Klondike - 16 chip ASIC Open Source Board - Preliminary

[vs3]

I think now is not the time for mission creep.

Get the board working as intended. Then revise for additional capabilities. There is nothing wrong with having different versions of the board IMO.

big +1 here

+1

Let's get it up and working fine first. There will always be version 2, 3, etc.

[joeventura]

Once we get this thing working, the skies the limit for version 2

Does someone have a PCB to sell me, I'd like to start working on getting a water block designed for the overclockers.

[deepbtc]

Great. Thanks.

Where are you located ?

Thailand.

I'm also in BKK, Thailand. I'm interested in the boards as well

[Vycid]

Apparently the overclock can go to 450+ MHz per chip, if cooled properly, so we should start seriously discussing an overclockable rev once the board is stable at default clock.

Here's some reading (Batch 2):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=242423.0

[Vigil]

What file type are the electronic copies of the K16 in? Are they CAD files or Eagle PCB files? I suppose they are on Github but what program do I need to open them?

[mike2kt]

What file type are the electronic copies of the K16 in? Are they CAD files or Eagle PCB files? I suppose they are on Github but what program do I need to open them?

Grab KiCad and open klondike.pro

http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/KiCad+EDA+Software+Suite

[SilentSonicBoom]

NEWS FLASH!!! NEWS FLASH!!!

My K16 is hashing with 1 chip.

It's not giving a correct result nonce yet but I'm almost 99% sure that's due to errors in precalc code or maybe I'm shifting in word order backwards.

I soldered an ASIC on the board this morning and spent all day twiddling this and that, mostly getting the clock config right. Then bamm I saw something that looked like nonce bits coming out but they were stunted little bits trying desperately to reach high. But the twinkle was enough and I went through the Avalon reference design again to check and realized I'd not used the correct pull-up value for the result lines. Somehow I f'd up and spec'd 100k resistors instead of 470R. So I quickly removed them and soldered in some 1K that I had here. And the bits sprung forth to their full heights. I was totally excited and hopping around my work bench. Even my wife was in to see what the big commotion was about.

So... next step, test the UART receiver, and muck with the send data until the right nonce comes back.

BTW I'm running at half clock b/c no heat sink attached yet. The chip gets slightly warmish to the finger. With only one chip and half clock you have to set the scope trigger and hold the probes for a while until a nonce is found. I counted about 4-8 seconds but of course it depends on what point it is in it's cycle. One chip at half clock (128MHz) would be about 33 seconds for a full sweep.

Congrats and good luck!

[ektwr]

Step by step to success! I will be very pleased if i have permmission to post an article about klondike project progress so far. Keep up the good work!

[.m.]

regarding KICAD - I had better experience with the version compiled from sources - this worked on Fedora 18:

# https://code.launchpad.net/~kicad-stable-committers/kicad/stable

mkdir kicad && cd kicad
bzr branch lp:kicad/stable # more than 220 MB, 10 minutes to get
cd stable

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DKICAD_STABLE_VERSION=20130528 . # wxWidgets and boost needed

make -j3 # around 10 minutes

make install # as root

/usr/local/bin/kicad # works

# /usr/local/share/doc/kicad , /usr/local/share/kicad
# fedora installs older, but useful kicad-doc, like /usr/share/doc/kicad/help/en/Getting_Started_in_KiCad.pdf

# ? https://github.com/Trump211/Eagle2Kicad
# decent 3D models there for many parts that could be used to render a 3D preview
# http://smisioto.no-ip.org/elettronica/kicad/kicad-en.htm

[Vigil]

What file type are the electronic copies of the K16 in? Are they CAD files or Eagle PCB files? I suppose they are on Github but what program do I need to open them?

Grab KiCad and open klondike.pro

http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/KiCad+EDA+Software+Suite

Thanks.

regarding KICAD - I had better experience with the version compiled from sources - this worked on Fedora 18:

# https://code.launchpad.net/~kicad-stable-committers/kicad/stable

mkdir kicad && cd kicad
bzr branch lp:kicad/stable # more than 220 MB, 10 minutes to get
cd stable

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DKICAD_STABLE_VERSION=20130528 . # wxWidgets and boost needed

make -j3 # around 10 minutes

make install # as root

/usr/local/bin/kicad # works

# /usr/local/share/doc/kicad , /usr/local/share/kicad
# fedora installs older, but useful kicad-doc, like /usr/share/doc/kicad/help/en/Getting_Started_in_KiCad.pdf

# ? https://github.com/Trump211/Eagle2Kicad
# decent 3D models there for many parts that could be used to render a 3D preview
# http://smisioto.no-ip.org/elettronica/kicad/kicad-en.htm

Cool.

[cardcomm]

What file type are the electronic copies of the K16 in? Are they CAD files or Eagle PCB files? I suppose they are on Github but what program do I need to open them?

Grab KiCad and open klondike.pro

http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/KiCad+EDA+Software+Suite

Thanks.

regarding KICAD - I had better experience with the version compiled from sources - this worked on Fedora 18:

# https://code.launchpad.net/~kicad-stable-committers/kicad/stable

mkdir kicad && cd kicad
bzr branch lp:kicad/stable # more than 220 MB, 10 minutes to get
cd stable

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DKICAD_STABLE_VERSION=20130528 . # wxWidgets and boost needed

make -j3 # around 10 minutes

make install # as root

/usr/local/bin/kicad # works

# /usr/local/share/doc/kicad , /usr/local/share/kicad
# fedora installs older, but useful kicad-doc, like /usr/share/doc/kicad/help/en/Getting_Started_in_KiCad.pdf

# ? https://github.com/Trump211/Eagle2Kicad
# decent 3D models there for many parts that could be used to render a 3D preview
# http://smisioto.no-ip.org/elettronica/kicad/kicad-en.htm

Cool.

Nice. Gonna give that a try on OS X.

Thanks

[Taugeran]

Famous moment in the history of Bitcoin: BKKCoins hopping around his workbench. Makes me think of Archimedes running down the street naked.

Maybe in the history books BKKCoins will have been hopping in the nude.

Best History ref ever

[Lollaskates]

Whats the word on the quality of components for the design? Keeping overclocking in mind, it would be smart to make sure the PCB can handle higher power than what is minimally required to run at 282MHz. I know burnin has his components rated high enough for overclocking, and it will be a big decision point between that and the klondike. I would sincerely hope the board could handle pushing these chips to their limits, 400-450MHz. Being able to get that much more ROI for small hardware cost increases would be phenomenal.

Also, whats the word on linking these together?  For example, buying them built as K16s and connecting them in groups of 4?

[joeventura]

Whats the word on the quality of components for the design? Keeping overclocking in mind, it would be smart to make sure the PCB can handle higher power than what is minimally required to run at 282MHz. I know burnin has his components rated high enough for overclocking, and it will be a big decision point between that and the klondike. I would sincerely hope the board could handle pushing these chips to their limits, 400-450MHz. Being able to get that much more ROI for small hardware cost increases would be phenomenal.

Also, whats the word on linking these together?  For example, buying them built as K16s and connecting them in groups of 4?

You are asking about the status of step 45 in the process, we are at step 5 "Getting the device to work"

[Lollaskates]

Whats the word on the quality of components for the design? Keeping overclocking in mind, it would be smart to make sure the PCB can handle higher power than what is minimally required to run at 282MHz. I know burnin has his components rated high enough for overclocking, and it will be a big decision point between that and the klondike. I would sincerely hope the board could handle pushing these chips to their limits, 400-450MHz. Being able to get that much more ROI for small hardware cost increases would be phenomenal.

Also, whats the word on linking these together?  For example, buying them built as K16s and connecting them in groups of 4?

You are asking about the status of step 45 in the process, we are at step 5 "Getting the device to work"

component rating is actually decided early on.

[bitcoiner49er]

Whats the word on the quality of components for the design? Keeping overclocking in mind, it would be smart to make sure the PCB can handle higher power than what is minimally required to run at 282MHz. I know burnin has his components rated high enough for overclocking, and it will be a big decision point between that and the klondike. I would sincerely hope the board could handle pushing these chips to their limits, 400-450MHz. Being able to get that much more ROI for small hardware cost increases would be phenomenal.

Also, whats the word on linking these together?  For example, buying them built as K16s and connecting them in groups of 4?

You are asking about the status of step 45 in the process, we are at step 5 "Getting the device to work"

component rating is actually decided early on.

Rev 1.0
Rev 2.0
Rev 2.1
Etc...

[joeventura]

Whats the word on the quality of components for the design? Keeping overclocking in mind, it would be smart to make sure the PCB can handle higher power than what is minimally required to run at 282MHz. I know burnin has his components rated high enough for overclocking, and it will be a big decision point between that and the klondike. I would sincerely hope the board could handle pushing these chips to their limits, 400-450MHz. Being able to get that much more ROI for small hardware cost increases would be phenomenal.

Also, whats the word on linking these together?  For example, buying them built as K16s and connecting them in groups of 4?

You are asking about the status of step 45 in the process, we are at step 5 "Getting the device to work"

component rating is actually decided early on.

Component ratings have been decided on. Once they are working then improvements can be made.

Fast, Cheap or Good, Pick 2.

[Lollaskates]

Fast and good obviously. Its a race against time, revisions will help less and less as the hashrate goes up on the network when more asics come online.

Start with overclockability, or don't plan on it.

[SebastianJu]

Its not that the chips are available tomorrow. There is still enough time to revise everything. That doesnt need weeks.

[erschiessen]

Fast and good obviously. Its a race against time, revisions will help less and less as the hashrate goes up on the network when more asics come online.

Start with overclockability, or don't plan on it.

Fast, in this instance, would be time to market, not hashing speed.