PCI-e Based FPGA Mining Cards

[DarkPunk]

A few buddies and I have been talking bitcoin for the last couple days, and I finally cracked and ordered 6 Spartan 6 XC6SLX150's, opened up KiCad, and am working on a PCI-e based "Mining Cards" were calling them.  Based almost completely on the X6500 Rev. 3  from FPGA Mining (http://fpgamining.com/documentation/hardware/schematic), I'm building 3 of them to put into an old-er PC I have laying around (8 gb of RAM and 2.3 ghz quad just collecting dust atm).

Is this something anyone else would be interested in?  I'll post my KiCad Schematics in the coming days, and update how well the cards work.

Food for thought,
DarkPunk

[6135870]

Im interested. How many on each board..4? That would be around 800Mh/s..try to fit a six pack on it and then your on a roll.

[DarkPunk]

Im interested. How many on each board..4? That would be around 800Mh/s..try to fit a six pack on it and then your on a roll.

The designs right now just use two, they are my test runs making no deviation from the Rev. 3 besides how the power and data get to the FPGA (PCI-e instead of a 4-pin and a barrel AC plug)...  PCI-e x16 is a little over kill (I'm not using even a fraction of the i/o space), so I might make a 2nd rendition using x4, but baby-steps, the Spartans don't even ship till tomorrow.

[percival]

Yes please

[segfault88]

Very interested in the schematics!

Isn't the cost of the FPGAs kind of problematic though - since they are like $200 each and get something like 255 MHashes/sec? Is the bandwidth of the PCI-e important?

[DarkPunk]

Very interested in the schematics!

Isn't the cost of the FPGAs kind of problematic though - since they are like $200 each and get something like 255 MHashes/sec? Is the bandwidth of the PCI-e important?

From digikey they have 2 of the same sets, 1 for $158/chip and 1 for $172/chip.  The specs and product numbers are the same, so I'm not sure why there are 2 different prices.  The hash rate published on fpgaminers is about 400MH/s for 2 chips, but I plan on messing with the voltage and cooling to see what sort of output I can get.

[ToasterLint]

I'd also be interested!

[6135870]

I just had an idea browsing here on my T410. Is there a way to fit a couple spartan chips in a pci-express slot? If temps are an issue then the chips can be mounted externally and cooled passively (approx 380Mh/s would be the thermal capacity of passive)

Again, please focus on your mining card first!

[DarkPunk]

I just had an idea browsing here on my T410. Is there a way to fit a couple spartan chips in a pci-express slot? If temps are an issue then the chips can be mounted externally and cooled passively (approx 380Mh/s would be the thermal capacity of passive)

Again, please focus on your mining card first!

The board design I'm on has 2 spartan chips, both cooled with a heat sink and fan combo.  It's currently a PCI-e(xpress) x16 double wide card.  More chips could possibly be placed on one card, but as I'm laying out the specs, I'm concerned about voltage levels for that many chips on one slot.

[6135870]

I referring to the slot on my laptop..such a product would turn any laptop into a ppc/nvc/btc miner!

[DarkPunk]

I referring to the slot on my laptop..such a product would turn any laptop into a ppc/nvc/btc miner!

I don't think I could fit a cooling system into it, but if the protocol is opensource like the desktop pci-e, I can make a board for it.

[6135870]

No need to. I found this on ebay :http://www.ebay.ca/itm/mini-pci-e-to-USB-PCI-e-express-1X-Riser-Extender-adapter-Card-10cm-FFC-Cable-/221160508053?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337e318a95  I would take my lappy everywhere with the miner hanging off the side lol

[aeronautical]

A few buddies and I have been talking bitcoin for the last couple days, and I finally cracked and ordered 6 Spartan 6 XC6SLX150's, opened up KiCad, and am working on a PCI-e based "Mining Cards" were calling them.  Based almost completely on the X6500 Rev. 3  from FPGA Mining (http://fpgamining.com/documentation/hardware/schematic), I'm building 3 of them to put into an old-er PC I have laying around (8 gb of RAM and 2.3 ghz quad just collecting dust atm).

Is this something anyone else would be interested in?  I'll post my KiCad Schematics in the coming days, and update how well the cards work.

Food for thought,
DarkPunk

Looks good why not use Egale CAD think it has better library support? and would you know if it's of use running OpenCL http://www.solarflare.com/Content/userfiles/documents/Altera-AOE-Acceleration-and-OpenCL.pdf
What run's the Spartan Verilog, VHDL ? Is a Spartan cost effective?

Thanks

[alexuk]

A few buddies and I have been talking bitcoin for the last couple days, and I finally cracked and ordered 6 Spartan 6 XC6SLX150's, opened up KiCad, and am working on a PCI-e based "Mining Cards" were calling them.  Based almost completely on the X6500 Rev. 3  from FPGA Mining (http://fpgamining.com/documentation/hardware/schematic), I'm building 3 of them to put into an old-er PC I have laying around (8 gb of RAM and 2.3 ghz quad just collecting dust atm).

Is this something anyone else would be interested in?  I'll post my KiCad Schematics in the coming days, and update how well the cards work.

Food for thought,
DarkPunk

very interested! please keep us updates

Also interested in helping out in any way with research or funds for this project, are you on IRC / skype?

[muirmc]

I'm interested in learning more about what you're doing.

[tallbikeguy]

I'm curious, with fpgamining closing up shop (they said they didn't get enough orders), how can you be more successful?

[DarkPunk]

I'm curious, with fpgamining closing up shop (they said they didn't get enough orders), how can you be more successful?

Who's trying to be successful?
See the new thread in the Custom Hardware section: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=172029.0

I'm not looking to sell, I'm looking to design for myself.

[BluMeanie]

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to get 1 7970 for about 500, and get around 650-700hash ?

[alexuk]

Darkpunk - how will you get the PCB's manufactured once your design is complete?

How is the design coming along?

[phk]

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to get 1 7970 for about 500, and get around 650-700hash ?

Yes, if electricity costs you nothing.