Title: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: provasic on June 23, 2014, 08:18:20 PM This is a general announcement regarding performance expectations. Until they are produced and tested, all data is preliminary and subject to change. This thread will be updated as we move forward.
Technology: 28nm Package: TBD; most likely wirebonded FBGA in ceramic or plastic w/ copper slug Interface: SPI to on-chip SoC Hashrate: 180-256 GHs per die Power Usage: 0.14-0.30 W/GHs Price Range: 0.25-0.47 $/GHs Datasheets and reference designs will be available for residential and datacenter designs. Certain Havelock virtual units will have the option to be exchanged be directly for hardware. Other partnership options are available. Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: provasic on June 23, 2014, 08:24:57 PM Reserved
Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: dropt on June 23, 2014, 08:36:01 PM Why are you wasting die area to SoC, and what SoC IP are you using?
Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: y_boonstra on June 23, 2014, 09:15:14 PM 125$ for 250ghash, i learned my preorder lesson when its on the market i may buy one. Me 2 already burned once. Never again. Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: 2112 on June 23, 2014, 09:26:00 PM Why are you wasting die area to SoC, and what SoC IP are you using? It's not just waste of die area. It is a beginner design mistake: upon hash miscompare they won't know if the fail was in the hashing pieline or in the CPU. So essentially they won't be able to do overclocking/overvolting controlled by the hash failure rate.This is the same design mistake that the helveticoin did in their tested,but never deployed chip. Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: provasic on June 24, 2014, 12:18:03 AM Thank you for your questions.
The SoC is proven silicon. Including RAM, it accounts for less than 2% of the die, and improves functionality and performance. Using the same voltage and clock rate for all areas of the chip is common in simpler ASIC designs, and could cause issues similar to those mentioned by 2112. Fortunately, our design isn't that simple, and our Lead ASIC Designer is very experienced. Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: fivejonnyfive on June 24, 2014, 12:23:29 AM 125$ for 250ghash, i learned my preorder lesson when its on the market i may buy one. +1 Looks promising, but, uhh, call me when it's shipping. Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: 2112 on June 24, 2014, 01:16:35 AM The SoC is proven silicon. Including RAM, it accounts for less than 2% of the die, and improves functionality and performance. Another answer from a marketroid.Using the same voltage and clock rate for all areas of the chip is common in simpler ASIC designs, and could cause issues similar to those mentioned by 2112. Fortunately, our design isn't that simple, and our Lead ASIC Designer is very experienced. Regardless of the design two most important things will be the substantially the same on the whole chip surface: temperature and electrical noise. The SoC would have to be super-overdesigned to survive both the temperature and the noise where the hasher cores still operate with tolerable fault rates. Such SoC controllers do exist (e.g. radiation hardened designs with lockstepping and other fault tolerance features) but they require additional manufacturing steps/masks. This would be a complete waste for the remaining 98% of the circuit and will increase both the NRE costs of the masks and the time to fabricate the wafers. Most likely also the software miners would have to be changed to actually take advantage of the SoC, when it isn't compatible with Linux (e.g. ARM Cortex-M instead of Cortex-A). I do not negate the possibility of the Lead ASIC Designer being very experienced. He's probably experienced in the low-power design for the battery-operated devices and didn't have time to fully understand the coin mining market requirements, which are more akin to the high-power, mixed-signal integrated circuits. And being very familiar with hammers he simply viewed mining as another nail to hammer in: just use SoC to bang two clocks. And the man who has two clocks never knows the correct time. Anyway, lets see if the "Lead ASIC Designer" will post here or if this is another Novello. Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: provasic on June 24, 2014, 01:45:19 AM Our Lead ASIC Designer is Roger Thorpe. You can find a brief description of his credentials on the About section of our website, along with the URL of his LinkedIn profile where you can find further background information. We believe his experience and accomplishments speak for themselves, but we'll pass along your comments.
Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: Syke on June 24, 2014, 05:07:41 AM Our Lead ASIC Designer is Roger Thorpe. You can find a brief description of his credentials on the About section of our website, along with the URL of his LinkedIn profile where you can find further background information. We believe his experience and accomplishments speak for themselves, but we'll pass along your comments. Do you mind asking your people to post in their linked-in profiles their connections with your company? Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: xstr8guy on June 24, 2014, 10:33:49 AM A quick google search shows "Provasic" as a fictional drug from the movie The Fugitive. I think we are being trolled here.
Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: RoadStress on June 24, 2014, 12:05:45 PM A quick google search shows "Provasic" as a fictional drug from the movie The Fugitive. I think we are being trolled here. I made the same mistake while trying to find their website. Then I looked into OP's profile and the website is www.provasic.co Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: spazzdla on June 24, 2014, 01:10:21 PM 125$ for 250ghash, i learned my preorder lesson when its on the market i may buy one. I learned my lesson from horror stories like yours :S.. Never pre-order, always buy instock. Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: Biodom on June 24, 2014, 01:16:08 PM A quick google search shows "Provasic" as a fictional drug from the movie The Fugitive. I think we are being trolled here. ...and "bit" is now 100 satoshi AND a unit of information AND "a piece" There are not enough words to uniquely describe the realm anymore. My point is that this by itself means nothing, but thanks for pointing out the connection. I knew that the word seemed vaguely familiar. Title: Re: [ANN] ProvASIC SHA256 ASIC Post by: ChuckBuck on June 25, 2014, 05:23:08 PM Are the chips already fabricated? Any working prototype yet? Any 3d renders or ETA on when we can actually expect these miners to hit the market?
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