Raspberry Pi $25 PC - Could we run GPUs/FPGAs on this? - page 4.

Jay_Pal

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Quote from: BkkCoins on December 23, 2011, 10:57:55 PM

I have to say I can't believe they put composite video on this thing. Someone has a whimsical attachment to the past. Just waiting to see Pong on this.

Glad they did, it will be quite usefull to connect it to my 15 year's old, 20" still in perfect shape, TV!!! Cheesy

Jay_Pal

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Quote from: norulezapply on December 23, 2011, 05:44:09 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16316439 <-- link to the article.

The new £16/$25 computer that runs Linux. Could these be modified to run GPUs/FPGAs off?

I think FPGAs would be feasible but I'm guessing it's a no to GPUs since there's no PCI-express I assume.

NOTE: The Raspberry Pi would only getwork and pass it to FPGAs/GPUs for mining. I didn't mean using a Raspberry Pi for hashing.

Post your thoughts below!

(PS: it plays Quake 3 Arena Shocked

)

you are tottaly right. It would only be a great controler for USB connected FPGA's.
It has no pci-E.
Although I have thought about clustering them and running xen on the cluster.

paraipan

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Quote from: CubedRoot on December 23, 2011, 09:46:32 PM

Quote from: paraipan on December 23, 2011, 09:38:42 PM

more pr0n pls Cheesy

LOL. check the FAQ page link I posted a few posts back in this thread. They have a lot of Raspberry porn in there... lol

thanks, missed it somehow

BkkCoins

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firstbits:1MinerQ

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on December 23, 2011, 10:08:25 PM

Quote from: BkkCoins on December 23, 2011, 10:04:39 PM

I saw this on the BBC last night and went to check it out. I thought the same - could use as a FPGA manager. But also I think someone could design a 4 FPGA card daughterboard that mates directly onto this ones GPIO connector and controls them thru that. No need for USB on the FPGAs and hubs and all that. Even less cost, just FPGAs and power regulators.

Interesting.

It is too bad even USB 3.0 only support 5W. If it supported more an alternate idea would be FPGA boards which were bus powered. Firewire supports up to 45W per port but do idea how costly firewire interface is.

I think it's quite feasible at a hobbyist level. I've made cheap home made PCBs before (with a 256 pin Spartan 3 on board) and potentially something like this could work. And though it may not be best practices I know it's possible to solder the BGA type chips to a PCB at home because I've seen the locals where I live do it on the street with cell-phone repairs. I'm not in a position right now to pursue this myself but I have a SMD workstation and have done FPGA projects in the past. You could attach 4 FPGAs to this Raspberry for not much more than the $175 per chip cost. That would be awesome.

(only because it's such a minimal fpga design - no external high speed signal routing)

I have to say I can't believe they put composite video on this thing. Someone has a whimsical attachment to the past. Just waiting to see Pong on this.

DeathAndTaxes

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Gerald Davis

Quote from: BkkCoins on December 23, 2011, 10:04:39 PM

I saw this on the BBC last night and went to check it out. I thought the same - could use as a FPGA manager. But also I think someone could design a 4 FPGA card daughterboard that mates directly onto this ones GPIO connector and controls them thru that. No need for USB on the FPGAs and hubs and all that. Even less cost, just FPGAs and power regulators.

Interesting.

It is too bad even USB 3.0 only support 5W. If it supported more an alternate idea would be FPGA boards which were bus powered. Firewire supports up to 45W per port but do idea how costly firewire interface is.

BkkCoins

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firstbits:1MinerQ

I saw this on the BBC last night and went to check it out. I thought the same - could use as a FPGA manager. But also I think someone could design a 4 FPGA card daughterboard that mates directly onto this ones GPIO connector and controls them thru that. No need for USB on the FPGAs and hubs and all that. Even less cost, just FPGAs and power regulators.

CubedRoot

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Quote from: paraipan on December 23, 2011, 09:38:42 PM

more pr0n pls Cheesy

LOL. check the FAQ page link I posted a few posts back in this thread. They have a lot of Raspberry porn in there... lol

paraipan

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more pr0n pls Cheesy

DeathAndTaxes

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Gerald Davis

For those who are wondering here is a shot of the computing board.

DeathAndTaxes

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Gerald Davis

Quote from: sadpandatech on December 23, 2011, 09:05:01 PM

I see you need the model B, $35 to get ethernet. Stil not at all a bad deal. I did not see directly but do we know if it is a single or dual USB ports?
I like the micro usb for power concept. pretty nifty. Some things to note on it here;
"Model B owners using networking and high-current USB peripherals will require a supply which can source 700mA (many phone chargers meet this requirement). Model A owners with powered USB devices will be able to get away with a much lower current capacity (300mA feels like a reasonable safety margin)."

Just use a powered hub and it is a non-issue.

Interesting idea. $25 computer + $20 12 port hub = ability to drive up to 12 FPGA boards. Kinda crazy to be driving thousands of dollars of computing power from a $25 computer board but I like it.

CubedRoot

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I has a single USB 2.0 port on it. So you will need to get a USB hub for periphreals. I would suggest a powered USB hub. Yeah I just realized you need the $35 model to get ethernet, but no biggy.
The did say it supported wifi with a USB dongle.

sadpandatech

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I see you need the model B, $35 to get ethernet. Stil not at all a bad deal. I did not see directly but do we know if it is a single or dual USB ports?
I like the micro usb for power concept. pretty nifty. Some things to note on it here;
"Model B owners using networking and high-current USB peripherals will require a supply which can source 700mA (many phone chargers meet this requirement). Model A owners with powered USB devices will be able to get away with a much lower current capacity (300mA feels like a reasonable safety margin)."

CubedRoot

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I would think they should work fine to control an FPGA farm.
Heres the official site:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

and the FAQ Section

http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

norulezapply

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Quote from: wndrbr3d on December 23, 2011, 06:07:32 PM

Based on previous ARM benchmarks of similar processors, I doubt this would even hit 1 Mhash/sec. So I'm guessing no.

I didn't mean mining directly from the board.

I meant connecting FPGAs/GPUs to it to do the actual mining. The Raspberry Pi would just be used to getwork and submit hashes for the connected FPGAs/GPUs.

wndrbr3d

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Based on previous ARM benchmarks of similar processors, I doubt this would even hit 1 Mhash/sec. So I'm guessing no.

norulezapply

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16316439 <-- link to the article.

The new £16/$25 computer that runs Linux. Could these be modified to run GPUs/FPGAs off?

I think FPGAs would be feasible but I'm guessing it's a no to GPUs since there's no PCI-express I assume.

NOTE: The Raspberry Pi would only getwork and pass it to FPGAs/GPUs for mining. I didn't mean using a Raspberry Pi for hashing.

Post your thoughts below!

(PS: it plays Quake 3 Arena Shocked

)

Topic: Raspberry Pi $25 PC - Could we run GPUs/FPGAs on this? - page 4. (Read 15002 times)