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Title: PS3 miner? Post by: jkminkov on March 20, 2011, 01:11:16 PM just wondering if PS3(Playstation 3) is capable of mining bitcoins and which kHash/s, it can run Linux, has OpenCL drivers - http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/opencl
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: FnuGk on March 20, 2011, 04:03:46 PM well the ps3 is just a computer so if you let it run linux it should very well be able to do some mining
and please let us know how many khash/s that cell can put off :) Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Jered Kenna (TradeHill) on March 20, 2011, 04:19:37 PM Would be nice if it hashed decently. Plenty of PS3's that are sitting unused most of the time.
Also personally I'd like to see it because of what Sony is doing about Geohot and the hacking. It's BS that you were supposed to originally be able to run Linux and Sony took it away. Might work out well though, a lot of PS3 users want to help out Geohot with donations. If he accepts BTC and they generate it on their PS3's it could work out well for everyone involved. Bitcoin could get a lot of publicity from this and Geohot could get a lot of donations he wouldn't have. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: FnuGk on March 20, 2011, 04:58:25 PM just wondering if PS3(Playstation 3) is capable of mining bitcoins and which kHash/s, it can run Linux, has OpenCL drivers - http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/opencl The PS3 is good for about 2 TFLOPS, which could put it on par with an ATI 5850 core, about 250 Mhash/s. But under full load a PS3 can pull a bit over 200 Watts, which puts it at a slight disadvantage to a 5850 pulling more like 150 Watts. There may be ways to optimize PS3 power consumption but I am not aware of research in this area. Cost wise, a 5850 can be had for $170 retail and probably less on the after-market, whereas a PS3 is about $200. There is really no reason it could not be done, and if you can find a way to beat those numbers it could be a good way to go. But it is still hard to beat the 5870 or 5970 for cost/performance. remember with the ps3 you get a fully working system while with the 5870 and 5970 you have to buy the rest of the system (CPU motherboard etc.) Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: TurboK on March 20, 2011, 05:01:49 PM How can the PS3 do 2tflops? Last time I checked, the numbers were waaaay lower, something like 25gflops per core.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: tcatm on March 20, 2011, 05:04:51 PM A PS3 does (in theory) about 10..15 Mhash/s. IIRC the SPEs lack a rotate instruction which slows mining down a lot.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: yunk3r on March 20, 2011, 07:49:20 PM has anyone figured out how to get the ps3 to mine for bitcoins?
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: TurboK on March 20, 2011, 09:33:32 PM How can the PS3 do 2tflops? Last time I checked, the numbers were waaaay lower, something like 25gflops per core. I've seen a lot of different figures bandied about, and I am presuming they are talking about single-precision flops... But if you are right then it wouldn't really be a very competitive option... Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: ArtForz on March 21, 2011, 02:04:05 AM It's not that hard to calculate.
We have 6 SPEs available, each can do one 4*32 bit vector op/clock. clocked at 3.2GHz. 6 * 4 * 3.2G = 76.8GINTOPs No native bitrotate, no ch()-like opcode, so we need about 6350 ops/bitcoinhash. 76800M / 6350ops/hash = ~ 12.1 Mhash/s Not THAT bad for a >5 year old design. About on par with a modern CPU, completely outclassed even by a midrange GPU. PS3: 12.1Mh/s, ~80W, ~$250 HD5770: 156.8Mh/s, ~110W, ~$130 Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: urizane on March 21, 2011, 08:12:22 PM Also, nobody has said to try working with the GPU yet, which wouldn't do you any good. The GPU in a PS3 is essentially what I have in my old laptop, a modified nVidia 7950 GT. No CUDA or OpenCL even remotely possible, so all of the mining work would have to be done on the Cell.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on March 30, 2011, 07:14:34 PM Interestingly, a PS3 miner is just what I've been working on. I wrote it largely to teach myself how to program for the Cell Broadband Engine, but it's been an interesting experience learning about Bitcoin as well.
I don't imagine what I've written is completely well optimized yet, but my current estimate is about 7.5 Mhash/s across all six SPEs. I also don't have a good statistics gathering method yet, so this may not be accurate. The mining architecture is a Ruby front-end (JSON RPC client) with a custom extension library to run the SPE contexts, and native SPU code for the back-end mining. I couldn't get Bitcoin itself to run on the PS3 because Bitcoin is heavily dependent on the little-endian environment and the PowerPC on the PS3 is big-endian. I may release the code at some point if there is interest. I'll let you know if I manage to improve on the performance. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on April 03, 2011, 03:24:07 AM So after a round of optimizations I'm measuring 18.8 Mhash/s using just the SPEs. I'm thinking about throwing in an extra thread to use the PPE as well.
Cheers. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: yunk3r on April 03, 2011, 04:18:16 AM Interestingly, a PS3 miner is just what I've been working on. I wrote it largely to teach myself how to program for the Cell Broadband Engine, but it's been an interesting experience learning about Bitcoin as well. I don't imagine what I've written is completely well optimized yet, but my current estimate is about 7.5 Mhash/s across all six SPEs. I also don't have a good statistics gathering method yet, so this may not be accurate. The mining architecture is a Ruby front-end (JSON RPC client) with a custom extension library to run the SPE contexts, and native SPU code for the back-end mining. I couldn't get Bitcoin itself to run on the PS3 because Bitcoin is heavily dependent on the little-endian environment and the PowerPC on the PS3 is big-endian. I may release the code at some point if there is interest. I'll let you know if I manage to improve on the performance. could you release the code once you are done with the optimization. thanks in advance Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: mcdett on April 03, 2011, 06:24:15 AM I don't have a ps3, but I'll opine on it anyway.
I'm guessing that the best way to mine with a ps3 is booting some sort of optimized ubuntu distribution --> http://psubuntu.com/ Then installing bitcoind with ps3 optimized compiling. The gpu should be good for something?! Sony would never let people create a ps3 branded miner. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on April 04, 2011, 02:14:05 AM It's not that hard to calculate. We have 6 SPEs available, each can do one 4*32 bit vector op/clock. clocked at 3.2GHz. 6 * 4 * 3.2G = 76.8GINTOPs No native bitrotate, no ch()-like opcode, so we need about 6350 ops/bitcoinhash. 76800M / 6350ops/hash = ~ 12.1 Mhash/s Not THAT bad for a >5 year old design. About on par with a modern CPU, completely outclassed even by a midrange GPU. PS3: 12.1Mh/s, ~80W, ~$250 HD5770: 156.8Mh/s, ~110W, ~$130 I liked this analysis, but it turns out to be incorrect. The Cell's SPU does in fact have both a native bit rotate (ROTI) and a Ch()-like opcode (SELB). Since I'm currently measuring 21.471 Mhash/s with my Cell implementation, I guess you could work backwards and calculate 76800M / 21.471 Mhash/s = ~ 3577ops/hash. However, I think you're right that it is still outclassed by a midrange GPU. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Syke on April 04, 2011, 04:54:15 AM Since I'm currently measuring 21.471 Mhash/s with my Cell implementation, I guess you could work backwards and calculate 76800M / 21.471 Mhash/s = ~ 3577ops/hash. Outclassed by a factor of 10.However, I think you're right that it is still outclassed by a midrange GPU. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Fiyasko on April 04, 2011, 03:07:26 PM So heres a question, Both of my old PS3's Lockup after 5mins of gaming, From my experiance, this is the GPU crashing, So this makes me wonder, since the PS3 miners seeminly are not using the GPU, wouldnt that allow me to use my damaged PS3 to mine?
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: FnuGk on April 04, 2011, 03:14:00 PM So heres a question, Both of my old PS3's Lockup after 5mins of gaming, From my experiance, this is the GPU crashing, So this makes me wonder, since the PS3 miners seeminly are not using the GPU, wouldnt that allow me to use my damaged PS3 to mine? well if it works fine with no load on the gpu i cant see why it shouldnt be able to do cpu mining just fine Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on April 05, 2011, 08:19:11 AM I've added an option for using PPE threads in addition to the SPEs, however the results are somewhat underwhelming. The Cell PPE is effectively a dual-core processor, but even with two PPE threads I only see about an extra 500 Khash/s.
There may be some PPE optimizations I'm missing, but otherwise I'm currently maxed at about 21.983 Mhash/s using all six SPEs and two PPE threads. For those interested, I've put the source code online: https://github.com/verement/cellminer (https://github.com/verement/cellminer) Feedback and donations welcome. (Donations to: 18xDLQsJ94ihhx5YovqAhVY2b9SC5b81h) Cheers. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: allinvain on April 07, 2011, 05:16:12 AM I've added an option for using PPE threads in addition to the SPEs, however the results are somewhat underwhelming. The Cell PPE is effectively a dual-core processor, but even with two PPE threads I only see about an extra 500 Khash/s. There may be some PPE optimizations I'm missing, but otherwise I'm currently maxed at about 21.983 Mhash/s using all six SPEs and two PPE threads. For those interested, I've put the source code online: https://github.com/verement/cellminer (https://github.com/verement/cellminer) Feedback and donations welcome. (Donations to: 18xDLQsJ94ihhx5YovqAhVY2b9SC5b81h) Cheers. 21 Mhash/s is not to bad I guess...it's not GPU but hey anything extra is a good thing. The downside is that given the PS3's power consumption that has rate may not be economical for the majority of people. I wonder though how people with the recent generation PS3s would be able to run this miner. I'm assuming that one needs to have linux installed on the PS3 to make this work; no? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: legion050 on April 07, 2011, 05:26:46 PM I'm assuming that one needs to have linux installed on the PS3 to make this work; no? which my ps3 is incapable of since they patched OtherOS away.Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: allinvain on April 08, 2011, 12:32:16 AM I'm assuming that one needs to have linux installed on the PS3 to make this work; no? which my ps3 is incapable of since they patched OtherOS away.yeah :( I have that same issue..I have one of those new PS3 slim units..no way I can run any other OS on it. That's why it would be cool if somehow the mining app was made into a PS3 recognizable game :) I mean this should theoretically be possible no? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: legion050 on April 08, 2011, 03:45:19 AM I'm assuming that one needs to have linux installed on the PS3 to make this work; no? which my ps3 is incapable of since they patched OtherOS away.yeah :( I have that same issue..I have one of those new PS3 slim units..no way I can run any other OS on it. That's why it would be cool if somehow the mining app was made into a PS3 recognizable game :) I mean this should theoretically be possible no? go the official route which is like $10K or this maybe (http://psl1ght.com/ (http://psl1ght.com/)) Code: PSL1GHT is a lightweight PlayStation 3 homebrew SDK that uses the open-source PlayStation 3 toolchains to compile user applications that will run from the XMB menu (GameOS homebrew). Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: allinvain on April 08, 2011, 04:32:42 AM I'm assuming that one needs to have linux installed on the PS3 to make this work; no? which my ps3 is incapable of since they patched OtherOS away.yeah :( I have that same issue..I have one of those new PS3 slim units..no way I can run any other OS on it. That's why it would be cool if somehow the mining app was made into a PS3 recognizable game :) I mean this should theoretically be possible no? go the official route which is like $10K or this maybe (http://psl1ght.com/ (http://psl1ght.com/)) Code: PSL1GHT is a lightweight PlayStation 3 homebrew SDK that uses the open-source PlayStation 3 toolchains to compile user applications that will run from the XMB menu (GameOS homebrew). 10K!! Pfff..forget that ::) So I guess there is no cheap way for non old generation PS3 owners to use this miner then. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: asiekierka on April 12, 2011, 07:58:22 AM if you had the SDK i'd assume so. go the official route which is like $10K or this maybe (http://psl1ght.com/ (http://psl1ght.com/)) Code: PSL1GHT is a lightweight PlayStation 3 homebrew SDK that uses the open-source PlayStation 3 toolchains to compile user applications that will run from the XMB menu (GameOS homebrew). 10K!! Pfff..forget that ::) So I guess there is no cheap way for non old generation PS3 owners to use this miner then. Yes there is! Open-source hackers coded AsbestOS, which is essentially Linux for all PS3s (fats and slims alike). You just need to have firmware 3.55 or lower and hope for the best. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: allinvain on April 12, 2011, 09:52:21 AM if you had the SDK i'd assume so. go the official route which is like $10K or this maybe (http://psl1ght.com/ (http://psl1ght.com/)) Code: PSL1GHT is a lightweight PlayStation 3 homebrew SDK that uses the open-source PlayStation 3 toolchains to compile user applications that will run from the XMB menu (GameOS homebrew). 10K!! Pfff..forget that ::) So I guess there is no cheap way for non old generation PS3 owners to use this miner then. Yes there is! Open-source hackers coded AsbestOS, which is essentially Linux for all PS3s (fats and slims alike). You just need to have firmware 3.55 or lower and hope for the best. Awesome. Thanks for the info. I'll have to see if I have firmware 3.55. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: LightRider on April 14, 2011, 06:46:12 PM It is unlikely that you will mine enough coins to cover the cost of Sony's litigation against you though. They have turned vicious recently.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: allinvain on April 15, 2011, 12:09:45 AM It is unlikely that you will mine enough coins to cover the cost of Sony's litigation against you though. They have turned vicious recently. You think they will try to sue some anonymous miner or some forum on the net...hmm..if they're that vicious then I'm going to go burn their damn PS3 right in front of their greedy ass headquarters. I paid for it and I should be able to do with it whatever the hell I please short of pirating or distributing their copyrighted software,etc. If I want to potentially brick or hack their hardware I should be able to because the way I see it I'm not RENTING the PS3 from them - I OWN it! Sony if you're reading this come and get me, and then kiss my big bitcoin mining ass! /end rant Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: FnuGk on April 16, 2011, 04:20:01 PM It is unlikely that you will mine enough coins to cover the cost of Sony's litigation against you though. They have turned vicious recently. You think they will try to sue some anonymous miner or some forum on the net...hmm..if they're that vicious then I'm going to go burn their damn PS3 right in front of their greedy ass headquarters. I paid for it and I should be able to do with it whatever the hell I please short of pirating or distributing their copyrighted software,etc. If I want to potentially brick or hack their hardware I should be able to because the way I see it I'm not RENTING the PS3 from them - I OWN it! Sony if you're reading this come and get me, and then kiss my big bitcoin mining ass! /end rant According to sony you are actually only renting THEIR machine on indefinitely time. You should look up opsony Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: allinvain on April 16, 2011, 04:27:12 PM Quote According to sony you are actually only renting THEIR machine on indefinitely time. You should look up opsony Dang, I guess I should've done that before I bought it. Ohwell, it's ok cause I plan to sell it anyways as as a gaming platform it sucks compared to my favorite - PCs :) PC Gaming 4 Ever! :P Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: foo barf on May 01, 2011, 03:31:06 PM thanks for sharing your code verement!
reporting success here (21.471 Mhash/s) SPE mining on 6/7 SPEs using AsbestOS on kmeaw 3.55. Debian 6.0.1 had to manually install the libspe2 & -dev packages couldn't find them in my apt repo. havn't tried using the 7th SPE yet... the coolest thing about SPE mining is that the PPE is nearly idle still! Code: ps3@ps3:~/dev/cellminer$ uptime judging by the heat output (bearing in mind the RSX is idle), i suspect i'm getting the 21 Mh/s at about ~120W Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: niooron on May 01, 2011, 04:35:40 PM thanks for sharing your code verement! reporting success here (21.471 Mhash/s) SPE mining on 6/7 SPEs using AsbestOS on kmeaw 3.55. Debian 6.0.1 had to manually install the libspe2 & -dev packages couldn't find them in my apt repo. havn't tried using the 7th SPE yet... the coolest thing about SPE mining is that the PPE is nearly idle still! Code: ps3@ps3:~/dev/cellminer$ uptime judging by the heat output (bearing in mind the RSX is idle), i suspect i'm getting the 21 Mh/s at about ~120W 120W? Does cell really use that much power? I though the entire PS3 used 120W at full load. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: foo barf on May 01, 2011, 04:40:34 PM 120W? Does cell really use that much power? I though the entire PS3 used 120W at full load. just guessing here with conservative estimates, it is surely lower than that knowing that the RSX is idle.mine's a CECHH, for which the typical power consumption is reported as 135 W, the newer slim models are 60-70W. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: niooron on May 01, 2011, 11:44:56 PM Added PS3 miner to the hardware comparison wiki.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Xenland on May 02, 2011, 02:34:10 AM I thought the GPU was locked from doing computations when linux is installed so users can't make free games under the linux operating system(aka jip sony out of there game money). If someone did create stable software Im all for installing it on my PS3 where do i sign up?
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: niooron on May 02, 2011, 03:01:59 AM I thought the GPU was locked from doing computations when linux is installed so users can't make free games under the linux operating system(aka jip sony out of there game money). If someone did create stable software Im all for installing it on my PS3 where do i sign up? It doesn't use the GPU, it uses the Cell SPEs. The gpu is a geforce 7800gt, a dx9 card. It can't do OpenCL. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 08, 2011, 08:28:38 PM I've now implemented long polling.
Each SPE does about 3.6 Mhash/s. Using 6 SPEs and 2 PPE threads, current hash rate is about 22.2 Mhash/s. https://github.com/verement/cellminer Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: PabloW on May 08, 2011, 09:46:04 PM Hey but isnt the posibbility to install linux on PS3 gone for long time ago now? or am i wrong?
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: anisoptera on May 08, 2011, 09:47:10 PM Hey but isnt the posibbility to install linux on PS3 gone for long time ago now? or am i wrong? Jailbreak. (AsbestOS) Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 08, 2011, 10:02:36 PM Hey but isnt the posibbility to install linux on PS3 gone for long time ago now? or am i wrong? Officially, yes, unless you kept your firmware at 3.15 or older. The Cell architecture is also used on some high-end servers. Anyone have a Cell blade cluster to play with? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: maxcorrads on May 09, 2011, 03:28:27 PM I've now implemented long polling. Each SPE does about 3.6 Mhash/s. Using 6 SPEs and 2 PPE threads, current hash rate is about 22.2 Mhash/s. https://github.com/verement/cellminer Hi, i'm trying to compile it but i alway got this error the first time i compile: Code: ps3@ps3:~/Downloads/verement-cellminer-68aa80c$ make And this the second time: Code: make Have you ever seen this error? Thank you Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: FnuGk on May 09, 2011, 05:05:20 PM for all those who cant get linux on their ps3 here is some new hope:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/06/otheros-brings-linux-back-to-the-ps3-taunts-sony/ http://gitbrew.org/otheros/ Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 09, 2011, 09:28:29 PM Hi, i'm trying to compile it but i alway got this error the first time i compile: Code: ps3@ps3:~/Downloads/verement-cellminer-68aa80c$ make Try the latest version I just pushed to github. Apparently the $LANG setting in your environment can have an effect on the interpretation of source files; I corrected this by setting an explicit encoding which should solve the problem. Make sure you clean your source tree with "git clean -x -f" before you try again. Thanks for the report. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: maxcorrads on May 10, 2011, 04:15:23 PM Hi, i'm trying to compile it but i alway got this error the first time i compile: Code: ps3@ps3:~/Downloads/verement-cellminer-68aa80c$ make Try the latest version I just pushed to github. Apparently the $LANG setting in your environment can have an effect on the interpretation of source files; I corrected this by setting an explicit encoding which should solve the problem. Make sure you clean your source tree with "git clean -x -f" before you try again. Thanks for the report. Now i've got this error when i run the make command: Code: cd ext && ruby1.9.1 -E ascii-8bit extconf.rb if you can help me thanks! Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: niooron on May 10, 2011, 04:39:24 PM Why not just upload the binary? All PS3 are the same anyway, no need to always compile from source.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Nicksasa on May 10, 2011, 05:28:03 PM Why not just upload the binary? All PS3 are the same anyway, no need to always compile from source. But the linux that they run isn't ;)Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 10, 2011, 05:37:28 PM Now i've got this error when i run the make command: Code: cd ext && ruby1.9.1 -E ascii-8bit extconf.rb if you can help me thanks! Looks like you might want to use a different version of gcc. I'm using version 4.4.5 (from the Debian gcc-4.4 package). Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: maxcorrads on May 10, 2011, 07:25:44 PM Looks like you might want to use a different version of gcc. I'm using version 4.4.5 (from the Debian gcc-4.4 package). Ok, thank you! i've used gcc-4.4 now it compile correctly. 22.073 Mhash/s with 6 SPE and 2 PPE Miner. Nice work verement! Only one question, what is Backlogged work items? When the program is running i've got message like this Code: [2011-05-10 19:20:19] Cell Miner starting Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: maxcorrads on May 10, 2011, 07:55:38 PM Code: ./cellminer --spe 7 --ppe 2 25.647 Mhash with 7 SPE and 2 PPE Thread Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 10, 2011, 08:16:26 PM Ok, thank you! i've used gcc-4.4 now it compile correctly. 22.073 Mhash/s with 6 SPE and 2 PPE Miner. Nice work verement! Only one question, what is Backlogged work items? It's the number of work items that are still unfinished since the last time work was obtained. If this number reaches zero, the SPU/PPU miners will be starved for work. On the other hand, there is little point in keeping a huge backlog, so the work items are trimmed automatically to keep the number reasonable. The number is essentially just informational. The number will drop each time a new block is being worked on, since the backlog is then essentially useless and has to be cleared. The only time to be concerned (in terms of overall efficiency) is if you have a long period of RPC errors during which the entire backlog is depleted. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: datguywhowanders on May 17, 2011, 04:23:15 AM This whole thing sounds awesome. I don't really have any powerful graphics cards in my house, and I've had to rely on all cpu miners from laptops and old desktops for the time being. I think I'm running maybe a total of 20 Mhash with 5 machines right now. While I don't have the money to run out and buy a whole new desktop, I can afford a few extra dollars on my electricity bill to run the PS3 along with the rest of them and effectively double my total.
Here's the trouble... I'm running PS3 firmware 3.60, and I'm unsure of how to go about getting the otherOS set up. I messed around with it back in the day when it was still actually integrated with the official PS3 firmware, but that's obviously a thing of the past. I have no qualms about jailbreaking the PS3 and voiding warranty and what not, as I own an original 60GB fat model, so there is no longer a warranty, and the thing is likely to die at some point soon anyway. I just don't know how to best go about the whole process. Do I need to jailbreak? install a custom firmware? at what point do I install the firmware from gitbrew.org? how would I install the firmware from gitbrew.org? (the instructions are anything but helpful) If someone could walk me through this, I'd really appreciate it. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: portpho on May 17, 2011, 04:29:33 AM THIS is what bitcoin needs to be a viable currency.
It needs a powerful GPU in every living room calculating while idle. This kind of strategy is the only way the public will ever gain substancial confidence in bitcoin. We need many democratically distributed non-purpose built GPUs to make bitcoin a viable alternative currency. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: mikey5287 on May 18, 2011, 05:49:42 PM Getting this error during make.
Code: [root@debian:~/verement-cellminer-ded41f8# make Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: anisoptera on May 18, 2011, 06:07:46 PM THIS is what bitcoin needs to be a viable currency. It needs a powerful GPU in every living room calculating while idle. This kind of strategy is the only way the public will ever gain substancial confidence in bitcoin. Yes, I'm sure that's the one thing keeping the public from having confidence in bitcoin. I know when I think about a currency, I'm like "Man, but that doesn't eat up a bunch of power in my house for no reason. That's not very secure." Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: maxcorrads on May 18, 2011, 06:38:54 PM Getting this error during make. Code: [root@debian:~/verement-cellminer-ded41f8# make try sudo apt-get install spu-gcc Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 19, 2011, 04:08:37 AM Getting this error during make. Code: [root@debian:~/verement-cellminer-ded41f8# make I think it might be cause the packages aren't working properly. Any helping getting the packages installed? So the make will build. You are probably missing the 'gcc-spu' package. Make sure all the packages listed in the README are installed. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 19, 2011, 04:22:13 AM I've put up a new version of Cell Miner, now supporting HTTP keep-alive connections to reduce communication overhead. Thanks to lgeek on GitHub for the idea and initial implementation.
This version requires a different Ruby Gem — be sure to: Code: # gem1.9.1 install net-http-persistent https://github.com/verement/cellminer Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: hollajandro on May 19, 2011, 08:44:24 AM Code: alex@ps3:~/cellminer$ ./cellminer -u ????? -p ????? bitcoinpool.com Any ideas? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: lgeek on May 19, 2011, 05:26:57 PM Code: alex@ps3:~/cellminer$ ./cellminer -u ????? -p ????? bitcoinpool.com Any ideas? Have you mounted spufs? Code: none /spu spufs defaults 0 0 Code: mount -t spufs none /spu Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: hollajandro on May 19, 2011, 09:54:28 PM Have you mounted spufs? Code: none /spu spufs defaults 0 0 Code: mount -t spufs none /spu Ahhh. Alright it's working now, thanks! Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: asdfghjk on May 20, 2011, 06:55:05 AM http://ps3hacks.com/ps3-gui-pkg-signer-for-windows-by-famous-released/
So, who wants to make this into software that can run on even the most unmodded PS3s? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: hollajandro on May 21, 2011, 12:29:27 AM You would have to have a modded PS3 to run any self signed packages.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: mikey5287 on May 21, 2011, 08:38:45 AM You are probably missing the 'gcc-spu' package. Make sure all the packages listed in the README are installed. Code: root@debian:~/verement-cellminer-59057bc# make now what went wrong? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 21, 2011, 10:53:35 PM Code: root@debian:~/verement-cellminer-59057bc# make now what went wrong? I don't see anything wrong in there. Did you try running it? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: mikey5287 on May 21, 2011, 11:00:46 PM Code: root@debian:~/verement-cellminer-59057bc# ./cellminer --help Thanks for the help. Looks like I need net/http/persistent. But when I try to install gem I get this. Code: apt-get install gem Because I need to this to install net-http-persistent. Code: gem install net-http-persistent Am I doing something wrong here? I don't know why I'm having so much trouble installing these packages. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: lgeek on May 22, 2011, 04:47:14 AM But when I try to install gem I get this. Code: apt-get install gem Because I need to this to install net-http-persistent. Code: gem install net-http-persistent Am I doing something wrong here? I don't know why I'm having so much trouble installing these packages. Gem is included in the ruby package and you can use it with gem 1.9.1; there's no need to install another package. Apt is complaining because you haven't installed libspe2-2 which is a dependency of libspe2-dev. You will need both these packages to run cellminer. The reason you're having trouble is that you're probably running either the stable or the testing branches of Debian, whereas these two packages are only available for the oldstable and unstable branches. However, the packages built for the unstable branch work (at least for me) on testing. Long story short: Code: wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libs/libspe2/libspe2-2_2.2.80-95-3.1_powerpc.deb And everything should work. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: mikey5287 on May 22, 2011, 04:32:42 PM Thank you so much! Now it compiles, but it seems I can't get it running.
I really suck at this. Code: root@debian:~/verement-cellminer-59057bc# ./cellminer -u myusername -p mypass http://myserver:port I know I've for a bunch of help already, but it says [BUG] so maybe it's not me. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: verement on May 22, 2011, 07:48:42 PM Thank you so much! Now it compiles, but it seems I can't get it running. I really suck at this. Code: root@debian:~/verement-cellminer-59057bc# ./cellminer -u myusername -p mypass http://myserver:port I know I've for a bunch of help already, but it says [BUG] so maybe it's not me. I'd say you're doing pretty well given the dearth of documentation I've provided. At this point you need to make sure /spu is mounted. See lgeek's post here (https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=4704.msg129843#msg129843). Code: # mkdir -p /spu This is the mechanism through which Linux offers access to the SPEs. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: PabloW on May 22, 2011, 08:51:16 PM is it really worth to have the PS3 running all day just 20 Mhash? Or are you getting more than that?
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: lgeek on May 24, 2011, 07:57:09 AM is it really worth to have the PS3 running all day just 20 Mhash? Or are you getting more than that? 22 Mhash/s. It can be profitable if you have cheap or fixed-cost electricity and you don't plan to expand too much. You can get them very cheap and the 130W ones are reasonably silent. Not worth it if you can get highend AMD GPUs on PCs. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: seldamat on June 03, 2011, 01:57:52 AM Hello,
I just discovered bitcoin a few hours ago and after delving into the literature posted here and on various websites. You can say I'm a newborn newb with the umbilical still attached when it comes to bitcoins and hashes and all of the above (seemingly) complex jargon. Funny, before I read this topic I came up with the idea to bitcoin mine using a series of ps3s running in parallel. The energy costs wouldn't be of consequence to me because I am a neuroscience graduate student and can just mooch off of my university's wind farm energy supply. But you see the thing is... I graduated college with a degree in biological neurosciences and the most programming I have ever done involved MATLAB functions and scripts (in other words its very difficult for me to follow this post). In retrospect I wish I took more electrical engineering courses. I've heard of a college professor running complex computational biological simulations on 6 PS3s - I thought why not do the same for mining? Currently I have my little brother's PS3 (traded him for my ipad) and a seemingly nonfunctional PS3 my omanian roommate left behind after he left the states a few weeks ago. I can't tell if it works because the power plug doesn't fit into standard US outlets... have yet to find the right adapter. I digress a little and I'm not really sure what questions to ask because I really don't know where to begin - but I guess my first request would be for some pointers. I'm currently looking into installing an OS unto the PS3 but I'm not really sure which one would be best for parallel computing or even how to set the PS3s up for parallel computing. Does anyone have a few beginner's pointers. I'll even take some flaming for some guidance. Links for further reading would be greatly appreciated as well. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: datguywhowanders on June 03, 2011, 02:10:27 AM Your first step should be to check the firmware version on the PS3. This can be found buried in the system settings somewhere. Look it up via Google if you can't find it.
If you're at anything at or above 3.56 (I believe, and for sure if you're at 3.60 or 3.61), then with current methods, you can't do this. Sony removed the ability to install a custom operating system with recent firmware upgrades, and the only way get that back is with hacked custom firmware. There is currently not a hack for systems running firmware 3.56 or higher, not when I last checked anyway. Keep an eye out for this to change, and don't upgrade your firmware in the meantime if you want to use the PS3 in the future for this purpose. Now, if you happen to have a firmware of 3.55 or lower, you are in business. Your first step is to install a custom firmware to re-enable the option to install a custom operating system. Choose your flavor of linux, and depending upon which firmware and boot setup you went with, follow the appropriate directions to install Linux onto your PS3. Once you have Linux running, you will have to download and attempt to compile the source provided by the original poster into a working binary for your system. I say attempt because as the posts in this thread show, it is likely you will have a lot of libraries and dependencies missing that you will have to hunt down prior to being able to compile the source. Assuming you get it up and running, you connect it with right parameters to either your own bitcoin daemon or to a pool like Slush or Deepbit. Best of luck! Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: d3m0n1q_733rz on June 09, 2011, 06:26:32 AM I don't know the math personally, but if the calculations are more than just rotating bits, you could set the SPU to only rotate bits for the cells. This would allow the cells to do what they're capable of and the SPU to pick up the slack.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: syb3ria on July 13, 2011, 02:07:54 PM Soon ARM processors will match the PS3 performance or even surpass it. I suppose it the power consumption will be extremely low compared to the 120w@full load of the PS3.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: MonkeyMarcel on April 03, 2013, 06:22:07 PM Bump
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Korporal on November 04, 2013, 07:38:46 AM Glad this topic got necroposted. I'm looking into using my 3.4 PS3 for mining LTC's. I'll check this out. ;D
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: dnaanders on January 27, 2014, 06:51:39 PM Anything regarding PS3's mining altcoins? I have a slim sitting around in my dorm room that has no use, might as well try it out?
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: btcxyzzz on January 28, 2014, 09:00:31 AM I guess what we need is to ask Sony to make native PS3 app for mining XPM or sumthin' :)
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: mapi5032 on January 28, 2014, 01:07:45 PM I guess what we need is to ask Sony to make native PS3 app for mining XPM or sumthin' :) I've made a XPM miner for my PS3 running linux. https://github.com/MartijnPieterse/cellprimecoin (https://github.com/MartijnPieterse/cellprimecoin) Not blazingly fast, but it should be able to handle 10k tests/s using a modified mpm_mod_exp function. Sieving is not that fast so at the moment it can't do more than ~2000 tests/s. But i'm still working on it. Creating a .pkg which can be installed on a non-linux ps3 should not be too hard if you know your way around psl1ght. But then one would still need <= 3.55 firmware. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Camilio on January 30, 2014, 04:56:55 AM The more interesting question is, what hash wouldget the ps4 ;D Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: empoweoqwj on January 30, 2014, 05:44:43 AM The more interesting question is, what hash wouldget the ps4 ;D Just about to ask that - I've got a PS4 idle most of the time. What graphic card does it have in? Might mine fairly well? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: bassclef on January 30, 2014, 06:10:26 AM The more interesting question is, what hash wouldget the ps4 ;D Just about to ask that - I've got a PS4 idle most of the time. What graphic card does it have in? Might mine fairly well? A quick search indicates it's basically a Radeon 7850/CPU integrated chip. Not sure how that would affect its mining potential, or how hot it would get given the PS4 wasn't designed to be pushed that hard. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: empoweoqwj on January 30, 2014, 06:12:21 AM Guess it will be a while before it gets modded though?
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Gravy on January 30, 2014, 07:26:30 PM this would be so nice
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: empoweoqwj on January 31, 2014, 06:38:32 AM Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: camachod on January 31, 2014, 04:50:33 PM What about the Xbox 1, can i mine with it. If so how do i go about it?
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Gravy on January 31, 2014, 06:13:34 PM Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Alphi on January 31, 2014, 06:27:38 PM you can do a fair comparison of any AMD based hardware by comparing the shader count of your hardware to something similar at this website
https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units shader count roughly determines hashing power (adjusted for frequency) manufacuring process (40nm, 28nm etc) determines power consumption. IGN claims the shader count for PS4 is 1152 at 800mhz so it would be roughly in the ballpark of a 7870 or R270 so between 300-350 khs Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: empoweoqwj on February 01, 2014, 02:24:14 AM you can do a fair comparison of any AMD based hardware by comparing the shader count of your hardware to something similar at this website https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units shader count roughly determines hashing power (adjusted for frequency) manufacuring process (40nm, 28nm etc) determines power consumption. IGN claims the shader count for PS4 is 1152 at 800mhz so it would be roughly in the ballpark of a 7870 or R270 so between 300-350 khs Thanks. That would be ok for "starter mining". But a lot has to happen first e.g. PS4 get modded, some people try it out to make sure mining doesn't fry the PS4 ;) Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Alphi on February 01, 2014, 04:25:31 AM Thanks. That would be ok for "starter mining". But a lot has to happen first e.g. PS4 get modded, some people try it out to make sure mining doesn't fry the PS4 ;) that is true you would probably have to mine at a lower intensity to because of how jam packed consoles are. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: empoweoqwj on February 01, 2014, 09:35:59 AM Thanks. That would be ok for "starter mining". But a lot has to happen first e.g. PS4 get modded, some people try it out to make sure mining doesn't fry the PS4 ;) that is true you would probably have to mine at a lower intensity to because of how jam packed consoles are. I have hope for it. It runs extremely cooly (and silently) after several hours of gameplay in a 30 degrees environment with no externl fan or air conditioning. I know its not mining, but games come close to using up the max power of the GPU (I presume). Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Medow on September 13, 2014, 03:51:10 PM Any one have a complete guide on mining using PS3 and how many MHs we can get per one PS3, i have many with out need.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: Klubknuckle on September 14, 2014, 07:02:01 AM Any one have a complete guide on mining using PS3 and how many MHs we can get per one PS3, i have many with out need. dont spoil your ps3 please :)... you will get nothing out of it.. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: DigitalPirateman on September 16, 2014, 11:33:52 PM Mining with a ps3 seems like just another way to skip on the hardware. But it would be cool if the next generation systems do that.
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: TD131 on September 17, 2014, 12:06:51 AM Sell your PS3 on eBay. You will waste far more electricity than you will gain in BTC. You are better off selling the PS3 and buying BTC with the money you made from the sale. Even if your electricity is free, you will make more by selling it than you will in years. You will ruin the hardware before you get close to paying for it.
Don't waste your time. Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: TradersWay.JC on September 17, 2014, 04:33:32 AM Sell your PS3 on eBay. You will waste far more electricity than you will gain in BTC. You are better off selling the PS3 and buying BTC with the money you made from the sale. Even if your electricity is free, you will make more by selling it than you will in years. You will ruin the hardware before you get close to paying for it. Don't waste your time. Well put. Medow, sell those PS3's before they continue to depreciate! Keep one in case you become nostalgic. :) Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: DigitalPirateman on September 17, 2014, 05:01:20 AM Sell your PS3 on eBay. You will waste far more electricity than you will gain in BTC. You are better off selling the PS3 and buying BTC with the money you made from the sale. Even if your electricity is free, you will make more by selling it than you will in years. You will ruin the hardware before you get close to paying for it. Don't waste your time. With what you get for the ps3 you can get an older asic. maybe an S1 Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: FlyForFun on September 18, 2014, 05:20:29 AM Sell the ps3 and get a ASIC, its way way better unless you still play games with ps3 :)
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: kingscrown on September 20, 2014, 03:10:50 AM PS3 would suck in mining now
Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: niktitan132 on September 20, 2014, 02:05:22 PM PS3 would suck in mining now True mining BTC with a PS3 would suck right now,maybe mining a profitable CPU coin would be better. :P Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: airpline1 on September 20, 2014, 04:41:46 PM I wonder if I can buy some off eBay, an refurbish them...
hmm... Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: cassimares on September 25, 2014, 10:00:21 AM PS3 would suck in mining now True mining BTC with a PS3 would suck right now,maybe mining a profitable CPU coin would be better. :P Can ps3 even mine CPU coin? Title: Re: PS3 miner? Post by: alc on September 25, 2014, 02:30:40 PM Earlier in the thread someone mentioned that after some optimisation they were able to get ~20MH/s from a PS3. Under load the PS3 uses in the range of 100-200W. To put that into perspective, an Antminer U1 has nearly 100 times the hashrate, consumes ~2.5W - and each is only worth a few dollars, because their hashrate is insignificant at this stage. It is a complete waste of time to talk about PS3s for bitcoin mining.
Any CPU coin miner for PCs would have to be rewritten specifically with the PS3 in mind, and nobody is going to bother because the Cell would be significantly outperformed by most modern CPUs. |
