Calculate total size of L3 cache and divide it by 2. If L3 cache is 20MB then probably "-t 10" is the best. For 24MB L3 cache try "-t 12".

Claymore's CryptoNote Windows CPU Miner
=========================

GPU version is here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=638915.0

Current version: 4.0

- removed devfee, miner is completely free now.
- added "-pow7" option to support Monero hardfork, use "-pow7 1" value to enable it.


Link:
https://mega.co.nz/#F!Hg4g1bLT!4Upg8GNiEZYCaZ04XVh_yg

Mirror:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B69wv2iqszefSzYyM3BTYXVxZGs&usp=sharing

This is POOL version.

This version is for Windows x64, Windows x86 is supported up to v3.4 only. No Linux support planned.

This version uses AES-NI if CPU supports it, but also works with older CPUs that don' support AES-NI.

Since v4.0 this miner is completely free and has no developer fee.



COMMAND LINE OPTIONS:

-o    pool address. Both HTTP and Stratum protocol are supported. You can specify several "-o" parameters to use several pools, or use "pools.txt" file, or use both.
   First pool specified via "-o" option is main pool: miner will switch to main pool every 30 minutes.
   Miner also supports SSL/TLS encryption for all data between miner and pool (if pool supports encryption), it significantly improves security.
   To enable encryption, use "ssl://" or "stratum+ssl://" prefix (or "tls" instead of "ssl").

-u    your wallet address.

-p    password, use "x" as password.

-t    number of threads. "-t 0" - autoselection. Autoselection does not work fine in all cases, so try different values.
   Optimal value depends mostly on L3 cache size.
   For example, if your CPU has 8 MB of L3 cache (i7 CPUs), use "-t 4". For 6MB L3 cache (i5 CPUs) use "-t 3".

-pow7   option to support Monero hardfork, use "-pow7 1" value to enable it.

-lowcpu   low CPU usage mode. In this mode only one CPU thread is used but the speed is much higher than in "-t 1" mode.
   This mode is useful for mining in background when minimal CPU usage is required instead of maximal mining speed.
   Possible values are "-lowcpu 1" or "-lowcpu 2". For example, on i7 4770 CPU "-lowcpu 2" shows about 180 h/s on a single CPU thread.
   This option is available only for CPUs that support AES-NI.

-ee    close miner if no more pools are available in the list. By default, miner tries all pools one by one, after last pool it tries first pool again and so on.
   Use "-ee 1" to close miner when it tried all pools, so you can restart it from some script and do some additional actions related to internet connectins if necessary.

-dbg   debug log and messages. "-dbg 0" (default) - create log file but don't show debug messages.
   "-dbg 1" - create log file and show debug messages. "-dbg -1" - no log file and no debug messages.

-r   Restart miner mode. "-r 0" (default) - restart miner if something wrong. "-r -1" - disable automatic restarting. -r >0 - restart miner if something
   wrong or by timer. For example, "-r 60" - restart miner every hour or when some worker thread failed.

-retrydelay   delay, in seconds, between connection attempts. Default values is "20". Specify "-retrydelay -1" if you don't need reconnection, in this mode miner will exit if connection is lost.

-ftime   failover main pool switch time, in minutes, see "Failover" section below. Default value is 30 minutes, set zero if there is no main pool.

-mport   remote monitoring/management port. Default value is -3333 (read-only mode), specify "-mport 0" to disable remote monitoring/management feature.
   Specify negative value to enable monitoring (get statistics) but disable management (restart, uploading files), for example, "-mport -3333" enables port 3333 for remote monitoring, but remote management will be blocked.
   You can also use your web browser to see current miner state, for example, type "localhost:3333" in web browser.
   Warning: use negative option value or disable remote management entirely if you think that you can be attacked via this port!
   By default, miner will accept connections on specified port on all network adapters, but you can select desired network interface directly, for example, "-mport 127.0.0.1:3333" opens port on localhost only.

-mpsw   remote monitoring/management password. By default it is empty, so everyone can ask statistics or manage miner remotely if "-mport" option is set. You can set password for remote access (at least EthMan v3.0 is required to support passwords).

-colors enables or disables colored text in console. Default value is "1", use "-colors 0" to disable coloring. Use 2...4 values to remove some of colors.

-v   displays miner version, sample usage: "-v 1".



CONFIGURATION FILE

You can use "config.txt" file instead of specifying options in command line.
If there are not any command line options, miner will check "config.txt" file for options.
If there is only one option in the command line, it must be configuration file name.
If there are two or more options in the command line, miner will take all options from the command line, not from configuration file.
Place one option per line, if first character of a line is ";" or "#", this line will be ignored.
You can also use environment variables in "epools.txt" and "config.txt" files. For example, define "WORKER" environment variable and use it as "%WORKER%" in config.txt or in epools.txt.



SAMPLE USAGE

unsecure connection:
   NsCpuCNMiner64.exe -o stratum+tcp://mine.moneropool.org:80 -u 449TGay4WWJPwsXrWZfkMoPtDbJp8xoSzFuyjRt3iaM4bRHdzw4qoDu26FdcGx67BMDS1r2bnp7f5hF 6xdPWWrD3Q3Wf7G6 -p x

SSL/TLS connection:
 miningpoolhub (this pool detects encryption automatically so it uses same port as for unencrypted connection):
   NsCpuCNMiner64.exe -o ssl://us-east.cryptonight-hub.miningpoolhub.com:20580 -u YourLogin.YourWorker -p x

Do not forget to specify your wallet address!



FAILOVER

Use "epools.txt" file to specify additional pools. This file has text format, one pool per line. Every pool has 3 connection attempts.
Miner disconnects automatically if pool does not send new jobs for a long time or if pool rejects too many shares.
If the first character of a line is ";" or "#", this line will be ignored.
Do not change spacing, spaces between parameters and values are required for parsing.
If you need to specify "," character in parameter value, use two commas - ,, will be treated as one comma.
Pool specified in the command line is "main" pool, miner will try to return to it every 30 minutes if it has to use some different pool from the list.
If no pool was specified in the command line then first pool in the failover pools list is main pool.
You can change 30 minutes time period to some different value with "-ftime" option, or use "-ftime 0" to disable switching to main pool.



REMOTE MONITORING/MANAGEMENT

Miner supports remote monitoring/management via JSON protocol over raw TCP/IP sockets. You can also get recent console text lines via HTTP.
Start "EthMan.exe" from "Remote management" subfolder (Windows version only).
Check built-in help for more information. "API.txt" file contains more details about protocol.



PERFORMANCE

About 280 h/s on i7-4770 ("-t 4")
About 170 h/s on i5-4430 ("-t 3")
32bit version is slower than 64bit version in 1.5-2.0 times, about 190 h/s on i7-4770.



TROUBLESHOOTING

For most cases miner shows detailed error messages with explanations. To achieve maximal mining speed, start miner with admin rights once (miner must show "scfg: 1"),
it will configure system for optimal performance; then reboot computer to apply changes. For normal work no admin rights or other permissions are required. However,
if you use Windows UAC and start miner as admin in non-elevated mode miner will not work. Either create normal user and start miner there, or disable UAC.
Miner must show "FAST MODE ENABLED" message if everything is ok.
Sometimes reboot is necessary to clean RAM, otherwise miner can show "not enough memory" error.

Low speed in Windows 8.1 x64:

1. Make sure you are logged as admin. Create shortcut for NsCpuCNMiner64.exe on desktop.
2. Open shortcut properties, and specify command line parameters, for example:
C:\miner\NsCpuCNMiner64.exe -o stratum+tcp://mine.moneropool.org:80 -u 449TGay4WWJPwsXrWZfkMoPtDbJp8xoSzFuyjRt3iaM4bRHdzw4qoDu26FdcGx67BMDS1r2bnp7f5hF 6xdPWWrD3Q3Wf7G6 -p x
3. Press "Advanced" button, check "Run As Administrator". Also disable UAC and reboot (perhaps this step is not ncessary for your configuration).
4. Start shortcut, I get about 290 h/s on stock i7-4770 in Windows 8.1 x64.



FAQ:

Q: Miner freezes if I put cursor to its window in Windows 10 until any key is pressed. Sometimes miner freezes randomly until any key is pressed.
A: You should make some changes in Windows:
  https://superuser.com/questions/555160/windows-command-prompt-freezing-on-focus
  https://superuser.com/questions/419717/windows-command-prompt-freezing-randomly?rq=1
  https://superuser.com/questions/1051821/command-prompt-random-pause?rq=1

Please read what miner shows during starting. Hint: use Catalyst 13.12, it will remove warnings and increase mining speed a lot.

Miner shows raw rate and this value is correct. Pool shows final rate so it is always lower.
Also pool does not accept outdated shares (1-2%) though it does not return any errors about it so you don't see it in miner.
Also don't forget about "Outdated share found - skip" messages - it's about 3-5% of shares.

Anyone who has problems with dropping hashrate after some time - send me PM with detailed description of your system (Windows, Catalyst, CPU, GPUs) and I will send you version with extended debug log for tests.

I thought you are doing CPU miner only, why do you want my OpenCL code? It has completely different approach, it won't work on CPU with decent speed. I wish GPUs have AES-NI

You are correct The only problem is time, I have tight schedule.

I'm impressed that it works there at all

Why? I saw your improvements, they are great, I see the miner can be optimized even more.

What are you looking for in binary?

ANN: In a few days I will release version for Linux.

The problem is not in memory, the problem is in OpenCL stability when almost all available GPU RAM is used. I cannot reproduce this problem on my rigs for some reason, so it will take some time to find a workaround (if possible).

Are you sure you use 13.12? When I install 13.12 after 14.4 Catalyst still shows "14.x" version, so I have to start AMD Clean-up utility firstly to remove 14.x, and then install 13.12.

Miner requires a lot of GPU RAM. For full speed 3GB is required for 290/290X/280X and 2GB for 270/270X.
If miner cannot find 2 GB it will work with 1 GB but much slower.

Note that if something is wrong with memory allocation miner won't work a bit slower, it will work much slower (in 1.5 - 2 times), so if someone has 400h/s instead of 450h/s - memory allocation is not the reason.

In next update I will add some more debug output, but it seems this problem is related to OpenCL driver somehow, not to miner, but probably I can find some workaround...

What if you assign only one CPU core to miner (affinity in task manager)? Same problem?

Try to run miner with "-dbg 1" option and when all cards stop work post a screenshot here.

No crash, just h/s drops? How long does it work properly? How many cards installed? Does miner show any error messages?

Overclocked?

Probably yes, try to install 4GB and see if it helps. It seems to make OpenCL driver happy you need to have at least 4GB of RAM if your cards have 4GB.
Though it doesn't work without VM 16GB anyway for me, without VM I cannot make work even one 290X with 4GB RAM installed. But 16GB of VM did the trick. Also it depends on Catalyst version, I tested everything on 13.12 only. On system with 8 GB I can run one 290X and one 280X without VM at all, so RAM size installed is important too in some cases.