Klondike - 16 chip ASIC Open Source Board - Preliminary

[bigbeninlondon]

Bkkcoins...After you finalize the current K16 design, do you plan to do any additional work on the project or pass on the torch to the open source community?  The last I read, the Avalon gen2 chip just sounded like a die shrink with the same physical size and pin out configuration.

I guess what I am really asking is; will you still be involved in the project or do you have different plans for the future?  I've really enjoyed watching this thread over the past few months. Seeing all of your hard work coming together,  along with all of the community input and support has been really exciting.  I was just wondering if you could share with us any future plans or new projects you might be involved with going forward.  I'm sure many of us would love to read some type of miniblog on any of your future ventures, even if they happen to be outside the bitcoin environment.

Thanks for all of your hard work and contributions!

Chad

Seconded.  Thanks for allowing as a window into your creative process.  Please keep us informed of your future projects; you've developed quite a following.

[Ente]

Bkkcoins...After you finalize the current K16 design, do you plan to do any additional work on the project or pass on the torch to the open source community?  The last I read, the Avalon gen2 chip just sounded like a die shrink with the same physical size and pin out configuration.

I guess what I am really asking is; will you still be involved in the project or do you have different plans for the future?  I've really enjoyed watching this thread over the past few months. Seeing all of your hard work coming together,  along with all of the community input and support has been really exciting.  I was just wondering if you could share with us any future plans or new projects you might be involved with going forward.  I'm sure many of us would love to read some type of miniblog on any of your future ventures, even if they happen to be outside the bitcoin environment.

Thanks for all of your hard work and contributions!

Chad

From a psychological viewpoint, I would ask such questions a few weeks after all that dust settled, the Klondike is finished and Avalon shipped those chips at a heavy discount.. ;-)

Ente

[btceic]

I guess interest in the Klondike will spike again once the asics are actually shipping at a fraction of the current costs.

There is still significant cost in the rest of the components and assembly.  Best to apply the design to new chips if possible.

After all the dust settles from the group order refunds Avalon will have a lot of inventory on hand for immediate delivery. Keep in mind Avalon paid the foundry considerably less to produce the chips than they were selling them for. I believe they'll be able to discount in-hand chips to the point where it'll still be profitable to manufacture them into boards.

My vote is to keep going on the Klondike project to get the current k16 boards hashing, and prepare for any design modifications needed for the Gen 2 chips.

This assumes that Yifu doesn't have buyers already lined up in china or elsewhere.

[cardcomm]

Bkkcoins...After you finalize the current K16 design, do you plan to do any additional work on the project or pass on the torch to the open source community?  The last I read, the Avalon gen2 chip just sounded like a die shrink with the same physical size and pin out configuration.

I guess what I am really asking is; will you still be involved in the project or do you have different plans for the future?  I've really enjoyed watching this thread over the past few months. Seeing all of your hard work coming together,  along with all of the community input and support has been really exciting.  I was just wondering if you could share with us any future plans or new projects you might be involved with going forward.  I'm sure many of us would love to read some type of miniblog on any of your future ventures, even if they happen to be outside the bitcoin environment.

Thanks for all of your hard work and contributions!

Chad

From a psychological viewpoint, I would ask such questions a few weeks after all that dust settled, the Klondike is finished and Avalon shipped those chips at a heavy discount.. ;-)

Ente

Agreed - now may not be the best time to bring up support for future Avalon chips...   

But I bet there ARE a lot of people that would follow a BkkCoins blog if he did one, Bitcoin related or not. I was originally attracted to this thread for the technology discussion and sense of community. The bitcoin aspect was secondary, to be honest. Obviously he's got a ton on his plate right now, and I don't expect it any time soon.

But once you're ready for another project please let us know how to follow it, ok BKKCoins? I'm actually kinda anxious to get the picngo boards you mentioned sort of in passing up-thread aways. Not that I really know enough at the moment to make use of them anyway... lol

[cardcomm]

I'm sure y'all have already seen the latest Avalon "update". Posting it here just in case...

http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=238a9ecd2e5192e3cd3ace26d&id=f4c48915fd&e=73ae78b75e

"Chips Delivery Update, September Edition
Due to events outside of our control, the delivery of chips have been delayed so far. While the situation are improving and chips are shipping, we have ultimately decided to revert our policy on no refunds and offer the option for customers to request a full refund(in bitcoin) if so desired.

The link to the request form is below, please note this only applies to orders made earlier than June 1st.

In other news, for those who decided to wait or wish to know more about delivery schedule will be glad to note we are receiving a batch of 400,000+ chips on Wednesday, with that we expect to be in good shape for meeting the upcoming deadlines of chip deliveries for orders made in June and later.

In addition, we hope to wrap up generation one, finish shipping the chips, construct the modules and build the 2 module Avalon mini, put this pre-order mess behind us in general and switch gear into 55nm production, tape out generation 3, and start work on improving chip design for generation 4. Only sell what we can produce in a day on the assembly line, and only what's in stock."

:: sigh ::

[voxelot]

Like anyone would buy any second gen avalon.... let's keep this on track.  99% of the community want a refund because they only wanted to profit.  1% just want to do research to secure the network.

this is where we stand.

All numbers in statistics are subject to bias.

[RoadStress]

Bkkcoins...After you finalize the current K16 design, do you plan to do any additional work on the project or pass on the torch to the open source community?  The last I read, the Avalon gen2 chip just sounded like a die shrink with the same physical size and pin out configuration.

I guess what I am really asking is; will you still be involved in the project or do you have different plans for the future?  I've really enjoyed watching this thread over the past few months. Seeing all of your hard work coming together,  along with all of the community input and support has been really exciting.  I was just wondering if you could share with us any future plans or new projects you might be involved with going forward.  I'm sure many of us would love to read some type of miniblog on any of your future ventures, even if they happen to be outside the bitcoin environment.

Thanks for all of your hard work and contributions!

Chad

Do you still want to buy from liar BitSyncom after all the problems with gen1 chips? Don't!

[Ente]

Like anyone would buy any second gen avalon.... let's keep this on track.  99% of the community want a refund because they only wanted to profit.  1% just want to do research to secure the network.

this is where we stand.

All numbers in statistics are subject to bias.

It started with greed when people entered numbers in miningcalculators and saw a 100% ROI in weeks.
Now we are at fear to even ROI or get the investment back.

In 2 weeks most of the dust will have settled. Yifu is obviously doing stuff now, fast and direct.

In 2 more weeks people will enter numbers in miningcalculators again.

Ente

[ScaryHash]

Is there a precompiled cgminer binary to run K16 for linux?

My github repo has the compiled cgminer in it. I haven't tested it on anything but my own Ubuntu 12.04 but presumably it will work on other Linux 32 bit releases. You would git clone it to your system. If using ARM (RasPi) or 64 bit you would  have to compile, which isn't hard at all. Just a bit slower. There are no drivers to install. With cgminer what we call drivers are actually just modules in compiled into the main executable.

The steps to compile (for ARM or not) are:
(go to the directory where you want cgminer directory created)

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install autoconf libtool libncurses-dev yasm curl libcurl4-openssl-dev pkg-config libusb-1.0

git clone https://github.com/bkkcoins/cgminer-klondike
cd cgminer-klondike
./autogen.sh --enable-klondike
make

Do that line by line so you can verify errors before continuing.
I just tested that on my system and it took only a few minutes to download and build.

Compiles and runs on my Ubuntu 12.04 VM without error, other than "no devices detected".

I just did this and it seemed to compile fine.

When I run it, it says

Started cgminer 3.3.1Segmentation fault

I looked up segmentation faults and I have no idea what is going on....some kind of error..

Anybody have any ideas?

I get the same fault when I run regular cgminer (not clondike version), but not the cgminer-nogpu

Could be a gpu issue. It's an AMD machine running linux mint 14, based on ubuntu I think, with a 7950. I think I installed the linux drivers on it, but I have not installed the opencl sdk...is it even necessary for klondikes?

No clue here. Thanks for any help in advance, especially Bkkcoins for all the work so far.

[jasinlee]

Does anyone have firmware for the k16 that we can have open sourced online yet?

[cp1]

Does anyone have firmware for the k16 that we can have open sourced online yet?

All the firmware is in the git, or do you mean something else?

[jasinlee]

Were there not updates to the design since the last firmware update?

[voxelot]

Is there a precompiled cgminer binary to run K16 for linux?

My github repo has the compiled cgminer in it. I haven't tested it on anything but my own Ubuntu 12.04 but presumably it will work on other Linux 32 bit releases. You would git clone it to your system. If using ARM (RasPi) or 64 bit you would  have to compile, which isn't hard at all. Just a bit slower. There are no drivers to install. With cgminer what we call drivers are actually just modules in compiled into the main executable.

The steps to compile (for ARM or not) are:
(go to the directory where you want cgminer directory created)

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install autoconf libtool libncurses-dev yasm curl libcurl4-openssl-dev pkg-config libusb-1.0

git clone https://github.com/bkkcoins/cgminer-klondike
cd cgminer-klondike
./autogen.sh --enable-klondike
make

Do that line by line so you can verify errors before continuing.
I just tested that on my system and it took only a few minutes to download and build.

Compiles and runs on my Ubuntu 12.04 VM without error, other than "no devices detected".

I just did this and it seemed to compile fine.

When I run it, it says

Started cgminer 3.3.1Segmentation fault

I looked up segmentation faults and I have no idea what is going on....some kind of error..

Anybody have any ideas?

I get the same fault when I run regular cgminer (not clondike version), but not the cgminer-nogpu

Could be a gpu issue. It's an AMD machine running linux mint 14, based on ubuntu I think, with a 7950. I think I installed the linux drivers on it, but I have not installed the opencl sdk...is it even necessary for klondikes?

No clue here. Thanks for any help in advance, especially Bkkcoins for all the work so far.

That post mentions that everything is really just another module added to the main cgminer executable. Klondike "drivers" are essentially cgminer source code with added "modules" code.  Think of it like counter strike from half life.

Error is most likely due to some error in the cgminer GPU as you suspect!

[voxelot]

Were there not updates to the design since the last firmware update?

There are no chips to test on since the last update I am afraid  

So no there have been no updates made publicly since the updates made on the public github

[ScaryHash]

Thanks voxelot,

I guess I could try to compile it with no gpu support but with klondike support and see how hit goes.

Just cpu mining and klondike, maybe icarus support too. Just to see if it works.

[kostagr33k]

Hey Guys. Im trying to do some testing with ktest but don't seem to get any desirable results. At one point, I got the "W" command to work, but it resulted in a BAD response , which I would think should be accepted, if Im reading the code right using Below Var:

Code:

Work =   ["4375c3b7a27cc936f295a6140358e965319322e7cfd11e137df42ea60864a675", "218d522051d547d51a00c94e", "b2cc9f74", "accept"]

Now, I run W command (aftere restarting ktest) and I get no response at all!

Trying to find out if theres a proper method to using ktest or if there could be something wrong with the K16.

I added a small debug output in sendcmd under the dev.write line:

Code:

	 dev.write(0x01, cmd + chr(addr) + data, 0, 500)
          print "tried %s %s %s" % (cmd,addr,data)

Code:

python ktest
Klondike device opened
tried I 0 

Version:10, ProductID:K16, Serial#:deadbeef
Cmds [WAISCE.Q]: 
S

State:R, ASICs:16, Slaves:0
WorkQ:0, WorkID:04, Temp:158, Fan:0, ErrCount:0, HashCount:2048, MaxCount:2048tried S 0 

Cmds [WAISCE.Q]: 
w
tried W 0 Cu÷?|?6?X?e1?"???}?.d?u!?R Q?G??N

State:W, ASICs:16, Slaves:0
WorkQ:0, WorkID:01, Temp:158, Fan:0, ErrCount:0, HashCount:0, MaxCount:2048
Cmds [WAISCE.Q]:

Is there something I am missing here, or something else I should be checking out?

thanks

[prodigits7]

BkkCoins I'd like to publicly say thanks from the bottom of my heart for all the time and effort you've put into this great endeavor. It truly has been an honour and a great privilege to work with you. We will do all we can to keep the Klondike project going by continuing to purchase vendor licenses in bulk and offer Klondike assembly through our website www.neo-asics.com

I'd also like to thank you for all your support on behalf of the entire NEO-ASICs team for working so closely with us to make the assemblies of these boards a reality. Without you, none of this would be possible!

[TheDroid]

There is a small team working on debugging as we speak, myself included.  Nothing to report just yet.  There are only a few assembled K16's in existence right now so debugging is difficult.  Most of us don't have high end electronics tools and inspection equipment.

The board schematic isn't that complex despite the part count.  I couldn't see any obvious design flaws.  Power supplies are very stable which I'd think the hardest part of this board, hardware wise.  As far as assembly goes the DFM is *very* good and all the footprints bang on.  Not a DIY board in my opinion, but most if not all will be machine assembled.

Really a pro job.  Lets hope its just firmware.

[hf_developer]

Code:

python ktest
Klondike device opened
tried I 0 

Version:10, ProductID:K16, Serial#:deadbeef
Cmds [WAISCE.Q]: 
S

State:R, ASICs:16, Slaves:0
WorkQ:0, WorkID:04, Temp:158, Fan:0, ErrCount:0, HashCount:2048, MaxCount:2048tried S 0 

Cmds [WAISCE.Q]: 
w
tried W 0 Cu÷?|?6?X?e1?"???}?.d?u!?R Q?G??N

State:W, ASICs:16, Slaves:0
WorkQ:0, WorkID:01, Temp:158, Fan:0, ErrCount:0, HashCount:0, MaxCount:2048
Cmds [WAISCE.Q]:

Is there something I am missing here, or something else I should be checking out?

thanks

I have seen this problem when you power up the PIC/ASIC and it is the first hash to be calculated. Possibly it will calculate valid results after you press w again.

[kostagr33k]

yeah, I tried repeatedly pressing W and no response. It did have a response once or twice, then nothing.


IS my assumption correct that those HASH variables are "accept" "error" meaning ktest should say "accept" or BAD (error) meaning the board is functioning with those hashes? ie. everything works?


Kosta