[Work in progess] Burnins Avalon Chip to mining board service

[Micky25]

But I've listen this news from valid source. We had try to bypass Avalon and try to buy directly from TSMC. Our contact there are answer to us that TSMC has sell this type of chip technology to Altera.

May I ask from where you are and what language you did use to contact TSMC?

[Micky25]

But I've listen this news from valid source. We had try to bypass Avalon and try to buy directly from TSMC. Our contact there are answer to us that TSMC has sell this type of chip technology to Altera.

May I ask from where you are and what language you did use to contact TSMC?

I'm African and we talked in ancient Hebrew.

I've report a news. I don't still to sell nothing.

My question wasn't ment as an offense. If you had told me that you are Chinese, I could have believed that there is a chance you got this information through friends or relatives that work at TSMC. When you say you got this information from a chip broker, like you stated in your previous answer (which you deleted), I can only imaging that its a misunderstanding, because companies like TSMC normally not give out information like these to anyone.

[fiktionist]

if i understood it correctly, avalon didnt develop their avalon asic in the first place.

http://www.altera.com/literature/manual/mnl_avalon_spec.pdf

[weaknesswaran]

That´s a different avalon chip, has nothing to do with bitcoin.

[Micky25]

here we go.

[turtle83]

if i understood it correctly, avalon didnt develop their avalon asic in the first place.

http://www.altera.com/literature/manual/mnl_avalon_spec.pdf

Avalon® interfaces simplify system design by allowing you to easily connect
components in an Altera® FPGA. The Avalon interface family defines interfaces
appropriate for streaming high-speed data, reading and writing registers and
memory, and controlling off-chip devices. These standard interfaces are designed into
the components available in Qsys. You can also use these standardized interfaces in
your custom components. By using these standard interfaces, you enhance the
interoperability of your designs

The very first page.... What part about that made you think that this Avalon is even a chip? Even if so then what does "streaming high speed data" have to do with bitcoin or SHA256?

[gateway]

@burnin any updates on first batch?

[kano]

Updates

Firstly, for any pics except the first one, click on them if you want to see a larger one.

Got a buzz on the door ... and as I walked there ( no I wasn't running ) I tripped over something ... bounced off it ... landed on the ground with my elbow under my chest ... and heard a crunch noise ... that was about 2hours ago
The criminal mastermind was:

The courier guy didn't seem to notice my hunch ... I guess he may have thought I was Quasimodo

Well - that's my excuse for not supplying more info than is below so far ... I think I better go visit the hospital and get it checked out ...

Here's what was inside the box:


One Burnin BitBurner XX with 20 Avalon ASICs on it.

Has one very large and heavy heat sink underneath:


Mining away ... under my desk in front of me connected to an RPi

I will move it down to my main rig once I've had a chance to mess with the settings, speed it up, and see how hot it gets.
The heat sink is quite hot to touch - I don't have a fan pointing at it yet - Duplo FTW

As I mentioned the other day ... good to see BTB on cgminer screens around the world soon.
This is just default settings - using all BTB cgminer changes.

40 minutes run time.
I wiped out the version number since it wasn't correct and I didn't fix it before recompiling.

USB info

Code:

Bus 001 Device 014: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x0403 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd
  idProduct          0x6001 FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC
  bcdDevice            6.00
  iManufacturer           1 Burnin Electronics
  iProduct                2 BitBurner
  iSerial                 3 2634024192
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength           32
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    MaxPower               90mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific Protocol
      iInterface              2 BitBurner
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)

API stats (just now - about 14 minutes after the screen shot above)

Code:

[STATUS] =>
(
   [STATUS] => S
   [When] => 1375670649
   [ Code] => 70
   [Msg] => CGMiner stats
   [Description] => Pi
)
[STATS0] =>
(
   [STATS] => 0
   [ID] => BTB0
   [Elapsed] => 3242
   [Calls] => 0
   [Wait] => 0.000000
   [Max] => 0.000000
   [Min] => 99999999.000000
   [baud] => 115200
   [miner_count] => 32
   [asic_count] => 10
   [timeout] => 45
   [frequency] => 282
   [fan1] => 0
   [fan2] => 0
   [fan3] => 0
   [temp1] => 59
   [temp2] => 59
   [temp3] => 59
   [temp_max] => 59
   [core_voltage] => 1217
   [no_matching_work] => 0
   [match_work_count1] => 941
   [match_work_count2] => 962
   [match_work_count3] => 0
   [match_work_count4] => 0
   [match_work_count5] => 0
   [match_work_count6] => 0
   [match_work_count7] => 0
   [match_work_count8] => 0
   [match_work_count9] => 0
   [match_work_count10] => 0
   [match_work_count11] => 0
   [match_work_count12] => 0
   [match_work_count13] => 0
   [match_work_count14] => 0
   [match_work_count15] => 0
   [match_work_count16] => 0
   [match_work_count17] => 0
   [match_work_count18] => 0
   [match_work_count19] => 0
   [match_work_count20] => 0
   [match_work_count21] => 0
   [match_work_count22] => 0
   [match_work_count23] => 0
   [match_work_count24] => 0
   [match_work_count25] => 0
   [match_work_count26] => 0
   [match_work_count27] => 0
   [match_work_count28] => 0
   [match_work_count29] => 0
   [match_work_count30] => 0
   [match_work_count31] => 0
   [match_work_count32] => 0
   [USB Pipe] => 0
   [USB Delay] => r0 0.000000 w0 0.000000
   [USB tmo] => 275630 0
)

Zero no matching work!

... I think I better get ready ... 'sneeze' ... massive pain ... and go visit the hospital now

[gateway]

@kano nice dude , I'm sure u get extra special treatment but good to see a board in someone's hands!

[Henchman24]

Got a buzz on the door ... and as I walked there ( no I wasn't running ) I tripped over something ... bounced off it ... landed on the ground with my elbow under my chest ... and heard a crunch noise ... that was about 2hours ago

... I think I better get ready ... 'sneeze' ... massive pain ... and go visit the hospital now

Damn!  That hurt just reading it.  Hope you're ok, man.

[eraziel]

Can everyone please try to keep the thread relevant?
Apart from Kano's post the entire  last page is very much off-topic.

[culexevilman]

nice now we just need to wait for the chips to arrive, darn avalon...

[baloo_kiev]

kano but why such low hashrate?

[BenTuras]

kano but why such low hashrate?

He hooked it up in a hurry and then had to go to the hospital.

[baloo_kiev]

kano but why such low hashrate?

He hooked it up in a hurry and then had to go to the hospital.

Yes, I got it. Was just asking in case anyone has thoughts about this. Isn't the device supposed to give 6 GH/s right out of the box?

[kano]

OK back ... and pain removed with a magical spell called ibuprofen+codeine
Xray showed nothing broken ... other than what was broken once a long time ago

So back to working on cgminer.

Step 1, add a fan ... and build a lego bracket for it

The lizard is looking at U15 - which I assume is the temperature sensor.
Guess I should look at the specs

Seems I'll first need to make some of the default settings a little different to the Avalon
We've committed the Burnin changes into the master cgminer so BTB is there to stay
Now I'll work on the defaults/temperature/fan code so hopefully have some useful changes soon ...

Also my fan is 12V - but I guess that may be wrong - it didn't seem to start without a flick from me so either it's only supposed to be 5V or I got a faulty fan
Dropped the temperature from 51C back down to 46C but then it switched off again and seems needs more power before it actually spins.
OK more reading I need to do

If anyone can answer here before I find it ... (the chip U15 = temp sensor and fan V is 5 or 12) ... thanks

[kano]

kano but why such low hashrate?

The default settings are for an Avalon, I'll change the defaults (in cgminer) for BTB once I work out what's best.

[eraziel]

Is the order status going to change from processing to anything else before the boards are shipped  (e.g. testing, ready for shipping etc.) or we're just going to get notified when they're on the way to us?

[burnin]

Coding on painkillers  

That board doesn't have production firmware on it.
So there are a few features not in there yet + a few bugs.
The FAN is 12V, but your FW might have a wrong PWM multiplier in there so its not spinning.

For updating get yourself a copy of pic32prog:

Code:

svn checkout http://pic32prog.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/

I'll prepare a hex file for you with the latest code.

The bootloader is launched on power up and has a timeout.
Remove power, apply power, launch pic32prog while the red LED is blinking (it means its in bootloader mode).
Do mind, its needs super-user rights, or matching dev rules.

Yes, U15 is the temp sensor, a Ti LM20.

[kano]

Thanks - that answers pretty much everything.

I was thinking I just needed to put up the Freq and Voltage to get the expected hash rate.
Just hadn't got to that yet ... was looking through the avalon code about the fans and reading about them ... had to think hard just to temporarily pull your pull into my git ... I think the pain and drugs are taking their toll

Reading about the difference between 3pin and 4pin fans after discussing it with Xiangfu (Avalon uses 4) the difference is FAN_CONTROL
So does that mean I should have it simply turn it on full (when needed) and off when below say something like 40C for BTB?
It is certainly working as it is now - once it gets to 51C it has enough power to actually spin and it cools down to about 46/47 and then the fan switches off - but it seems it's trying to switch on with a too low voltage before that.
Is fan control possible with just messing with the voltage when it's a 3 pin 12V fan?
(I've no idea of course - but from what I've read, I think it should really only be hard on or off)

Also, for the Tach yeah I guess the update will fix that - coz it's returning zero always at the moment.

PM me when you have a new firmware and I'll update it straight away.

When I first plugged it in, I ran it without a fan - which I'll do again once I've sorted out the fan control
It lasts about 40/45min before it hits 60C and commits suicide (it's winter here)
I'll change it to properly shut down mining (it didn't seem to at least) and then wait for a reasonable temp drop before resuming (maybe even 15C drop?)

What are the actual expected temperatures for the BTB?
The 60C did seem to suggest it was near it's limit coz it basically got NMW's forever not long after that at least once