart, do it right and you may end up deciding you want to build an ASIC miner also. You may even have a very good chance of beating BFL to the punch.

BitCoinLoft

newbie

Activity: 45

Merit: 0

I am building a homebrew FPGA miner. I know after ASICs this won't be a big deal Undecided

but, hey I've really discovered FPGA's just soon after disovering Bitcoin and it would be nice to tinker with it and they don't cost much. I've seen couple of people pushing around 400 Mhash/s from XILINX based boards costing under $200.

freequant

hero member

Activity: 770

Merit: 500

Glad to see this was legit. Apologies for the questionning earlier: there have been so many scam cases on this forum that now, any new project is perceived by default as a scam until proven legit. Sad but necessary. Thanks for sharing what you have got.

opentoe

legendary

Activity: 1274

Merit: 1000

Personal text my ass....

Quote from: mrb on March 14, 2013, 05:19:08 AM

opentoe: this an Actel ProASIC3 chip. And despite the marketing name, this is an FPGA, not an ASIC (so I was right, again): http://www.actel.com/products/pa3/default.aspx Based on the VQFP-100 package it has got to be an A3P030, A3P060, A3P125, or A3P250.

It is absolutely not made specifically for Bitcoin mining. There is no way whatsoever that this generic 130nm FPGA beats the power efficiency of the 40nm Arria II FPGA (BFL Mini Rig) or 45nm Spartan6 FPGA (in pretty much all other Bitcoin miners).

Sorry for the false accusation of attempting to scam. It turns out you were merely ignorant of what hardware type you had.

As I said, I was merely the middleman trying to give a helping hand to my friend. I've already said I have no idea on what the chips are or anything about them, but I do appreciate the fact that you guys do know what they are. I'll break the bad news to my friends and tell them their little ASIC mining project is over. Thank you guys for letting me know what the chip is. That's why I went to this forum first, I knew some people here are so damn smart technically they would know exactly what that board was.

Thanks again!

ChipGeek

full member

Activity: 198

Merit: 100

Quote from: mrb on March 14, 2013, 05:19:08 AM

opentoe: this an Actel ProASIC3 chip. And despite the marketing name, this is an FPGA, not an ASIC: http://www.actel.com/products/pa3/default.aspx Based on the VQFP-100 package it has got to be an A3P030, A3P060, A3P125, or A3P250.

It is absolutely not made specifically for Bitcoin mining. There is no way whatsoever that this generic 130nm FPGA beats the power efficiency of the 40nm Arria II FPGA (BFL Mini Rig) or 45nm Spartan6 FPGA (in pretty much all other Bitcoin miners).

Sorry for the false accusation of attempting to scam. It turns out you were merely ignorant of what hardware type you had.

I agree. 5MH/s maybe, but not 5GH/s. In my opinion, this is probably not worth investigating further. Of course, it would be great to be proven wrong. But I'm doubtful.

mrb

legendary

Activity: 1512

Merit: 1028

opentoe: this an Actel ProASIC3 chip. And despite the marketing name, this is an FPGA, not an ASIC (so I was right, again): http://www.actel.com/products/pa3/default.aspx Based on the VQFP-100 package it has got to be an A3P030, A3P060, A3P125, or A3P250.

It is absolutely not made specifically for Bitcoin mining. There is no way whatsoever that this generic 130nm FPGA beats the power efficiency of the 40nm Arria II FPGA (BFL Mini Rig) or 45nm Spartan6 FPGA (in pretty much all other Bitcoin miners).

Sorry for the false accusation of attempting to scam. It turns out you were merely ignorant of what hardware type you had.

opentoe

legendary

Activity: 1274

Merit: 1000

Personal text my ass....

Quote from: ChipGeek on March 12, 2013, 10:24:07 AM

Just because it is an "ASIC", does NOT mean it is a "bitcoin ASIC". As someone pointed out earlier, a GPU is a type of ASIC. Yes, it can be programmed to mine bitcoins, but that was not its original purpose. Given any random "ASIC" it may or (more likely) may NOT be able to effectively mine bitcoins.

Let's see a photo!

Yea, I hear you on that. I truly hope that it is made to mine away. I'll admit, I know ZERO (0) on what the chip is, or anything hardware at all. I'll be taking some photos tonight and putting them up here. Charging my camera battery right now. It is an old Nikon D70 so I barely use it and the battery was dead. Sorry. Give me a couple of hours or less.

This was the best I could get right now. This is one of many boards that will be put together I'm guessing. I was told this is about 5 GH/s. It is a very small board.

opentoe

legendary

Activity: 1274

Merit: 1000

Personal text my ass....

Quote from: freequant on March 12, 2013, 02:06:06 AM

Quote from: opentoe on March 11, 2013, 08:34:22 PM

We are just a few tech guys that wanted to give this a try and are stuck at the programming/interface portion here.

Oh, so now you are one of the founders, and a tech guy at it?
Strange, because you claimed to be a bystander having no clue what your friends were up to just a few posts ago...

I'm not involved in this in anyway besides helping my friend find someone to help with the programming, that is it. I'm the middle man right now. Just taking what they have, trying to find someone to help if even possible and that's it. Man, you guys are paranoid as hell on here.

ChipGeek

full member

Activity: 198

Merit: 100

Just because it is an "ASIC", does NOT mean it is a "bitcoin ASIC". As someone pointed out earlier, a GPU is a type of ASIC. Yes, it can be programmed to mine bitcoins, but that was not its original purpose. Given any random "ASIC" it may or (more likely) may NOT be able to effectively mine bitcoins.

Let's see a photo!

freequant

hero member

Activity: 770

Merit: 500

Quote from: monkee on March 12, 2013, 02:27:55 AM

god i hope opentoe is not BFL... lol

Actually this could be a plug from BFL to make people hope a bit longer. Now, the guy is going to post photos of a board full of chips with "BFL ASIC" written on top, and everybody will be like "woah, BFL ASICs are ready, OMG, let's preorder more".

mrb

legendary

Activity: 1512

Merit: 1028

Quote from: opentoe on March 11, 2013, 08:34:22 PM

I received the board with the chip on it and some notes that came along with it. Says ASIC right on the board and it looks like there was a heat sink on the chip at one point but looks like a little glue on there. I want to remove the glue without destroying the chip. I know Acetone works great with removing just about anything but will that affect the chip itself? Several people did email indicating they may be able to help with this project and I'm this much closer to maybe getting something done. If you are a good programmer, can make/create drivers so we can interface with this let me know. I'll respond to the people who already messaged me. Of course once it is complete you'll get a free miner. NOT a scam here. Willing to pay and very serious about this. This is NOT a big operation like Avalon or others. We are just a few tech guys that wanted to give this a try and are stuck at the programming/interface portion here.

I predict that opentoe will ask whoever is interested in a board to "just pay for shipping" to get the "free" board and then somehow not receive it or receive something that turns out is not a Bitcoin mining board Roll Eyes

monkee

full member

Activity: 172

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god i hope opentoe is not BFL... lol

jasinlee

hero member

Activity: 742

Merit: 500

Its as easy as 0, 1, 1, 2, 3

If you find a method of convincing devs to write you a free usb/wifi/rs232/etc module. Let me know how you did it since you will have just convinced someone to put in a whole lot of time into your project for free. Just sayin.

freequant

hero member

Activity: 770

Merit: 500

Quote from: opentoe on March 11, 2013, 08:34:22 PM

We are just a few tech guys that wanted to give this a try and are stuck at the programming/interface portion here.

Oh, so now you are one of the founders, and a tech guy at it?
Strange, because you claimed to be a bystander having no clue what your friends were up to just a few posts ago...

opentoe

legendary

Activity: 1274

Merit: 1000

Personal text my ass....

I received the board with the chip on it and some notes that came along with it. Says ASIC right on the board and it looks like there was a heat sink on the chip at one point but looks like a little glue on there. I want to remove the glue without destroying the chip. I know Acetone works great with removing just about anything but will that affect the chip itself? Several people did email indicating they may be able to help with this project and I'm this much closer to maybe getting something done. If you are a good programmer, can make/create drivers so we can interface with this let me know. I'll respond to the people who already messaged me. Of course once it is complete you'll get a free miner. NOT a scam here. Willing to pay and very serious about this. This is NOT a big operation like Avalon or others. We are just a few tech guys that wanted to give this a try and are stuck at the programming/interface portion here.

I will take some hi-res pictures.

Thanks

server

legendary

Activity: 892

Merit: 1002

1 BTC =1 BTC

Quote from: PsychoticBoy on March 11, 2013, 07:51:08 AM

Quote from: daybyter on March 11, 2013, 07:47:41 AM

Quote from: deepceleron on March 06, 2013, 06:41:14 PM

I'm mining using an ASIC. Code name Juniper. It is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit manufactured at TMSC Taiwan using their 40nm process, and includes 1 GB of memory on it's custom-designed circuit board too.

1 GB Ram? Hmmh...that should be good enough for a litecoin miner, too...

He is talking about a GPU, AMD uses ASIC's in their Graphic Cards Wink

PsychoticBoy

donator

Activity: 1890

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Parental Advisory Explicit Content

Quote from: daybyter on March 11, 2013, 07:47:41 AM

Quote from: deepceleron on March 06, 2013, 06:41:14 PM

I'm mining using an ASIC. Code name Juniper. It is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit manufactured at TMSC Taiwan using their 40nm process, and includes 1 GB of memory on it's custom-designed circuit board too.

1 GB Ram? Hmmh...that should be good enough for a litecoin miner, too...

He is talking about a GPU, AMD uses ASIC's in their Graphic Cards Wink

daybyter

legendary

Activity: 965

Merit: 1000

Quote from: deepceleron on March 06, 2013, 06:41:14 PM

I'm mining using an ASIC. Code name Juniper. It is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit manufactured at TMSC Taiwan using their 40nm process, and includes 1 GB of memory on it's custom-designed circuit board too.

1 GB Ram? Hmmh...that should be good enough for a litecoin miner, too...

opentoe

legendary

Activity: 1274

Merit: 1000

Personal text my ass....

Quote from: ChipGeek on March 07, 2013, 11:02:45 AM

Quote from: opentoe on March 07, 2013, 01:49:07 AM

I'm supposed to meet up with my friend soon, as he is going to lend me his project/hardware. I'll take some pictures of these chips he has and send them to the few people that asked to see them who could possibly help. Hey, I can't lose here and neither can the person who would be able to help him out. He/she would get a free ASIC miner out of the deal AND paid for programming it. This all sits on the fence right now until I can confirm what really those chips are. I'm sure the chips will have some identifiable marks on them and I'll snap close up pictures of them. I know many people said it is impossible to get or buy ASIC chips for this purpose, but it is also hard for me to believe that someone could know EVERY possible manufacturer and way to get those chips. Hey, I'm hoping for the best and wish it true but if it is all the wrong hardware and just old FPGA chips then so be it. From the looks of it Butterfly won't deliver anything for a very long time and Avalon well, is just a one timer right now from what I've seen. I'll take. I'll let you guys know when I get the hardware.

Please send me photos of the hardware. The photos of the chips themselves must clearly show that markings (letters and numbers) on the top of the chips.

I definitely will. I spoke to him today and he's getting all their notes and stuff together. I'm waiting eagerly myself on seeing this first hand.

ChipGeek

full member

Activity: 198

Merit: 100

Quote from: opentoe on March 07, 2013, 01:49:07 AM

I'm supposed to meet up with my friend soon, as he is going to lend me his project/hardware. I'll take some pictures of these chips he has and send them to the few people that asked to see them who could possibly help. Hey, I can't lose here and neither can the person who would be able to help him out. He/she would get a free ASIC miner out of the deal AND paid for programming it. This all sits on the fence right now until I can confirm what really those chips are. I'm sure the chips will have some identifiable marks on them and I'll snap close up pictures of them. I know many people said it is impossible to get or buy ASIC chips for this purpose, but it is also hard for me to believe that someone could know EVERY possible manufacturer and way to get those chips. Hey, I'm hoping for the best and wish it true but if it is all the wrong hardware and just old FPGA chips then so be it. From the looks of it Butterfly won't deliver anything for a very long time and Avalon well, is just a one timer right now from what I've seen. I'll take. I'll let you guys know when I get the hardware.

Please send me photos of the hardware. The photos of the chips themselves must clearly show that markings (letters and numbers) on the top of the chips.

Topic: Home made bitcoin miner... (Read 15412 times)