It's almost professional-looking now. And I got the full-size heatsinks.
The next step is a carrier that accepts a crapload of these FPGA modules.
-rph
Topic: Ultra-Low-Cost DIY FPGA Miner - 175MH/s @ $1/MH - page 9. (Read 125898 times)
Updated the pics, since people were making fun of the tangled-wire prototype
It's almost professional-looking now. And I got the full-size heatsinks.
The next step is a carrier that accepts a crapload of these FPGA modules.
-rph
It's almost professional-looking now. And I got the full-size heatsinks.
The next step is a carrier that accepts a crapload of these FPGA modules.
-rph
I'm also in Socal. GPU mining hasn't been profitable here for many months, so I moved all of my equipment north 1,000 miles. GPU's do give me the benefit of being able to easily sell the equipment when I decide to exit mining.
GPUs do have a better, more liquid resale market than FPGAs, but you also need to upgrade them more often.
5830s will be totally useless for BTC mining, once 28nm GPUs in $0.05/kWhr areas are driving the difficulty.
Whereas, 45nm FPGAs will be profitable for 3+ years, as long as difficulty is driven by GPUs.
They're 8-10X more power efficient. So basically there is much less risk of them becoming unprofitable
before they pay for themselves. Set it up, forget about it, and cash the checks each month.
I think that as awareness grows, there will be a decent secondary market for FPGA miners.
-rph
Without releasing too many details - a 100 FPGA cluster will produce its own cost in about 8 months
at current price and difficulty, after power costs.
No GPU will ever pay for itself, with my (socal) power costs, at current price/difficulty.
Basically: FPGAs have already won, unless you are getting free or almost-free power somehow.
-rph
at current price and difficulty, after power costs.
No GPU will ever pay for itself, with my (socal) power costs, at current price/difficulty.
Basically: FPGAs have already won, unless you are getting free or almost-free power somehow.
-rph
I'm also in Socal. GPU mining hasn't been profitable here for many months, so I moved all of my equipment north 1,000 miles. GPU's do give me the benefit of being able to easily sell the equipment when I decide to exit mining. But I would easily invest $10-20k in FPGA's if they could hit the right price/performance ratio.
Without releasing too many details - my FPGA cluster will pay for itself in under 10 months
at current price and difficulty, after power costs.
No GPU will ever pay for itself, with socal power costs, at current price/difficulty.
Basically: FPGAs have already won, unless you are getting free or almost-free power somehow.
-rph
at current price and difficulty, after power costs.
No GPU will ever pay for itself, with socal power costs, at current price/difficulty.
Basically: FPGAs have already won, unless you are getting free or almost-free power somehow.
-rph
I'm not convinced FPGAs are worthwhile right now, but I think it will be awesome if the electricity costs can't be made up.
subscribing to this.. very interesting
Great blog post on Spartan-6 ternary adders:
http://myfpgablog.blogspot.com/2011/10/ternary-adder-in-lut62.html
The guy who writes that blog works for Xilinx.
http://myfpgablog.blogspot.com/2011/10/ternary-adder-in-lut62.html
The guy who writes that blog works for Xilinx.
Did you hear from that vendor I gave you, rph?
Not yet.. been busy coordinating the FPGA order..
-rph
Did you hear from that vendor I gave you, rph?
I'd really appreciate a actual guide to putting all the stuff together <3
Got the first batch of production PCBs. Still working on the FPGAs...
With the recent RTL advances this is enough for a 35GH/s+ miner.
-rph
Is that just the boards to put the processor on? (The Spartan6-LX150) . With the recent RTL advances this is enough for a 35GH/s+ miner.
-rph
I would really like a picture of the individual parts that were used before you built it. That would show these people how difficult it really is, and you might get some more people buying them. Like me, but probably only 1 at first.
please sell these.
limit of 127 on a pc per usb?
I'm working on a high-density carrier that controls multiple FPGAs per USB Device
So it's not a problem in practice.
-rph
what is with the limit of 127 on a pc per usb?
Just wondering, what OS, programs, and other stuff are you running. Let's say I have the hardware (which I obviously don't). How would you set this up from a flash drive?
OK, here's how it works
Connect power and USB to the FPGA board. Run a program to download the FPGA image over USB.
Then start TheSeven's python miner. That's it.
You could build a Linux flash stick to do all of this automatically. A single $100 Atom PC, or hacked router,
can run several hundred FPGAs.
-rph
Nice!
Got the first batch of production PCBs. Still working on the FPGAs...
With the recent RTL advances this is enough for a 35GH/s+ miner.
-rph
With the recent RTL advances this is enough for a 35GH/s+ miner.
-rph
I've looked at the LX150 on exilinx.com at it seems that the processor alone costs 175. for the cheap one. It doesn't look like the board comes with it, or other stuff. Am I missing something?
Yup, $175 for the fastest 6s150 in qty 1. If you are building a large enough miner, you can -
with effort and time - get a quantity discount on it.
In a large miner: the PCBs, power supplies, passives, assembly fees, and other costs
are a low percentage of the total cost. Definitely well under 20%. 80%+ goes to the FPGA vendor.
-rph
*Whistle*
Looks pretty.
Looks pretty.
The LX25 is just for testing a new layout and reflow process. If it doesn't work it was cheaper than a LX150. If it does work you get a LX25 on a nice 0.1" breakout board.
And yea, at low qty and without assembly $175 for LX150+discretes+board looks pretty much right.
And yea, at low qty and without assembly $175 for LX150+discretes+board looks pretty much right.
I've looked at the LX150 on exilinx.com at it seems that the processor alone costs 175. for the cheap one. It doesn't look like the board comes with it, or other stuff. Am I missing something?
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