Topic: [Open Source Hardware Project] Hive & Wasp Prototype Development - page 4. (Read 16180 times)

Management Team Meets Fridays
Canberra, Australia 2000 ACT (GMT +11)

Design Team Meets Saturdays
Seattle, USA 1800 PST (-8 GMT)

WPC Mining Pool Development Team Meets Fridays
Jakarta, Indonesia 1200 WIB (+7 GMT)


If you have the time and are interested in our project feel free to email me or drop me a PM with your email and I will add you to the Zoho Project page where you can find out more on where we meet and the agendas for the meetings.

Hoping to do more than entertain... we want to provide you with disruptive innovation. Sit back and enjoy.

Watching.

Just finished a short formative meeting about a new project for the collective.

The Wasp Project Collective Mining Pool

WPC Mining Pool Development Team Meets this Friday the 29th November
Jakarta, Indonesia 1200 WIB (+7 GMT)

We should have an operational pool ready by December 7th, 2013.

The meeting will provide an overview for the shares and costs involved and key members involved in the oversight of the pool hardware and software.

---

Interested in working on our collective mining pool? Drop me a PM or Email to be added to the Zoho Project page.

You know IM in board.

Adding the CLAM ASIC to the mix.  https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/55nm-clam-asic-test-results-343856

We have requested some sample chips to work on as a Wasp. We are still waiting on chip specs on those. If anyone has an interest in developing the Clam Wasp then drop me an email or pm.

Wasp Controller and Maintenance Software

Summary

The Wasp Project Collective Wasps are self-contained hashing blades utilizing various hashing ASICs, and adapting each of them to a single unified power, command, and control structure. Several programs residing on the controlling PC or embedded computer interact with the Wasps through the common protocols for:

+ Mining eCoins, not limited to BTC
+ Testing and configuring the Wasps, both individually and "Collectively" (of course )
+ Performing in-place firmware patching or upgrading.
+ Purchasing and managing licenses for the Wasps
+ Debugging firmware on the Wasps, while running one of the above programs in parallel.

Come join us and help develop some truly disruptive innovations in mining hardware as well as being part of a dynamic SHIFT in the DIY / Open Hardware community. 40+ members and growing and many are software and hardware engineers. We are building a better community with this project and we need your help. To see more on our Wasp Controller and Maintenance Software drop me an email or a PM to get added to our Zoho Project page.

From the last EE meeting potential prototype using BitFury Wasps.

*  32 chips per Wasp.
*  8 Wasps per Hive.
*  +/- 588 Gh/s. (2.3 gh/s per chip)
*  Prototype likely hashing in December.
*  Production could start early January.
*  We are currently reaching out to the community for those who might be interested in the BitFury versions as well as A1 and Minions.

Other notes.

* A1 / Minion designs for Wasps will be a very short turnaround based on rework of the BitFury / Avalon Wasp configurations.
* Remote hot patches for firmware will be available.
* Remote diagnostics on the hardware will be available.
* VPN to the prototype boards will be available for Firmware design and testing live for members of the design team.
* First 3D render on the Bitfury Wasp was released internally at the meeting and it was great to visualize the Wasps for the first time.

It was certainly an informative meeting and as always the meeting was recorded so members can listen to the full meeting in the coming days once it has been uploaded.

From our ever growing document pages on the Zoho Project you can see that this Open Source project is really trying to bring some much needed conveniences to miners.

Wasp Controller and Maintenance Software

Wasp Firmware Patching and Upgrading

PatchPanel is another snap-in based utility intended to manage Wasp firmware and hot-patch state. As such, it uses many of the snap-ins from CDMpanel, in order to identify, isolate, read status, and install overlays on the selected Wasp (no batch mode is proposed at this time, though manufacturing might need such a program). It has unique snap-ins for querying status of patches and firmware releases, and for installing new versions of each. It can also revert hot-patches and remove them from the program-FLASH image.

.
.
.


Wasp Remote Debugger

Wasp's remote debugging facility is provided by Atmel's (the MCU manufacturer's) remote debugger, with the assistance of on-board ADB support through its own dedicated set of endpoints. Remote debugging is enabled by flags in the opaque data block downloaded when the Wasp is started, after it identifies itself and its capabilities.

What is a HIVE?

The Hive - A Home for Wasps


Summary

The Hive is a collection of small and large circuit boards whose purpose is to provide power, as well as command, control, and testing signals to one or more Wasps.

Objectives:

+ Develop a line of products that span the realm of installations ranging from the home-user's single blade to oil-immersed racks of industrial hashing systems, making trade offs of cost versus features to fully address both ends of this range.

+ Provide power and communication between one or more Wasp blades and the linux-based controller which runs the mining program.

+ Allow for hot-plugging of Wasps of any type into the same backplane, providing automatic overload prevention - new Wasps will not be enabled unless the Hive can provide sufficient power.

+ Provide a range of backplanes, from a simple, single-Wasp connector to a rackable backplane for multiple (8-10) Wasps.

+ Provide connectors for multiple, redundant, and hot-pluggable power supplies to supply power to a multi-blade stack, or to a rack, self-adjusting as the blades are plugged in.

+ Provide manual controls for system power-on/off, audible and visual feedback for individual blade readiness/status, and control of individual blade power feed.

Features:
 
Single board Hive

+ Has sockets for a standard ATX power supply - 24-pin motherboard connector plus two, 6-pin PCIe 12V connectors.

+ Has push-on/push-off button for power control.

+ Has power-on indicator LED for each of 3.3V, 5V, 12V, and 5Vsb.

+ Has standard USB B-receptacle for cabling to controlling computer.

 
Stacked-board Hive

+ Accepts any mixture of Wasp implementations, in any number of arbitrarily provisioned slots with no manual configuration required.

+ Has sockets for a standard ATX power supply - 24-pin motherboard connector plus two, 6-pin PCIe 12V connectors.

+ Has push-on/push-off button for power control.

+ Has power-on indicator LED for each of 3.3V, 5V, 12V, and 5Vsb.

+ Has standard USB B-receptacle for cabling to controlling computer.

 
Rack-mounted Hive

+ Has connectors for a local control panel with buttons and display.

+ Accepts any mixture of Wasp implementations, in any number of arbitrarily provisioned slots with no manual configuration required.

+ Has sockets for a standard ATX power supply - 24-pin motherboard connector plus six, 6-pin PCIe 12V connectors.

+ Has one or more high-power edge connectors for server-style pluggable 12V-only power supplies.

+ Has buttons for system power control and reset, with operation similar to standard PC.

+ Has power-on indicator LED for each of 3.3V, 5V, 12V, and 5Vsb.

+ Has mechanical position and connectors for mounting a Raspberry-Pi (R-Pi) or Beagle Board Black (BBB) controlling computer, as well as connectors for USB and power so that those controllers can be attached from remote mountings.

+ Has a position for audible-feedback "speaker" (piezo transducer) to be plugged into.

+ Provides circuits for automatic slaving of server power supply(s) to the PC controls, providing single-point manual control of all system power.

+ Provides individual manual enable/disable controls for each slave supply.

+ Provides individual, software assisted enables for each Wasp slot's power, with visual indicators of status.

+ Provides fully automated Manufacturing Acceptance Test capability.

+ Provides significant, partially automated Operational Diagnostic Test capability.


------------

Interested in working on the HIVE? Come join The Wasp Project Collective today!

The Wasp Firmware Architecture

Summary

The Wasps are a collection of mining blades customized to individual hashing ASICs or FPGAs, all of which conform to a single architecture in firmware, communications protocols, and drivers. This document discusses the architecture and subsystems comprising the firmware on each Wasp. Any Wasp variant can be plugged into a Hive (backplane+power supply) beside other Wasps of different design, and all run simultaneously, communicating with one or more mining controller programs at the same time.

In addition, any Wasp can be the target of a remote debugger, or a maintenance program without affecting any other resident of the Hive.
Wasps are compound USB devices, with multiple endpoints in support of mining, configuration/management, In-System-Programming, field maintenance, diagnostics, and firmware debugging.

Firmware Objectives:

1. Safely start up the Wasp, controlling bus voltage sequencing, on-board configuration, power-controllers, hashing engines, monitoring subsystems, and USB (full speed, 12 Mb/s) communications with the mining controller.

2. Safely shut down the Wasp in the event of various continuously monitored problems being detected, including temperature excursions or bus voltage failures, or as a result of commands from the mining controller or the hot-plug button.

3. Interact with the mining controller's USB system to identify the Wasp type and capabilities.

4. Interact over USB with the mining controller to characterize the on-board hashers with regards to functionality, range of clocking, and total output, and collect that configuration data into a block of information passed to the mining controller as an opaque data block, as well as storing the parameters in resident non-volatile memory. On startup, we must be able to detect a valid configuration, or its lack, and adjust the various on-board resources accordingly.

5. Interact over USB with a program on the mining controller to provide diagnostic, logging, and maintenance operations.

6. Download and install firmware updates and hot-patches, and firmware "overlays" - temporary programs sent to the Wasp for specific, non-mining purposes.

7. Configure, command, and monitor the power-controllers on the Wasp.

8. Configure, command, and monitor the hashers on the Wasp.

9. Configure and monitor the environmental sensors on the Wasp.

10. Maintain a non-volatile log of actions and events, which can be requested by the mining controller or maintenance program, or which can be reported on a regular basis to those programs.

11. Perform comprehensive diagnostics and Built-In-Self-Test, displaying the summary results on LEDs and communicating those results through the USB connection.

12. Interact with the mining controller to generate staged local work items for the hashers, and present them over the SPI ports to the hashers. Queueing the local work items for those hashers able to maintain an internal queue must be supported.

13. Regularly poll the hashers for nonces found to meet the presentation criteria, re-construct the local work that resulted in those hashes, and present the resulting share submissions to the mining controller.

14 Interact with the mining controller to shift to new work items, once the controller has commanded a shift in the local work configuration. Introduce these new work items to the hashers with as little latency as possible.

15. Manage a cryptographically signed device certificate, for use in compatibility checking on firmware updates, as well as for licensing protection.


Firmware Subsystems:

... to see the rest on the document become a member on the Zoho Project Page.

-------------------------

Do you want to help work out the Firmware with us? PM or email me to join The Wasp Project Collective today.

We have our own solution with the wasp and hive with an add on that will supplement existing GPU miners but that is a few months away and yes easily any FPGA / ASIC scrypt hasher chip can be designed into a Wasp and easily slot into our system if we have the chip specs. I suspect as well we will not need to change software so you can literally run both Scrypt and SHa on the same unit. Of course that is just my layperson perspective I will ask the EE's for clarification on Saturday.

----
[edit]

Yes Dabs according to the EE it would be no problem. In fact we will likely develop a Wasp next year that mines scrypt coins. So keep watching.

Mr. Bicknellski, no one mentioned it yet, but when the time comes that someone makes either a FPGA or ASIC for scrypt, those could possibly work in the WASPs / Hives ? Interesting for those scrypt based alt-coins.

20 days to a prototype? Possibly. I will just leave this here.


http://www.onlinecountdowns.com/countdown-clock/show/Prototype%20Wasp%20Drops%7C52ab3d10%7C3

So true... I wonder myself how people with larger mining operations are going to handle more and more hash rate and how to keep operations on par... do they simply let the units they currently have go dark and stop mining?

What we hope to provide is a way to help larger operators compensate somewhat for that need to replace the whole unit every time something new hits the mining market.

Anyhow. Not sure how soft the mining market will get there still doesn't seem to be any slowing down of miners being sold. I can't understand why that is, given the hard facts of the difficulty increases.

Depends on how you look at ROI.
FIAT vs BTC

Look at Some of those DZ Co-OP buys on Jupiters. Sure they didn't make the BTC back yet they invested. But the BTC they did make back if they sold it made +ROI

Im sure MOST people end up BUYING BTC from coinbase etc... so its all relevant.

Few if any miners will ROI now but if you do these as DIY you could I think get ROI but we are still waiting on the BOM to do a serious cost estimate. We are more keen on licenses than fabrication and direct sales as a collective so if you have a group of people interested let us know.

What is good about what we are offering is flexibility and not getting locked down into one chip developer and given you can expect our modular system is at least for the year or two safe from being outmoded. A possible strategy might be to start with older chip based Wasps like BitFury chips that are possibly cheaper in January or February and upgrade the empty slots with newer Wasps as they are available. We are keen to work with people who want to license from us and fabricate units so keep us on speed dial Dabs particularly anyone with a line on HF or Cointerra chips, as well as Bitminer and BlackArrow of course.

We already have some keen interest in our BitFury Wasp as well as A1 Wasp so I am sure there will be fabricators come January for a wide range of Wasp for our modular design.

I'm thinking I would get some Black Arrow units, and probably get some Minion based Wasps. I'm still thinking. I'm always thinking. It's the money that's needed though ... the debate in my mind is always about ROI, difficulty, and related stuff (or is it better to just buy coins and hold, and watch as BTC goes past $1000.)

The Hives will have 8 available connection points for the Wasps.

Each A1 Wasp potentially 240 Gh/s Overclocked (6 chips); more likely, with untested chips, 200 GH/s per board.

So to get 10 Th/s with the Hives and Wasps you would need roughly 5 to 6 units. That is if you get the nominal total of 2000 Gh/s, or almost 2 full backplanes (assuming that all chips are fully working AND overclockable to 40GH - not really likely, but our software can get the most possible out of them).

Thinking of building some are you Dabs?

You would require between 20U to 24U's worth of space as we are currently expecting a 3U to 4U standard server per Hive.

----

Willing to wait until the Black Arrow Minion in February?


A 4U 48 chip Minion could throw 3.072 Th/s so you could get 5 to 6 units and range between 15.360 Th/s to 18.432 Th/s.

Or put 50% A1 Wasps in January and February slot in the Minions and top off your Hives. You are not restricted to one chip with our designs heck if you got some BitFury chips you can start in Early January mining with our system and upgrade as our new Wasps become available. Once we have demonstrated our Avalon and BitFury Wasps then we are confident that A1's and Minions will be hashing within weeks of the chips being available to our licensed partner fabricators.

Yay! I want a 10 TH/s miner. hehehe.

Correction:

We will update the firmware each time there is a new chip - as they will have different configuration patterns and so forth.

However we won't have to update the cgminer/bfgminer/waspcollectiveminer software for each new chip and that is essentially how we get all the Wasps to play nice in the same chassis. The same software runs them all.