That deadline is reasonable for a prototype unit that is in the middle of testing and firmware bringup. I do not anticipate many issues with this type of design as it is a straight FGPA with ucontroller. Were any of the individual functions tested separately at least (power bus, etc) with proper loading? If not, we should do this as re-spinning the PCB would not be cost effective if there is a major issue on those smaller functions. I have a DC load tester (constant voltage or current) here as well as a decent scope that we can use.

Sounds good. I will review thread history tonight to see what has been done (decisions, links, etc). I do agree that adding in support for future expansion would be nice, since this could be a nice training/development platform as well as for the BTC market. I will post any recommendations on this thread. What is the time line - when are you expecting to hit the PCB house for the first run?

I am trying to contact the admin/owner of the asicminer site through reddit as I have engineers in China near where his production/design house is located. The cost that he has mentioned on the website is $250*5000 ASICs which would place the total cost around $1.25million, BUT that is the sell cost (profit, etc). To build a custom ASIC you would need around $1million - to build a semi-custom (pre-done core, load your code onto their design to fit, etc) it would cost around $500K. It is possible to do but I do not know if you would see the high hash rates that he is claiming - especially since he is VERY quiet on any specifications.

I can check what you have. I have time after my day job (product design; company has factory in China) and am more then willing to help with what I can.

For debug, it is best to have at least 1 LED but more would be great (this way you indicate breakpoints easier using a morse code or binary method). Test points are essential especially if this device has not been fully verified before full production. In production it is useful to have so that you can automate the test using a "bed of nails" tester. Are you in the EVT, DVT, or PVT stage (engineering validation - design is being prototyped and initial kinks worked out; design validation - prototype works now checking to see if it works well with repeated testing (etc) and initial manufacturing issues are found/fixed; or production validation - testing the final manufacturability/production)?

I design programming and test fixtures for the products that I work on and can help with that as well. I am well versed in ASM and C - what code is complete for the MSP (if any)? What specific functions need to be added, etc?

Is any more help needed to support this development? I am an electrical engineer with >8 years of embedded experience and have worked with USB, CPLDs, FPGAs, and a slew of microcontrollers (MSP430, PIC, ARM/LPC, etc). I also have >8 years of schematic/PCB design experience and have designed with BGA (I use Altium for my PCB designs). Let me know!

I am mining on this pool and it has been working great! I moved from BTCGuild to EclipseMC due to the high/intense load there. Currently mining @ 11.96GH/s.

Yeah. The odd part is if you go through the block statistics they seem to be high for 1-2 blocks then back down to <500MH/s... more stable in the last few rounds though.

The user is working at least 4x as many shares as the top user!

Selling used Logitech Revue/Google TV box. Includes power cord, Ethernet cable, and wireless keyboard.

$170 USD or comparable BTC (based on market rate).

SOLD.

I have the following:

1 x ERM-2K3UCU (3U) Rev1.1, Copper [no nozzles] (Refurb) (ERM-2K3UCU-R) - http://www.koolance.com/product_archive/product_info.php?product_id=1030
3 x VID-AR699 (Radeon HD 6990) [no nozzles] (VID-AR699) - http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=1117
1 x Dual VID Connector, *Black* Adjustable 2-3 Slot Spacing (CNT-VDA34-BK) - http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=1129
2 x Dual VID Connector, *Black* Adjustable 1 Slot Spacing (CNT-VDA2-BK) - http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=1128
4 x Nozzle Single, Compression [For ID: 10mm (3/8"), OD: 13mm (1/2")] (NZL-V10)

Used, works great. I have moved my systems into a rack space area that has 4 A/C tiles around it, so watercooling is less of a concern.

If purchased new, the items above would cost around $1300. I am willing to sell for $900 OBO. You may need to get more of the thermal padding material from Koolance, and I will include the sheet that I have left (the 3rd VID-AR699 block has not been used and has a full sheet).

I am willing to accept BTC as well!

Thank you!

I had the same problem 5 minutes ago and now it works! The moons at some distant planet must have aligned properly.

@0815miner: several MBboards exist that can handle 4x PCIe (I have a EVGA X58 4-way SLI Classified that can handle 4x ATI or NVidia) and are spaced correctly, but the case is also important. I am using a HAFX case since it has the necessary spacing and slots (check our http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmmain.aspx?faqid=59122 for a list of cases that have 10 slots if using a 4-way SLI/Crossfire configuration). If you need to use your existing MBoard and there really isn't room, you can move to watercooling - this method lets you remove the fan/heatsink and will reduce the card footprint to only 1 slot (you can buy slot adapters that convert the 2 slot holder to 1 slot - eBay).

Also, as was mentioned earlier, you *will* need 2 power supplies if you are running 4x 6990s but that is easy to do (a simple 'ATX bypass adapter' http://www.dangerden.com/store/atx_power-supply-bypass-adapter.html on the second PSU will do).

@Clavulanic: I am running these stock with fan cooling only. I am expanding watercooling to all soon (the watercooled machine is 400MH/s per GPU and running around 60'C).  Stock (which mine are, except for 2x cards) are expected to be at 300Mh/s, so I do not understand why I should be way above 7.5GH/s.

If you have any suggestions on how to "fine tune" my operation - let me know. It is always easier to tell someone else to destroy their $800 card instead of your own :-)

I am on BIOS position #2 (standard) due to heat concerns and crashing - so I am getting around 300MH/s per GPU (4 GPUs/PC * 6 = 7200MH/s). One of my machines is watercooled and I have that one set fairly high (~400MH/s). I am using an Asus Mboard w/ 2x PCIe, AMD Phenom x4, 1GB RAM, 32GB HDD, 1600W PSU, 2x XFX 6990s, and Windows 7 (64 bit). The water cooled PC is using Koolance blocks and reservoir and has a 4x PCIe MBoard (it will have 4x cards in it soon running Linux, waiting on other 2x cards for this one - the other 8 cards for are in the garage waiting to be assembled).

I am using GUIMINER since I needed something quick to test and play with.

Quick question - do you need the crossfire cable connected between the 2x cards? Any advantage to this vs not? (Going to bed soon - will check posts in morning)

Thank You,
Paul

Hmm... I will need to recalc this then. Any difference between slush/deepbit/etc? I will need to run the system for another 24-48 hours to get a better baseline.

Thank You,
Paul

No, it's really 7500MH/s. I am running 6x machines with 2x 6990s in each machine and I plan on expanding to 4 more machines next week. The hard part is keeping them cool enough - so I am moving them to a facility that has a good A/C and enough power (each machine takes ~10A @ 110V).

I will try solo mining since I am only at ~15BTC/24 hour period.

Thank You,
Paul

Hi All,
I am currently mining >7500 MH/s (on a pool) and would like to know if this kind of setup is better solo or with certain pools. I plan on expanding this to >10000MH/s by the end of next week.
Thank You,
Paul

I have a dual card (4 core) 6990 system going 24/7. I am seeing between 1200-1400MH/s on deepbit. I am running Windows 7 x84, 4GB RAM, 2 unmatched 6990s (XFX and a Sapphire), and a watercooling kit.

Thank you for the reply. Is the amount of RAM a concern, or just GPUs (quality/speed, etc)?

Hi All,
I am a newbie at this and had some questions. I did not see the answers to the questions below, if you know where they are please direct me to that area - apologies in advance :-)

• What is the GPU limit in Windows 7 64-bit? (not worrying about power or cooling)
• What is the GPU limit in Linux (any version)? (not worrying about power or cooling)
• If the limit is high (GPU wise), can you use a PCIe expander like http://www.magma.com/16slotpcix.asp?

Thank You,
Paul