[In Dev] 28nm mining FPGA (Amateur)

[Epicblood]

At the moment I only have an ML605 that I am using to learn verilog. By monday-ish I should have a general PCB layout. I will post pics of everything I have when I get it

[VJain]

Definitely interested in this!

Also, would it be possible to adapt for scrypt mining if there is sales interest? - ie litecoin

[Epicblood]

Definitely interested in this!

Also, would it be possible to adapt for scrypt mining if there is sales interest? - ie litecoin

I'm not really familiar with litecoin, but I'll read up on what needs to be done and get back to ya

[BR0KK]

Interested since i wanted to do this myself.

I purchased a xilinx LX9 Microboard (Spartan LX9) to get into programming for these things. Just haven't found the time to get it started:)

[Epicblood]

Interested since i wanted to do this myself.

I purchased a xilinx LX9 Microboard (Spartan LX9) to get into programming for these things. Just haven't found the time to get it started:)

The hardest part seems to be the software xD

Also, will post pics of progress on Monday to all those interested

[pizza]

Interested since i wanted to do this myself.

I purchased a xilinx LX9 Microboard (Spartan LX9) to get into programming for these things. Just haven't found the time to get it started:)

The hardest part seems to be the software xD

Also, will post pics of progress on Monday to all those interested

Hey epic how far away do you think you are with completing this? And what would be the turn around time once you place an order for units to arrive?

[Epicblood]

Honestly I have no idea, like I said in OP, this is mostly just because I want to learn about this stuff.
I should have a rudimentary idea of the PCB layout by monday and a better Idea of what power consumption will be.
Still trying to get a hang of Verilog (will be taking a class over summer)
Currently just working on getting he hang of Verilog using an ML605 and the Xilinx ISE design suite

[gingernuts]

Any updates on that PCB?

If you have the FPGA powered, configured, clocked and able to talk to the world via one of those (FTDI) USB-Serial converters, I would have thought you're mostly there - the details of the FPGA's insides can come later, as you don't really have any IO planning to worry about...

[steamboat]

You'll notice the bulk spartan 6 orders never went below ~200$/chip, even from established volume providers like Enterpoint.

Enterpoint was never the most cost effective solution. The closest they came was their initial pre-order offering, and once they jacked their prices they lost market share. I love my CM1's, and I'm very glad I chose Enterpoint over other manufacturers, but I only purchased them to hedge risk, knowing I could resell the boards. I knew I wasn't going to get BTC ROI out of them. Thankfully I've made a considerable amount of usd, but it pales in comparison to what I would have made buying coins.

DIY fpga boards have the benefit of being relatively easy to produce (or have limited batches made), can be made in smaller quantities, and can be resold for a decent price, especially if they were bought in relative bulk and sold piecemeal.

I would like to see more open source development of PCB designs and software so a wider userbase can get into the game with low entry costs, and am willing to fund it once my money frees up.

[pheaonix]

good luck epicblood! been cheering for you since you got the board !

[Epicblood]

My friend who knows the hardware side of things has been sick for awhile, so I have been unable to get a PCB design. I have been meeting with someone from Xilinx who knows Verilog very well and is also interested in BTCBTC. We are working on the miner software and that is coming along nicely.

[XoreaX]

You've got me watching this one too and on a side note you've got me thinking about the Artix7 FPGA. I'm wondering how well something like this http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-ax3/ might perform with Scrypt and how well it may scale. For $650 for the starter kit it might be worth me a fiddle.

Again, slightly off topic with the Scrypt but the modules provide an interesting different approach to FPGA PCB's.

[gingernuts]

My friend who knows the hardware side of things has been sick for awhile, so I have been unable to get a PCB design. I have been meeting with someone from Xilinx who knows Verilog very well and is also interested in BTCBTC. We are working on the miner software and that is coming along nicely.

I wish them a speedy recovery!

[gingernuts]

You've got me watching this one too and on a side note you've got me thinking about the Artix7 FPGA. I'm wondering how well something like this http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-ax3/ might perform with Scrypt and how well it may scale. For $650 for the starter kit it might be worth me a fiddle.

Again, slightly off topic with the Scrypt but the modules provide an interesting different approach to FPGA PCB's.

Enclustra have some great stuff, but that board is only using an xc7a100t - which is smaller than the spartan 6-lx150's used on the current FPGA boards. I don't think you'd fit a whole unrolled miner on there, and the PSU on that board is probably not that beefy either.

 

[goxed]

I want to do my FPGA development. Where can I get Xilinx developer IDE from?

[Inspector 2211]

I want to do my FPGA development. Where can I get Xilinx developer IDE from?

Directly from the Xilinx website.

There's a free web edition which includes FPGAs up to, and including, the Artix7-200, and there's also a 30 day free trial of the full edition. But keep in mind, creating a placed & routed & FAST miner within a mere 30 days would put you somewhere in the vicinity of Stephen Hawking with respect to IQ.

I recommend using the free web edition - I think they call it Web pack.

[goxed]

Okay thanks, let me download the IDE and try to compile the open-source hardware code.

[neslekkim]

If you end up making something like this, make sure to make an pcb that exposes IO etc, so the board can be used as an devkit or similar later, I'm thinking about something like tihs:

http://embeddedmicro.com/products/the-mojo
http://papilio.cc/index.php?n=Papilio.Hardware
http://pipistrello.saanlima.com/index.php?title=Welcome_to_Pipistrello
http://www.zedboard.org/

Then, it can be used for other things when you convert to asic or whatever is most profitable in the future.
Having an badass big fpga for running linux or similar is way cool

[gingernuts]

If you end up making something like this, make sure to make an pcb that exposes IO etc, so the board can be used as an devkit or similar later, I'm thinking about something like tihs:

http://embeddedmicro.com/products/the-mojo
http://papilio.cc/index.php?n=Papilio.Hardware
http://pipistrello.saanlima.com/index.php?title=Welcome_to_Pipistrello
http://www.zedboard.org/

Then, it can be used for other things when you convert to asic or whatever is most profitable in the future.
Having an badass big fpga for running linux or similar is way cool

If you really want to run Linux on an FPGA, you'd be better off buying a Zedboard - you can actually mine on that too, just not very fast!

Adding low-speed I/O's is probably doable, but to run Linux, you're going to want some decent amount of RAM, and flash, and both of these would drive up the cost of a BTC-mining board - you'd need other voltages for the RAM for example...

[t13hydra]

So what's up with the project? Are you using a ready made board, like the Icarus project, or you're rebuilding a board from scratch? Also, have you calculated the power of these fpgas? It would be nice to achive 1GHash with 3-4 chips..