OPENSOURCE HARDWARE BOARD: P7-LX150Q

[pusle]

This is an open source quad spartan-6 LX150 board designed by The Seven and myself in collaboration.

Since it was completed way behind schedule we didn't see much point in releasing this version.
However some people kept asking for open source boards recently so we figured why not.

Version 1.0 has been manufactured and tested, but rev 2.1 has not. The differences are however minor.
The software is not very complete nor user friendly at the moment but The Seven has been mining with this board for a while now.
The plan is to make a  28nm version of the P7 platform where the software will include support for the LX150 version as well.

We will try to give as much support as possible through this forum and IRC, but the files are delivered as
is with no warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk.

Read the txt file included for more information.

~Pusle


download link:https://mega.co.nz/#!PcNlnBKJ!PN44_C7M2L0aiEd8BxyZNEbpGtJoytkXHbfSBkTAdFQ

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[Sitarow]

nice work.

[jonand]

So what happened to the diff clock driver, did you ever get it to work as expected?

[Tursk]

Download link doesn't work for me. MEGA demands I should downgrade to Firefox browser while I'm using SeaMonkey.

[Slave2school]

Same link won't work for me either

[xgtele]

Use Google Chrome. File size is 81MB

Download link doesn't work for me. MEGA demands I should downgrade to Firefox browser while I'm using SeaMonkey.

[pusle]

So what happened to the diff clock driver, did you ever get it to work as expected?

Yes, it's not a perfect square but it works nicely.  
I've tested many different drive strengths and termination resistors which didn't have much effect on overclocking.
There seems to be a wide margin.

The included files are set to LVDS 2.5V for the synth, which is the recommended setting
For extreme overclockers you may get a little more speed using SSTL 3.3 as it's even more square and faster rise/fall time.
However with SSTL the signal swing is so large it's way out of spec and not recommended.

[Tursk]

Use Google Chrome. File size is 81MB

Thanks, got it.

[grabber]

This is an open source quad spartan-6 LX150 board designed by The Seven and myself in collaboration.

Since it was completed way behind schedule we didn't see much point in releasing this version.
However some people kept asking for open source boards recently so we figured why not.

Version 1.0 has been manufactured and tested, but rev 2.1 has not. The differences are however minor.
The software is not very complete nor user friendly at the moment but The Seven has been mining with this board for a while now.
The plan is to make a  28nm version of the P7 platform where the software will include support for the LX150 version as well.

We will try to give as much support as possible through this forum and IRC, but the files are delivered as
is with no warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk.

Read the txt file included for more information.

~Pusle


download link: https://mega.co.nz/#!PcNlnBKJ!PN44_C7M2L0aiEd8BxyZNEbpGtJoytkXHbfSBkTAdFQ

Can you share some more information with us? Hashing speed, watt usage, estimated price, drivers etc? It would be nice, if it will turn into a "product" which is able to sell. But really nice work anyway.

[TheSeven]

Same link won't work for me either

I guess the link should be fixed by enclosing it in [ url ] ... [ /url ] tags, the forum software doesn't seem to deal with anchors correctly.

[grabber]

Check the production files, and found some more photos of the project here we go! Seems more than impressive - the files, not the pictures   https://plus.google.com/photos/109390909883687914366/albums/5882375517910208881?authkey=CNmwoJrUiKWd6AE

[turtle83]

Would be very interested to know hashrate/price/power of the 28nm version. I suspect it would work a lot better than current generation ASICs.

[turtle83]

Can you share some more information with us? Hashing speed, watt usage, estimated price, drivers etc? It would be nice, if it will turn into a "product" which is able to sell. But really nice work anyway.

I assume Hashing speed and watt usage will be very similar to ztex 1.15y since its the same IC. Very small variations between different implementations of LX150

[CoinHoarder]

Someone do group manufacture/assembly please.  

I'd mine the heck out of Terracoins/Ppcoins if I could get some of these cheap.

Maybe some Bitcoins along the way... but that's what I'm buying ASICs for.. 

[fpgaminer]

Very cool stuff, pusle and TheSeven!

Would be very interested to know hashrate/price/power of the 28nm version. I suspect it would work a lot better than current generation ASICs.

It won't get close to current generation ASICs, neither in power nor cost.

With the current open source designs for Kintex-7, a quad board would get ~2GH/s, though I suspect 4GH/s is possible when more hashing cores are rolled into the design.  Power would be less than 100W at 2GH/s.  Price?  Well K160T chips are ~90$USD each so maybe a BOM of 800$USD?

[turtle83]

Very cool stuff, pusle and TheSeven!

Would be very interested to know hashrate/price/power of the 28nm version. I suspect it would work a lot better than current generation ASICs.

It won't get close to current generation ASICs, neither in power nor cost.

With the current open source designs for Kintex-7, a quad board would get ~2GH/s, though I suspect 4GH/s is possible when more hashing cores are rolled into the design.  Power would be less than 100W at 2GH/s.  Price?  Well K160T chips are ~90$USD each so maybe a BOM of 800$USD?

ASICMINER blade is for $6200 (49.9 BTC). @10 GH/s
If BOM of $800 so total cost $1000 is sane assumption? Including assembly, pcb, etc?
Would need 2.5 to 5 (4 x K160T) boards for 10 GH/s ~$2500 - $5000

Power is another story... ASIC way way more efficient.

If someone can build this, and the $/GH is same as ASICMINER blades(or whatever ASIC unit is shipping at the time) im sure a lot of people would buy irrespective of power usage simply because the barrier to entry is lower....

but maybe by the time someone manufactures these... Avalon DYI projects churn out much cheaper $/GH..

[Felipeo]

Nice piece of hardware

Would be very interested to know hashrate/price/power of the 28nm version

+1

[tigerfree]

nice work.

[pusle]

Quote from: grabber on May 26, 2013, 07:31:02 PM

Can you share some more information with us? Hashing speed, watt usage, estimated price, drivers etc? It would be nice, if it will turn into a "product" which is able to sell. But really nice work anyway.

I assume Hashing speed and watt usage will be very similar to ztex 1.15y since its the same IC. Very small variations between different implementations of LX150

That's correct. The current fpgaminer implementation is only at 180MHz but 200 should be reachable with some Xilinx tool massaging.
Most LX150 will overclock above 200MHz on this board giving a total hashrate above 800MH/s even with the included bitstream.

~Pusle

[TheSeven]

Quote from: grabber on May 26, 2013, 07:31:02 PM

Can you share some more information with us? Hashing speed, watt usage, estimated price, drivers etc? It would be nice, if it will turn into a "product" which is able to sell. But really nice work anyway.

I assume Hashing speed and watt usage will be very similar to ztex 1.15y since its the same IC. Very small variations between different implementations of LX150

That's correct. The current fpgaminer implementation is only at 180MHz but 200 should be reachable with some Xilinx tool massaging.
Most LX150 will overclock above 200MHz on this board giving a total hashrate above 800MH/s even with the included bitstream.

The software controllable VCCint voltage for the FPGAs might allow this to be increased even further, as you can easily just run the chips at 1.28V
(Or at lower voltages to increase power efficiency.)