Also, is that 1, or 4 FPGAs?
kicad, and 4 sockets for the FPGA modules.
-rph
Topic: Ultra-Low-Cost DIY FPGA Miner - 175MH/s @ $1/MH - page 8. (Read 125892 times)
kicad, and 4 sockets for the FPGA modules.
-rph
What program is that?
Also, is that 1, or 4 FPGAs?
Also, is that 1, or 4 FPGAs?
Sneak peak at the next carrier..
-rph
-rph
Why not release the circuit diagram?
IMO open source hardware (of this complexity) doesn't work economically. To build qty 1 would cost probably
$400+ due to the low-volume PCB fabrication, low volume BGA assembly (unless you do this yourself),
2-3X higher pricing on low qty parts orders, shipping costs from 3-4 different distributors, etc.
To get good $/MH you really need a single entity building the design in high quantity --
either an individual building a large 10GH/s+ rig, or a company willing to invest the capital and
accept the risk and customer support issues/etc to resell them in lower qtys.
-rph
Why not release the circuit diagram? so could be developed between all, not everyone is interested in buying, there are those who want to work in hardware.
PD:we would like to see photos of the prototype that had first.
PD:we would like to see photos of the prototype that had first.
The other designs have a lot of costs tied into the pcb licensing, more complex pcb designs and daughter boards, etc.
His cost of $175 is what it would cost you to buy the chip yourself and build it, plus a few buks for the pcb and components.
Why is your design so cheap? I think other ones are about 3$/Mh above. 
The other designs have a lot of costs tied into the pcb licensing, more complex pcb designs and daughter boards, etc.
His cost of $175 is what it would cost you to buy the chip yourself and build it, plus a few buks for the pcb and components.
Why is your design so cheap? I think other ones are about 3$/Mh above.
It would be interesting to publish some schemes to duplicate the same type of circuit on breadboard or soldering, surely we could come up with new ideas like a fpga interconnect modules or try extreme overclocking with liquid cooling.
I personally am much more interested in developing the technology rather than wasting time manufacturing and distributing something.
I personally am much more interested in developing the technology rather than wasting time manufacturing and distributing something.
It occurred to me that with this daughter-board design you could bolt a large number of the daughterboards directly to a large monolithic heatsink then attach the host board, allowing the gold fingers to eat any of the placement error. That should eliminate the interface problems that often come up with using a single heatsink with multiple chips. (Perhaps you were planning this already?)
I looked into using a big CU or AL plate as a heatsink. It works OK for a prototype/one-off if you have
one lying around, but to machine a custom one for low vol production is actually pretty expensive. My plan right
now is to use those individual heatsinks in the pics above, with a 120mm fan per 4 FPGAs.
I definitely don't want 50 $8 northbridge heatsink/fans in a 50 FPGA cluster. Not cost effective,
they'd increase the PCB size, produce a lot of noise, and have a poor MTBF and CFM.
-rph
It occurred to me that with this daughter-board design you could bolt a large number of the daughterboards directly to a large monolithic heatsink then attach the host board, allowing the gold fingers to eat any of the placement error. That should eliminate the interface problems that often come up with using a single heatsink with multiple chips. (Perhaps you were planning this already?)
Nice, I've had similiar plans. But I wanted to place goldpins (2 rows) only on two sides of the board. On one side power and programming pins, on opossite side few I/O's. Then angle goldpins should allow to place boards like cards into motherboard, or straight one just like in your idea (2 possibilities of doughterboard).
How many of those goldpins are for power? Didn't you notice significant voltage drop?
How many of those goldpins are for power? Didn't you notice significant voltage drop?
Yeah, I probably should have made them usable with just 2 of the 4 headers installed.
It would have made the PCB routing much harder though.
There are 6 VCC and 6 GND pins for the core supply which is more than enough for 10A+.
-rph
Still just 175?
It's more than $175 per FPGA in qty 1. But significantly lower if you're building a 10GH+ cluster.
-rph
Btw... what is the full cost for a running miner right now?
Still just 175?
Still just 175?
The next step is a carrier that accepts a crapload of these FPGA modules.
+1 for crapload, do want !
I like the idea of a guide and/or selling the PCB. It's a lot more fun (and meaningful) if you can build it yourself.
It seems like the FPGA is costing around $175. What do you expect the all-in cost to be?
For the multiple FPGA what do you think is the limit? Could you have 16, 32, 512??
This.
And, any plans to daisy chain the usb so there is less to plug into the carrier? Even 10 to 1 cabling would save a lot of headache.
Looks friggin aweome and mad props to Ztex on the Verilog work.
Nice, I've had similiar plans. But I wanted to place goldpins (2 rows) only on two sides of the board. On one side power and programming pins, on opossite side few I/O's. Then angle goldpins should allow to place boards like cards into motherboard, or straight one just like in your idea (2 possibilities of doughterboard).
How many of those goldpins are for power? Didn't you notice significant voltage drop?
How many of those goldpins are for power? Didn't you notice significant voltage drop?
Any plans in the future to make larger board that have multiple FPGA sockets?
Yes absolutely.
What is the timeline for taking orders? Are you still getting 175MH/s? Estimated pricing? Discounts for bulk orders?
I'm not planning to sell these fully assembled -- I'd rather be designing stuff than setting up a web store, handling
end user support, RMAs, etc. I might sell bare PCBs and/or write a build guide though.
I'm at about 180MH/s now in 6s150 -2 (without overclocking). Most of this progress came from ztex
(who is a Verilog and ISE-tuning God). I thought I was pretty good.. but that guy.. god d*mn.
-rph
I like the idea of a guide and/or selling the PCB. It's a lot more fun (and meaningful) if you can build it yourself.
It seems like the FPGA is costing around $175. What do you expect the all-in cost to be?
For the multiple FPGA what do you think is the limit? Could you have 16, 32, 512??
Any plans in the future to make larger board that have multiple FPGA sockets?
Yes absolutely.
What is the timeline for taking orders? Are you still getting 175MH/s? Estimated pricing? Discounts for bulk orders?
I'm not planning to sell these fully assembled -- I'd rather be designing stuff than setting up a web store, handling
end user support, etc. I might sell bare PCBs and/or write a build guide though.
I'm at about 180MH/s now in 6s150 -2 (without overclocking). Most of this progress came from ztex
(who is a Verilog and ISE-tuning God). That guy's really on a whole different level..
-rph
Looks AWESOME. I like how small it is and how you made a "FPGA socket". Any plans in the future to make larger board that have multiple FPGA sockets?
What is the timeline for taking orders? Are you still getting 175MH/s? Estimated pricing? Discounts for bulk orders?
I think 2012 might be the year for FPGA.
2009 - Bitcoin prototype, unoptomized miners, mostly solo mining
2010 - Rise of the pools and optimized miners.
2011 - GPU take over
2012 - Commercial FPGA miners make their entrance
I have no more power unless I have an electrician run a new 230V line for my garage. 10GH is a lot of load and heat. I couldn't do another 10GH of GPU if I wanted to without getting some commercial space. However 10GH of FPGA ....
What is the timeline for taking orders? Are you still getting 175MH/s? Estimated pricing? Discounts for bulk orders?
I think 2012 might be the year for FPGA.
2009 - Bitcoin prototype, unoptomized miners, mostly solo mining
2010 - Rise of the pools and optimized miners.
2011 - GPU take over
2012 - Commercial FPGA miners make their entrance
I have no more power unless I have an electrician run a new 230V line for my garage. 10GH is a lot of load and heat. I couldn't do another 10GH of GPU if I wanted to without getting some commercial space. However 10GH of FPGA ....
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