Greetings,
we've designed a Bitcoin miner based on a dual Cyclone V (28 nm) FPGA card, which is configured by, controlled and communicates with a Raspberry Pi (credit card sized Linux computer). The FPGA card consists of two Cyclone V A9 components (each contains 301K logic cells, for a total of 602K logic cells per FPGA card). A single Raspberry Pi can work with up to 4 FPGA cards, and each Raspberry Pi system may be networked via ethernet.
The advantages of this system are :
- high performance (we're looking at about 950-1250 MHash/sec/FPGA card depending on speed grade, PLL settings, etc.)
- low power (Altera claims Cyclone V - 28 nm technology to consume 40% less power than 65 nm technology)
(Xilinx Spartan 6 - LX150 is 65 nm technology)
- reconfigurable, unlike ASIC's, FPGA's may be reused for other purposes if desired
(ie: we have not yet tried Litecoin mining with this platform, but we are very interested in what performance could be achieved in that area).
- small size (each FPGA card is about 3.5 inches x 2.2 inches (89mm x 56mm))
(a 4 FPGA card unit (8 FPGA's total about 4-5 GHash/sec) is about 5.5 inches x 4.5 inches x 6.5 inches
Since we announced the project, we've received a great deal of interest from the Bitcoin community, and it quickly became apparent that there was a strong demand for this product. As a result, in about the last month I've personally been meeting with suppliers, distributers, and manufacturers to see if I can manufacture this product, and it looks like we now have all the pieces in place to start a manufacturing run.
The hardest part was to secure significant quantity of FPGA's to meet demand (as gauged by people who registered interest). We have a great deal of interest, and I don't believe we have enough FPGA to meet everyone's total demand in a single production run. As a result, I've been rather quiet about saying anything (I don't want to generate interest if I cannot deliver). I have been working with Altera and Arrow and numerous personal contacts in Silicon Valley (that's where we are physically located) to obtain FPGA's in quantity. I believe that I can obtain (in a reasonably short time) about 300 Cyclone V A9 FPGA's. This is enough to make 150 FPGA cards. I believe that I can secure additional FPGA's for a second production run (I'm still working to get availability and timing on the second run).
To be honest, I was planning to send this email out a little later after I got everything neatly tied up in a bow and perfect, however, it has been very difficult to obtain these FPGA's in quantity. Altera has other customers who also want these chips. I have recently received an email indicating that they would like a PO order, or they may have to release these parts to other customers. As a result, I need to start the crowd-funding campaign to purchase these components sooner than I anticipated.
The end result, is that we are opening our web store a little sooner than I would like.
The crowd funding site will be open on
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:00 AM Pacific Time. Units will be reserved on a first-come-first-serve basis. (I know that this is short notice, but it does provide enough time that everyone will have a chance to read the email, and get an equal chance to be in the first production run).
The web site for the crowd funding is :
http://www.raspberrycoins.com/shop.
Details of how crowd-funding works is at :
http://www.raspberrycoins.com/funding.
The first production run is for 150 FPGA cards. The product (a single unit) consists of one or more FPGA cards (up to 4), a Raspberry Pi (to configure, control, and monitor up to four FPGA cards), power supply cards for the FPGA cards, and miscellaneous parts for the Raspberry Pi to operate (pre-loaded SD cards, USB cables, various cables, external 12V computer power supply, etc), detailed instructions for usage. Several units may be connected together via ethernet. Each unit will require a little bit of assembly (screwing together the enclosure, connecting the cables, configuring jumpers, installing the SD card. etc.), and instructions will be provided. (If you desire pre-assembled units, send me an email, and I'm sure we can work something out).
I expect it will take about 3-6 weeks to manufacture, test, and ship out this product. Standard shipping within the US will be 3-5 business days, please contact us if you would like expedited shipping. Expedited shipping does not result in expedited manufacturing. We will keep everyone informed of the status of this manufacturing run as it progresses.
The second production run will commence immediately following the first run, depending on lead times for the Cyclone V FPGA. I will personally ensure that everyone is informed of the status of this run (and any additional runs we do) as well.
There will be additional production runs as long as there is sufficient demand, and I am able to secure FPGA's. This entire operation is possible only because of your support, so I will work to ensure that it is as transparent as possible. Lots of companies make products, but the ones which stand out are the ones which provide excellent customer service - so that is what I will attempt to do with Raspberry Coins. (I believe that if you are really happy with our product, you will buy more, and/or tell your friends, so I also believe this practice is also good business).
Even after units have shipped, we intend to continue working on optimizing the FPGA design. There are also some experiments I would like to run on Cyclone V with regards to cooling, tolerances, and clock rates. If we come up with something better, we will release a new configuration bitstream, and you will have a more effective miner.
I hope to make a product that will exceed your expectations.
