DIY PCB with AVALON: "The Quarter Stick" - Needs Help!

[Kernel32]

Hi everyone.
I was thinking about a Avalon ASIC chip socket solution. Distributing chips and actual mining boards/shield separately.
That way giving quick start opportunity to wide range of developers without the requirement of buying large amounts of ASIC chips (investment risk).



What do you think about that?

Karel

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[Gomeler]

Interesting concept. Flip the chips, slap a heatsink onto the PCB and perhaps you have something. I'm not EE but I suspect something like this could work. No clue how effective power and signal integrity would be over the pinned connections. Maybe someone can chime in on that.

[allten]

Karl,
   That pretty cool. i like it.
A few tips thought. The Avalon chips conduct the heat through the PCB to the other side.
the male headers would need to be on the same side as the chips. Also, you would
want to make sure that the solder points for the male header to not interfere with the
heatsink mounting. Please give it another try! i would really like to see what you come
up with.

[baad]

Let's do it!

[Kernel32]

Thanks for the heads up on the heatsink Gomeler and allten. Chip can be on the bottom side for sure.

The pins going thru need a little trim and insulation. That shouldn't be a problem either.

[lbr]

Maybe it makes more sense to use zif socket?
p.s.
zif socket bga adapter

[burnin]

With all these interesting project coming up, i think
All these Projects all have one thing in common:

>>The need for an USB Host controller interfacing the Chips<<

Thats what Allten and i currently working on.
But its still in a very early design stage and not functional.
Due to the way the Avalon protocol is structured this Controller should work with any design we come up with.

But with all you talented people here i think we should join forces in this aspect of these projects.
I'll discuss this with allten and get back to you guys.

[SebastianJu]

With all these interesting project coming up, i think
All these Projects all have one thing in common:

>>The need for an USB Host controller interfacing the Chips<<

Thats what Allten and i currently working on.
But its still in a very early design stage and not functional.
Due to the way the Avalon protocol is structured this Controller should work with any design we come up with.

But with all you talented people here i think we should join forces in this aspect of these projects.
I'll discuss this with allten and get back to you guys.

What do you think about the small one-asic-chip-miner for usb that Asicminer is giving away as presents for their friends? Will your solution be similar to it?
When i saw it i thought thats the thing that wants to be created in this thread, only with some more chips. And it looks it works with one small passive heatsink only. Though i think the image is too bad to learn something from it.

[ursa]

In 5 months ( if they sell it) it won't be any good....

[Tyger]

Dammit, i had the same idea:
A main board for power distribution and data handeling, with chips you can plug on it like that.
So you would have a usb device you can extend. maybe add a host controller as option to the main board so it can run on its own if you want to.

to lbr: sockets are way to expensive

PS: The topic is called DIY, i have not seen the chips but my guess is that the Avalon QFN chips has a ground so putting it on a board yourself can be tricky.

[E3V3A]

I was thinking about a Avalon ASIC chip socket solution.

Karel,
What is this, eye candy? I don't mean to ruin your party here, but there's something definitely flawed with that picture.
1) You piggyback board only has 40 pins, but the board shows 4 chips, each with 48 pins. That is ~192 pins +/- common power etc. Did I miss something?
2) Unless there are also other components on there, I suspect we'd have to deal with signal propagation/interference
problems...

[Tyger]

I did look at the pic's that close, its only to get the concept i assumed. i think most of them are ground and power anyway

[lbr]

right, didn't think about price of zifs.

I'm comfortable to solder the chips to the board myself, ofc I'll burn some, but I'm getting better with it ; )
For me DIY is - blank board + chips + SMDs --soldering--> throw it out of the window --> repeat until it works ; )

[Tyger]

Like a bga you cant see what your doing if those chips have a ground under them if you dont have the tools.

[papamoi]

hi guys

we are in mid april

does anybody have heard from avalon about the chips ,docs or the price?


please let us know

thanks

[Tyger]

nop, i dont know what country your in but tomorow is the 15th here.

[PeterChang]

Very cool project! What software do you use to render the PCB's in 3D renderings? Also, just wondering if the PCB designs will be available in Eagle format?

[alexcamp]

Chip sale is LIVE NOW on Avalon's site. How can i be part of the group order?

[Kernel32]

Avalon revealed chip offer - 10,000 for ฿780.00. 10 weeks lead time.

Thats about 7$ for 300 MH/s. Not bad.

More @ http://store.avalon-asics.com/?product=avalon-asic-chips-10000

I was thinking about a Avalon ASIC chip socket solution.

Karel,
What is this, eye candy? I don't mean to ruin your party here, but there's something definitely flawed with that picture.
1) You piggyback board only has 40 pins, but the board shows 4 chips, each with 48 pins. That is ~192 pins +/- common power etc. Did I miss something?
2) Unless there are also other components on there, I suspect we'd have to deal with signal propagation/interference
problems...

Thank you for the feedback.

I designed it the way each chip has it's own small board. There is 4 of them in the picture. You could actually split them and use separately (for eample when using 4 USB stick miners).
Avalon chips have, according to wiki, only 8 data pins. The rest is power. Thats why there are only 10 pins on a single socket board.
Signal loss and interference is important problematic to look into if this concept should become reality.

The nice aspect of socketing is that we could acctualy group buy (Kickstarter, Indiegogo) the chips now and have them "socketed" and ready for use as soon as possible.

The important question is, will there be a mining device/board/shield to plug them into?

[klondike_bar]

Avalon revealed chip offer - 10,000 for ฿780.00. 10 weeks lead time.

Thats about 7$ for 300 MH/s. Not bad.

More @ http://store.avalon-asics.com/?product=avalon-asic-chips-10000

I designed it the way each chip has it's own small board. There is 4 of them in the picture. You could actually split them and use separately (for eample when using 4 USB stick miners).
Avalon chips have, according to wiki, only 8 data pins. The rest is power. Thats why there are only 10 pins on a single socket board.
Signal loss and interference is important problematic to look into if this concept should become reality.

The nice aspect of socketing is that we could acctualy group buy (Kickstarter, Indiegogo) the chips now and have them "socketed" and ready for use as soon as possible.

The important question is, will there be a mining device/board/shield to plug them into?

could a raperry Pi or arduino handle these sort of comms? The asicminer and avalon setups indicate that most of the system content is asic chips operated by a fairly small controller. It would be fairly cheap (and hopefully simple) to make small 4-chip, 1.2GH/s cards that run on USB. I would be happy paying $250 for a device like this, which leaves significant margins for whoever can mass-produce first.