USB Problem

We have found a bug in the FTDI drivers/CGminer used with/for the Twin bitstream. At the moment we know this is an issue in Windows7 64bit but may extend to other OS versions or even Linux. Basically we are seeing some COM ports "lost" when the host plugs and plays a new device. That can be any device e.g. memory stick. We are looking at this to determine the cause and potential fixes.

To all gigaminers:

I am requesting feedback on the upgrade paths to teramining.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92090.0

Please comment in the other thread if you have any comments or suggestions.

Best,
gigavps

You now have the dubious honour of being the first ever person on this forum I've ignored.

I haven't tried mining on the 480s, only on V6 240s.  The reason behind this is I have a handful of unused boards that have V6s on them, while the K7 boards are all used for my real work.

I made an entry in the mining hardware comparison long ago:

The V6 240s run at 375 MH/s at about 16w.  This isn't optimized (other than to use some DSP48s), so I guess you could probably squeeze another 50-100 MH/s out of the devices with some effort.

The MH/s based on the size of the device breaks down as follows:

375MH/s / 240 = 1.5625 MH/s per "size unit"

Based on this, I would estimate the 480 could do:

480 * 1.5625 = 750 MH/s

I haven't used Xilinx's power estimator for a K7 bitcoin design, but Xilinx claims 50% less power than the V6.

So, you could assume your worst case would be 32w, best case 16w.  Somewhere in the middle will probably be your actual power.

BUT!!  You may think the Kintex 7 would be better for mining (price/performance) than a Spartan or Artix device, but you'd be wrong!

Take the Mod miner for example:

840 MH/s @ 40w in 4 x Spartan 150 devices

840 MH/s / (4 * 150) = 1.4 MH/s per "size unit"

So, the S6 is a little less efficient in terms of size/performance (partly because I used DSP48s in the V6 example to reduce logic usage, but there are other factors), but the price difference is huge.  I think the S6 LX150 is ~$100, so there's no real good reason to buy the K7 or V6.  The K7 and V6 provide more advanced functionality (high speed serial, more internal memory, more DSP slices, more pins, etc) that aren't required for bitcoin mining.  You'd end up paying for features you don't use.

Once the Artix devices come out in force, I suspect they will be similar in price/performance to the S6.  Power consumption will be somewhere between 50% less and the same as the S6.  However, they are the last devices to go into production (after the K7 and V7).

Can we get this moved here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=81.0

Or somewhere else besides the hardware forum?

I still think attacking a company based on speculation is a douche move.  Wait until they fail to deliver (again) exactly what they promise and then discuss.

Otherwise there are plenty of *** speculation threads here already. 

Now amazingly the thread isnt sticky and the *** trolls enterpoint thread is also no longer sticky.

Hope that was the other mods stepping in and curbing the misuse of moderator status.

It was clearly a troll move as the speculation about *** is already available in other threads AND his shareholders were already aware of his position (he alluded to this already)
SO the only reason was to incite some form of reaction, the very definition of trolling.

4 times can mean the difference between 1 year to pay off, and 4 years to pay off, so still quite a gap in my opinion.

---
Or even with half price FPGA resale value, still 2 years to pay off before profit comes rolling in, assuming power consumption can match the ASIC.

I have no idea how much they cost, but judging by the real cost of BFL's FPGAs in the MiniRig, and the fact that 28nm is very new so will be very expensive with no 2nd hand market, I would estimate at best you are looking at $1500 for 5GH Virtex7 vs $300 for 7GH with 2 ASIC coffee warmers.

I don't think D3 deserves your hate as some have expressed, but I agree D3 delivering company announcements under forum mod is wrong.

Edit:
You can look at what D3 did and not be impressed, sure.  Even take it up with Theymos or whomever.  But I look at a lot of the responses here and across the forum and I just see a lot of flaming.
I've done some flaming myself and I'm trying not to engage in doing this anymore.  It's just so unproductive.

As numerous people have confirmed, I can also confirm this thread was stickied. I really don't know why there is a reason to lie about that. But it doesn't make D3D more trustworthy, that's for sure...

And lets not mention power consumption. 'per chip' is an utterly meaningless metric, particularly when per GH costs and power efficiency of asics can be two orders of magnitude higher for any given process.

Anyway, there is no point trying to talk sense in to D3D.

Also I don't know what they did to upset you, but if you thought you are entitled to some special treatment because you are a mining company, than that's your problem, BFL treats every customer the same regardless of their order size, and we all have to spend time waiting for responses etc..

Now your lying about it being stickied in the first place?  Sheesh dude.

Now your justifying your position with more speculation about the state of the industry to justify your stance against ***'s speculation?

Lastly, you have accused others of trolling threads when it was mere discussion, now your clearly abusing your mod status and actually trolling.

Bad form.

as a mod, will you say this thread was never stickied?

LOL so why did you sticky it in the first place then? 

i dont like bfl either and will never buy that trash or support such a company however making this a sticky.. wtf what a shit forum this has become... all the staff just trolls other bitcoin operations, its a joke.

talk about shooting yourself in the foot.   fail in the making.




+10   this is total BS using mod privileges for own personal agenda and vendetta. 0 respect

what are the procedures for other ventures to sticky their posts on top?

I agree, this is an abuse of mod privileges.

Im not saying that Im a fan of the way *** does business, but there is a more diplomatic way to start a discussion.

This is definitely trolling.