From: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=19224

Hi,

I made a "casing" for my rig...just a Plexiglas sheet, with the ATX holes pattern cut by a laser. Screwed in some mobo stand-offs, double-side taped the PSU and voila! Couldn't not be simpler.

In addition to the main sheet, there are three little parts (if you look closely at the screenshot w/ the mobo), this is used to install a third video on top of two others (not shown...I don't have riser cable yet). The reason for this is to avoid air flow problems with all 3 cards side-by-side.

PM me if you want the design file (cannot post attachment here). If you have access to the proper machines (e.g.: laser cutter or CNC) you can make your own in no time. Ponoko.com is another option (upload design file and they cut it for you). Also, I can make some in exchange for BTC...again, just PM me. Plexiglas sheet comes in 4'x8' so I need at least 10 orders to get things going and not loose money.

Cheers,
vx609e

I'm having the same problem.

The hardware effort is already in the open source realm: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=9047.0;all
Maybe it will be required to make extra hardware mechanism to ensure integrity of the deployed computational power.

Once the chip exists, it only a matter to make it available to hardware developers (e.g.: make it buyable from digikey.com) that will be able to cook up hardware around the chip. Right now all the money is going to AMD...I think it would be more decentralized if we could all build our own hardware.

I say let's make a project on www.kickstarter.com (in the technology/open hardware section) to get as much cash as possible and let's build the damn thing. Projects on kickstarter have gathered as much as 300-400k$ in the past...so it's possible to put some real money togther. People could fund the project by pre-ordering their board. Funds should go to and be managed by bitcoin founders/bitcoin.org...the chip's IP too.

Assuming a 4"x6" board 4-layer board, the PCB itself would cost about 25$ a piece in low volume (100 pieces...that's from pcbexpress.com). If there's not too much routing, we could go for a 2-layer board which would be half the price. Cut that in half if we make 1000's.

Assuming there is less than 100 parts on the board, assembly of 100 boards is about 50$ per board (that's from aapcb.com). I usually assemble the first prototype(s) myself. Again, cut that in half if we make 1000's.

We really need to wait how the ASIC shapes up before making wild guesses on the required additional components on the board (regulators, oscillator, interface, etc.). However, I would be really surprise if this turns out to be more than 10-20$ per board depending how "stand-alone" is the board.

PCB design is free, I have all the tools.

Hi,

I'm a hardware developer interested in contributing to the FPGA/ASIC effort. Please add me to white list.

Thanks,
vx609e

Hi,

IMO, an ASIC implementation is the way to go. We already have decent RTL (those who contributed to this know who they are and I thank you guys for this). With little modifications to the currently RTL, we could easily daisy chain many "cores" (easiest implementation with current state of project is a token ring over UART...only need to assign a specific address to each core).

Let's say each manufactured chip would yield 100 MHash/s. We daisy chain 20 per boards (a board with 20 chips on it is not a big deal) That's 2 GHash/s right there. PCB design and manufacturing would be pretty straight forward. I volunteer for that.

The big question: how to we finance an ASIC project? And even more importantly: how do we get it done?

1) Outsource FPGA2ASIC flow to http://www.icnexus.com.tw/product.php?id=25 (first company I found...there's gotta be many others). Get a chips ASAP and limit the risks. With this forum, I'm sure we could get a small EE team together and do all the Synopsis, BIST, test scan, pads design, routing, etc. crap ourselves but there are specialists out there that will do it for us...and chances of success will be much higher with that approach. Being a 100% digital chip (+ regulator and PLL obviously) the project couldn't be easier for these guys (or whatever company that would get the contract)...now to mention they are already in the business of FPGA2ASIC conversion.

2) Crowd funding with kickstarter.com -- If we can get 500 people to pre-order one 2 GHash/s board at 1000$ a piece (a truly good deal IMO), we get a 500k$ budget to do #1. We need 10,000 chips. I think the budget makes sense if we spend 250k$ on design, 100k$ on chips (10$ a piece), 50k$ for tape-out (might be included in design cost...we need to see with the contractor), 10k$ on PCBs and assembly + the rest for overhead. Once we get real quote from contractor, we can adjust the cost per board...I'll I'm putting here are ball park figure to show the potential of this approach.

So far in my career all I've done is deal with PCB, FPGA and ASIC designs...this project seem very realistic to me. But maybe I'm day dreaming...please bring me back to earth if I'm doing so.

Feedback, suggestions and comments very welcome.

I see...it's the 24h average, nice. Support for real time price + historical graph would make this an even more killer app.

Where's your bitcoin address for donations? Just re-read your initial post...may I suggest you put it in your signature.

I love it! Where does the USD rate come from? It does not seem to match mt. gox...

Thanks!