Mini Rig announcement by Butterfly Labs - 25gh/s - page 3.

ice_chill

sr. member

Activity: 336

Merit: 250

Quote from: rjk on June 02, 2012, 03:16:19 PM

Quote from: ice_chill on June 02, 2012, 03:12:19 PM

I almost get the feeling they arbitrarily delay postage. like they wanna mine themselves as much as they can before shipping it. Ofcourse they deny this.

The current wait is because of a lack of cases, apparently the boards are ready to ship but there's nothing to put them in.

Yea that's the Singles, but what about Mini-rig, they demonstrated all the boards, some guy confirmed he saw the Mini-Rig cases at their office. They promised to start shipping end of may.

rjk

sr. member

Activity: 448

Merit: 250

1ngldh

Quote from: ice_chill on June 02, 2012, 03:12:19 PM

I almost get the feeling they arbitrarily delay postage. like they wanna mine themselves as much as they can before shipping it. Ofcourse they deny this.

The current wait is because of a lack of cases, apparently the boards are ready to ship but there's nothing to put them in.

ice_chill

sr. member

Activity: 336

Merit: 250

I almost get the feeling they arbitrarily delay postage. like they wanna mine themselves as much as they can before shipping it. Ofcourse they deny this.

TheSeven

hero member

Activity: 504

Merit: 500

FPGA Mining LLC

Quote from: Inspector 2211 on May 17, 2012, 04:36:08 PM

Quote from: rjk on May 17, 2012, 04:31:20 PM

Quote from: BFL on May 17, 2012, 04:27:35 PM

Here's a quick photo update for you...

This is the Mini Rig processor card. It's a 1.5 GH/s unit which operates at a board temperature of 36C with a 22C ambient.

http://www.butterflylabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/MR-BF2_burn.png
http://www.butterflylabs.com/production-update/

That SATA port looks interesting.

I was about to post the same thing, but it's labeled "X-LINK" and since a SATA port doesn't make sense (the bandwidth is not that high and the mini rig will have a Raspberry Pi as a controller, not a a PC motherboard with 18 SATA ports), I assume that they just re-purposed the SATA connector and SATA cables for something else. The question is: For what?

I know I'm late, but the answer is: For that!

mrb

legendary

Activity: 1512

Merit: 1028

Quote from: bulanula on May 19, 2012, 09:09:36 AM

Can't edit post above but it seems there is this writing on the chips this time around :

NDBAN20242
4PDHATWOA

Can't find anything about these but they look very strange indeed for a FPGA chip.

These are Altera's Lot Number and Trace Code. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/mini-rig-card-2-x-altera-arria-ii-ep2agx260-84651

WhitePhantom

sr. member

Activity: 348

Merit: 250

Quote from: KIDC on May 31, 2012, 11:53:46 PM

Quote from: tgmarks on May 31, 2012, 11:45:11 PM

Quote from: KIDC on May 31, 2012, 07:50:18 PM

What I'd like to know is how this is going to interact with the host unit. Since it's "BitForce V 2.0" it seems like it would just work with cgminer, et al. just like the Singles. Does anybody know for sure? I haven't seen BFL make a statement on this as such. Maybe they could (wink wink)? Also, would it be a problem if it was reported to this host as one huge device doing 25,000 mhash? These are things I would wonder about if I were to drop 15.5k on dedicated mining hardware.

These are valid questions, but with them showing the Raspberry Pi inside I was thinking it was its own host unit.

My understanding was that the Raspberry Pi was optional - that it had the mounting area for it but that it didn't ship with the unit.

That's correct. Sonny told me yesterday that you can either run the mini-rig with a Raspberry Pi or via USB to a host PC.

KIDC

member

Activity: 80

Merit: 10

Quote from: tgmarks on May 31, 2012, 11:45:11 PM

Quote from: KIDC on May 31, 2012, 07:50:18 PM

What I'd like to know is how this is going to interact with the host unit. Since it's "BitForce V 2.0" it seems like it would just work with cgminer, et al. just like the Singles. Does anybody know for sure? I haven't seen BFL make a statement on this as such. Maybe they could (wink wink)? Also, would it be a problem if it was reported to this host as one huge device doing 25,000 mhash? These are things I would wonder about if I were to drop 15.5k on dedicated mining hardware.

These are valid questions, but with them showing the Raspberry Pi inside I was thinking it was its own host unit.

My understanding was that the Raspberry Pi was optional - that it had the mounting area for it but that it didn't ship with the unit.

tgmarks

donator

Activity: 490

Merit: 500

Quote from: KIDC on May 31, 2012, 07:50:18 PM

What I'd like to know is how this is going to interact with the host unit. Since it's "BitForce V 2.0" it seems like it would just work with cgminer, et al. just like the Singles. Does anybody know for sure? I haven't seen BFL make a statement on this as such. Maybe they could (wink wink)? Also, would it be a problem if it was reported to this host as one huge device doing 25,000 mhash? These are things I would wonder about if I were to drop 15.5k on dedicated mining hardware.

These are valid questions, but with them showing the Raspberry Pi inside I was thinking it was its own host unit.

JWU42

legendary

Activity: 1666

Merit: 1000

cgminer has handled well over 25 Gh/s in one instance - it is ready...

KIDC

member

Activity: 80

Merit: 10

What I'd like to know is how this is going to interact with the host unit. Since it's "BitForce V 2.0" it seems like it would just work with cgminer, et al. just like the Singles. Does anybody know for sure? I haven't seen BFL make a statement on this as such. Maybe they could (wink wink)? Also, would it be a problem if it was reported to this host as one huge device doing 25,000 mhash? These are things I would wonder about if I were to drop 15.5k on dedicated mining hardware.

Inspector 2211

sr. member

Activity: 448

Merit: 250

Quote from: ice_chill on May 19, 2012, 09:52:57 AM

So the Single is an FPGA so can be reused for a similar task, but mini-rig is a proper ASIC so application specific, no reuse possible ?

It's my best guess - don't take it for a fact just yet.

ice_chill

sr. member

Activity: 336

Merit: 250

So the Single is an FPGA so can be reused for a similar task, but mini-rig is a proper ASIC so application specific, no reuse possible ?

Inspector 2211

sr. member

Activity: 448

Merit: 250

I think this time it is a structured ASIC.

They handed over some 300 grand to Altera to have a HardCopy chip (structured ASIC) made.
Naturally, without the parasitic capacitance of all the interconnect transistors, the HardCopy is faster and more power efficient.

bulanula

hero member

Activity: 518

Merit: 500

Can't edit post above but it seems there is this writing on the chips this time around :

NDBAN20242
4PDHATWOA

Can't find anything about these but they look very strange indeed for a FPGA chip.

bulanula

hero member

Activity: 518

Merit: 500

OK. Anyone have an idea of the chips they are using now ?

750 MHash/s for a single chip really is strange and very high.

I am afraid this is the death of GPUs Cry

unless 7990 comes out soon.

Any update for EU buyers and VAT avoidance Huh

I really want to buy but the VAT kills it.

Epoch

legendary

Activity: 922

Merit: 1003

Quote from: Inspector 2211 on May 17, 2012, 06:05:20 PM

I have this theory that at least some of the cooling problems of [few] "problem Singles" originate from a lack of co-planarity between the two FPGAs, leading to a void between heat sink and FPGA at one or even both of the FPGAs. OK, not literally a void, but an area where the thermal paste is very thick, and that's not good.

That is a good theory, Inspector, and I agree with you. Cooling performance of the Rev3 units (single heatsink servicing both FPGAs) is dependent to some degree on the co-planarity of the chips, which is difficult to achieve in practice. If the 2 FPGAs each had their own heatsink the cooling performance might be better. It seems to be sufficient, however, to achieve the rated 832Mhps at 22C ambient with the stock fan(s). Perhaps not ideal or optimized, but sufficient. At this point I tend not to complain.

Garr255

legendary

Activity: 938

Merit: 1000

What's a GPU?

Quote from: Inspector 2211 on May 17, 2012, 06:05:20 PM

If I could get them sooner without the enclosure and the Raspberry Pi, I'd rather have my 18 boards as-is. OK, heat sinks would be nice.

Speaking of:
I have this theory that at least some of the cooling problems of [few] "problem Singles" originate from a lack of co-planarity between the two FPGAs, leading to a void between heat sink and FPGA at one or even both of the FPGAs. OK, not literally a void, but an area where the thermal paste is very thick, and that's not good.

It also seems common for the heatsinks to slip while shipping.

BFL, what are you doing to accommodate this?

Inspector 2211

sr. member

Activity: 448

Merit: 250

If I could get them sooner without the enclosure and the Raspberry Pi, I'd rather have my 18 boards as-is. OK, heat sinks would be nice.

Speaking of:
I have this theory that at least some of the cooling problems of [few] "problem Singles" originate from a lack of co-planarity between the two FPGAs, leading to a void between heat sink and FPGA at one or even both of the FPGAs. OK, not literally a void, but an area where the thermal paste is very thick, and that's not good.

rjk

sr. member

Activity: 448

Merit: 250

1ngldh

Quote from: ice_chill on May 17, 2012, 05:22:26 PM

Thank you for the update!

Anyone noticed the voltmeter measurement points at the top right ?

Singles have those too. But I see all kinds of cool goodies on the board, to be honest.

ice_chill

sr. member

Activity: 336

Merit: 250

Thank you for the update!

Anyone noticed the voltmeter measurement points at the top right ?

Topic: Mini Rig announcement by Butterfly Labs - 25gh/s - page 3. (Read 34251 times)