PCI-e Based FPGA Mining Cards

[DarkPunk]

I have 6 spartan6x150's in the mail headed my way to do some testing with.  I have the PCI-e board sketched up on KiCad, and am going to contact a PCB manufacture tomorrow about getting a few made. If all goes well, I'll post the board schematics on here for public use.

For those intrested, DigiKey is selling spartan6x150 singles for $158/chip and $170/chip (same chip, just 2 different batches), just search for "XC6SLX150".

My current board design is PCI-e x16, double wide to fit a wide heatsink and fan in.

I'm also in contact with a rep from Achronix, hoping for a low-ish estimate on their HD1000 series of FPGAs (sub $1,500/chip), but I doubt it.

Thoughts, ideas, opinions?

[sunblaster]

what if free power?

[DarkPunk]

what if free power?

I don't understand.  If your asking about specs, I won't know until the chips come in, but I imagine they will be close to fpgaminers specs, as they used the same chip.

[RoboCoder]

Of course everything is a little bit of a gamble with BTC - but since fpga's seem to still have some value based on the current price (which as we all know is subject to change) it is probably not a bad idea.

I don't think i personally could put one together but the idea has legs - possible if ram could be added it could also be flexible enough to do litecoin..

I know enterpoint had at one point produced a card with a number of spartans on it.. would have to look up the exact amount.. but they dont sell it anymore and it was like 6 grand for like 20 chips.

If you can put 6 - would 8 be just as easy?  

I suspect people would want to buy them if you could produce them.  I wish i had the knowledge to go from schematic to actual board myself..

Anyway - assuming one of the developers could be bribed into creating a driver/bitstream for it - i think there would be interest.

[DarkPunk]

Of course everything is a little bit of a gamble with BTC - but since fpga's seem to still have some value based on the current price (which as we all know is subject to change) it is probably not a bad idea.

I don't think i personally could put one together but the idea has legs - possible if ram could be added it could also be flexible enough to do litecoin..

I know enterpoint had at one point produced a card with a number of spartans on it.. would have to look up the exact amount.. but they dont sell it anymore and it was like 6 grand for like 20 chips.

If you can put 6 - would 8 be just as easy?  

I suspect people would want to buy them if you could produce them.  I wish i had the knowledge to go from schematic to actual board myself..

Anyway - assuming one of the developers could be bribed into creating a driver/bitstream for it - i think there would be interest.

The designs I have now are 2 chips per card (I'm build 3 cards to start).  The designs are based heavily off fpgaminers system.  As for the driver, I'll have that covered, TheSeven gave me a great place to start.  I'm actually a developer who is dabbling in hardware as a hobby.

As for people wanting to buy them, I don't think I want that kind of pressure.  I'm fine opensourceing my board, but I'm a rather lazy guy.

[baad]

Why pci-e? You dont need such fast communication, and the cooling is worse than the stand alone pcbs.

[Bogart]

I don't see the point.  USB-based FPGA miners already work well.

Putting them on a PCIe card just limits scalability to the number of PCIe slots in the system, and you'll have to fit the whole thing with cooling into a 20mm wide slot (40mm if you're gonna occupy 2 slot widths).

Now if you're going for a board to mine Scrypt, using host memory, well OK...

[DarkPunk]

Why pci-e? You dont need such fast communication, and the cooling is worse than the stand alone pcbs.

Just to see if I can.  I'm not doing this because I'm trying to make a product or anything, I'm just a bored dev who has a mobo laying around with 6 pci-e x16 slots. Besides, the PCI-e will come in handy if BitSyncom ever gets around to selling ASIC chips.  The board will have to be completely redone, and the cooling situation tackled (I'm thinking closed-loop liquid), but it would be fun.

[RoboCoder]

As for people wanting to buy them, I don't think I want that kind of pressure.  I'm fine opensourceing my board, but I'm a rather lazy guy.

Can't say i blame you on that!

[IMakeComps]

I would be interested in this board as well. Let me know if you need help testing, etc.

[funnow]

Looking for group buy Stratix V boards to reduce price.

[DarkPunk]

Looking for group buy Stratix V boards to reduce price.

I have to ask... are you on drugs?

While the Stratix V chips are nice, and the MH/s/$ is higher for them, your looking at a $4,515/chip starting point, as opposed to the $170/chip starting point for Spartans.

[funnow]

Looking for group buy Stratix V boards to reduce price.

I have to ask... are you on drugs?

While the Stratix V chips are nice, and the MH/s/$ is higher for them, your looking at a $4,515/chip starting point, as opposed to the $170/chip starting point for Spartans.

We are all on drugs, we don't eat good, we don't drink good. All thing contains drugs.

The card costs $4000 for one, so more cards are bought, lower is the price. And probably the hashrate is not poor.

[DarkPunk]

Looking for group buy Stratix V boards to reduce price.

I have to ask... are you on drugs?

While the Stratix V chips are nice, and the MH/s/$ is higher for them, your looking at a $4,515/chip starting point, as opposed to the $170/chip starting point for Spartans.

We are all on drugs, we don't eat good, we don't drink good. All thing contains drugs.

The card costs $4000 for one, so more cards are bought, lower is the price. And probably the hashrate is not poor.

I don't think you understand.  I'm saying the cost for just the CHIP is $4,515/chip.  That doesn't include PCB manufacturing, additional parts, etc.  The lowest price anyone could make these for right now is around the $4,750/card range, if your looking at single chip cards.

[funnow]

Looking for group buy Stratix V boards to reduce price.

I have to ask... are you on drugs?

While the Stratix V chips are nice, and the MH/s/$ is higher for them, your looking at a $4,515/chip starting point, as opposed to the $170/chip starting point for Spartans.

We are all on drugs, we don't eat good, we don't drink good. All thing contains drugs.

The card costs $4000 for one, so more cards are bought, lower is the price. And probably the hashrate is not poor.

I don't think you understand.  I'm saying the cost for just the CHIP is $4,515/chip.  That doesn't include PCB manufacturing, additional parts, etc.  The lowest price anyone could make these for right now is around the $4,750/card range, if your looking at single chip cards.

I understand everything. I get little lower prices, so no problem I will buy and build a little rig. But It will stay powered off, because I don't have any bitstram,...

[DarkPunk]

Looking for group buy Stratix V boards to reduce price.

I have to ask... are you on drugs?

While the Stratix V chips are nice, and the MH/s/$ is higher for them, your looking at a $4,515/chip starting point, as opposed to the $170/chip starting point for Spartans.

We are all on drugs, we don't eat good, we don't drink good. All thing contains drugs.

The card costs $4000 for one, so more cards are bought, lower is the price. And probably the hashrate is not poor.

I don't think you understand.  I'm saying the cost for just the CHIP is $4,515/chip.  That doesn't include PCB manufacturing, additional parts, etc.  The lowest price anyone could make these for right now is around the $4,750/card range, if your looking at single chip cards.

I understand everything. I get little lower prices, so no problem I will buy and build a little rig. But It will stay powered off, because I don't have any bitstram,...

I think I'm being troll'd.

[BR0KK]

intersested as well
My 990FXA UD7 would be pleased with FPGA miners!

[E3V3A]

Why pci-e? You dont need such fast communication, and the cooling is worse than the stand alone pcbs.

Probably because a USB design requires an internal µ-controller as a master. If he uses the PCI-e, he'll use the PC as a master saving some HW design.

I'm interested in this project and may be able to help. Can we see your KiCad sketches?

[segfault88]

Also very interested. Keen to see your KiCad work - maybe chuck it up on github or something? If you don't want to do that, even a screenshot would be good for now.

Are you thinking of adding (s)RAM as well?

[DarkPunk]

Why pci-e? You dont need such fast communication, and the cooling is worse than the stand alone pcbs.

Probably because a USB design requires an internal µ-controller as a master. If he uses the PCI-e, he'll use the PC as a master saving some HW design.

I'm interested in this project and may be able to help. Can we see your KiCad sketches?

Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you, I just passed out last night.

I'm working on a compiled library of the modules right now (Having to make them all from scratch, as I can't find any pre-made for KiCad, go figure)

I'll upload everything to github as soon as I'm done.