I need to find a DIY howto for making your own FPGA? Anyone have any good start?

[skeeterskeeter]

I am looking to build my own FPGA. (Buy all the parts soldering it together, loading some software, and hopefully mining with it). But it seems I can only find a few forums, that a semi above my level right not. I am looking for an intro. Maybe a walk-through of what other have done.

Skeeter

[loshia]

https://github.com/ngzhang
It is more advanced than doit yourself but there is a lot of useful info - schematics, components, bitstream source.
Good luck:)

[Skrivitor]

First you will need an FPGA development kit, with a minimum of a high gate count device like a Spartan 6 LX150T.  You will also need a basic knowledge of VHDL and the ability to load a bit stream (there are a few programs that can do this out of Xilinx ICE - which is over $4000 for high gate count)

Once you have a bitstream figured out and a board reference design, you will need to lay out or obtain a board layout or talk one of the defunct FPGA Mining developers to give you their IP. Since the device that you are soldering to the board is a 484 pin BGA and each chip is worth over $150 you will want to have these built at a reputable PCB assembler (Advanced Circuits is good).

This is the stage that the whole house of cards falls away for me because to get to this point I will have spent $5000+ (probably more like $10k) and I haven't hashed a single block.  The best bitstream in FPGA was 830 MHash/s and more likely on an amateur board would be 400 MHash/s.  When ASICs are fully released in the next month, difficulty will go many times higher than it is right now (100,000,000+) which means you will MAYBE get 1 coin every year with 4 Spartan-6 LX150s running at full speed and that is if they don't burn out (FPGAs are reliable when cool and slow, not good conditions for mining).

If you want to get into mining you need to go to Butterflylabs or Avalon-ASIC and get in line with your $1500 to get a device.  If you order this week you might receive your miner by June or July.

I hope I don't sound too *negative here, this information is based on my experience over the last couple weeks researching FPGA for mining.

EDIT: It is totally noble to want to advance FPGA, it is just really really really hard.

[Skrivitor]

https://github.com/ngzhang
It is more advanced than doit yourself but there is a lot of useful info - schematics, components, bitstream source.
Good luck:)

Thanks a lot for that link, I have been looking for that.

Still seems better to invest in an ASIC than attempt a 'DIY' FPGA rig.

[Gomeler]

https://github.com/ngzhang
It is more advanced than doit yourself but there is a lot of useful info - schematics, components, bitstream source.
Good luck:)

Thanks a lot for that link, I have been looking for that.

Still seems better to invest in an ASIC than attempt a 'DIY' FPGA rig.

If the FPGA hardcopy process was cheaper it could be an interesting alternative. However, I don't believe a hardcopy version of an FPGA would be close in power efficiency or hashing power per mm^2 compared to BFL's 65nm or even Avalon's 110nm chips. In the end I hope someone like DigiKey starts stocking the packaged chips such that creative mining enthusiasts could create some unique mining applications. When you can dump a TH/s of chips into your shopping cart at DigiKey for a few bucks then we've hit a level of network security that should secure Bitcoin until a flaw is found in SHA256.

[PeterChang]

This is really interesting what program would you use to view the .schdoc file? I downloaded Eagle but it seems to be able to only view .sch and write .sch files. Any suggestions for board layout software would be appreciated

[PeterChang]

Just figured it out Need altium designer 10 to browse

[skeeterskeeter]

Well damn, I really like tinkering. But not $10k+ tinkering, not old enough yet  (need more disposable income)

That said, I am still interested.

I looked into HDL (VHDL) yesterday and it made sense at the basics, still dont understand the overall idea though.

VHDL, is it like PLC ladders?

The lowest level/application level I have written is real time (3ms update loop) C software for industrial machine controls. Huge state machine. But I don't think this touches anything with VHDL.

VHDL, so you describe AND/OR/etc gates and then combine to make GCD calcs and Multiplexors. I understand we can built these circuits with the language. How then does the logic we made in the VHDL language get transferred to the chip? Also I take it, out of VHDL we can create a SHA-256 algorithm?


(This might make absolutely no sense.... I am a software engineering not electrical...)
FPGA to me is a programmable IC, we can tell the IC what it does (we tell it to hash). But we can also tell it to do (I think) anything an IC can do. So I figure a FPGA must have overhead for components (Ethernet, usb, etc) that is unused. Would this mean the same size FPGA chip and ASIC chip, the ASIC is always better because it is purpose built and it removes all unnecessary overhead?

[maqifrnswa]

This is another good link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9047.0

and here, but there is a 5% fee:
http://www.tricone-mining.com/

[||bit]

Is anyone here aware of any asic hips on the market that are dedicated to SHA256 hashing? Seems like they would be available, and a potential no-brainer alternative.
(i.e. Several of those operating in parallel doing super fast hashing while a few FPGA's or GPU's do what little remains of processing with those outputs.)