BFL BitForce SC Firmware source code

[crazyates]

Awesome! Luke, you need any pizza deliveries, you let us know, OK? 

I doubt LJR has 10,000BTC just lying around.

[1715244294]

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[1715244294]

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[KS]

Awesome! Luke, you need any pizza deliveries, you let us know, OK?  

I doubt LJR has 10,000BTC just lying around.

Those pizzas were quoted at 10Million BTC by a Google translated article in Russian. Ouch

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2213241

The path to the real world

Since the beginning of the year there are more messages that consumers often prefer to use a virtual currency, paying them for goods and services. The first known case of acquisition of goods for Bitcoins is buying pizza by one of the official forum - he paid 10 million Bitcoins.

[someone42]

From reading the firmware source and looking at the released datasheet, the BFL chips interestingly do not have certain SHA-256 constants hardwired. The firmware is responsible for setting the SHA-256 initial hash value for the first hash, as well as the padding and length of both the first and second hashes.

What this means is that (for example) if an extra field were to be appended to the block header, the BFL chips could handle this change (via. a firmware upgrade), but the Avalon chips couldn't. This also means that the BFL chips are slightly less-than-optimal (I have no idea how much less than optimal), since some extra gates will be required to handle the possibility that those "constants" can change.

[jaywaka2713]

From reading the firmware source and looking at the released datasheet, the BFL chips interestingly do not have certain SHA-256 constants hardwired. The firmware is responsible for setting the SHA-256 initial hash value for the first hash, as well as the padding and length of both the first and second hashes.

What this means is that (for example) if an extra field were to be appended to the block header, the BFL chips could handle this change (via. a firmware upgrade), but the Avalon chips couldn't. This also means that the BFL chips are slightly less-than-optimal (I have no idea how much less than optimal), since some extra gates will be required to handle the possibility that those "constants" can change.

What do you think could be added to the block header?

Could you also explain what the effect of the chips being less-than-optimal.

[someone42]

What do you think could be added to the block header?

Could you also explain what the effect of the chips being less-than-optimal.

I personally don't think anything will be added to the block header within 5 years, since that would have the effect of making lots of existing ASICs useless. Also, if anyone wants to "add" some extra data to a block, they can already do this (in a way that's compatible with all existing miners) by using the coinbase.

What I mean by less-than-optimal is that since the SHA-256 constants are not hardcoded, some logic can't be optimised out at compile time. Within an ASIC, this would manifest as increased die area or power consumption. But I have no experience with ASIC design, so for all my ignorance it could be an insignificant 0.0001% increase or an embarassing 10% increase.

[Luke-Jr]

Sorry for the delay!
Git import is now complete on GitHub

[Luke-Jr]

BTW, if anyone wants to hack at something... I'd suggest going back in the git history to get at the interleaved works (or maybe it's still in the latest code too, just disabled?) before the change to one-job-per-chip. If you get that working, Little Singles and better should be fine on p2pool... (and lower stales mining normally too)

[chanson]

"Interleaved works, but chips have a problem; proceeding with one-job-per-chip from this point"

https://github.com/luke-jr/BitForce_SC/commit/26984f0a5aeae68e0d164dc38934385f474c8d4f

[Flashman]

Within an ASIC, this would manifest as increased die area or power consumption. But I have no experience with ASIC design, so for all my ignorance it could be an insignificant 0.0001% increase or an embarassing 10% increase.

My gut isn't all that ASIC experienced, but FWIW it says fairly insignificant, few tens of extra gates for the few millions total.... I'd put a range of 0.01% to 0.001% on it.

[Lucko]

Did anybody figure out what is magic booster that cost 100$ and increase speed from 5,5 to 7. Can this be done at home or do I need to pay 100$?

[philips]

Did anybody figure out what is magic booster that cost 100$ and increase speed from 5,5 to 7. Can this be done at home or do I need to pay 100$?

I doubt that only a modified firmware will suffice.

Late edit: Wrong, apparently in most cases, it does.

[Flashman]

For that upgrade, you are really paying for three things, the different firmware, chips that are known to be capable of 7Gh/sec between them and factory lifetime warranty on those. Plus if you have an early order, at the present point in time, if you're just a few days messing around with it trying to achieve the extra 2Gh/sec, you will have lost the purchase price in lost earnings.

There will of course be customers boasting long and loud about how they are a genius and how they got theirs to 8 or even 9GH/sec "for free", but these will be the lottery winners, the lottery losers will be a somewhat silent majority, well they'll be there if you look, but won't be in your face, leading to a false perception. Though expect at least one example of in your face nerd rage from someone who lets the magic smoke out their jally by over-optimistic under-skilled hackery and is then surprised and outraged when BFL refuses to warranty it.

[pvtbrutus]

I just received my Jalapeno. Its hashing at 5.1 mhash and stays around 43 degrees with 25 degrees environment.

Is there any way to know which firmware mine has without purchasing a JTAG adapter?

[kano]

I just received my Jalapeno. Its hashing at 5.1 mhash and stays around 43 degrees with 25 degrees environment.

Is there any way to know which firmware mine has without purchasing a JTAG adapter?

in cgminer:
java API stats | egrep '\[Firm| BA' oops that's the next version
java API stats | egrep '\[GetIn| BA'

[GetInfo] is the full dump of the GetInfo reply from the BFL ASIC

Being a Jalapeno it will most likely be 1.0.0

[TheSwede75]

Awesome! Luke, you need any pizza deliveries, you let us know, OK? 

I doubt LJR has 10,000BTC just lying around.

Maybe not "laying around" but I wouldn't be surprised if Luke has 10k or more BTc

[TheSwede75]

Did anybody figure out what is magic booster that cost 100$ and increase speed from 5,5 to 7. Can this be done at home or do I need to pay 100$?

There is nothing about it, the upgrade is a combination of higher chip quality (Class A chips w 16 engines) and firmware upgrade.

[joeventura]

For that upgrade, you are really paying for three things, the different firmware, chips that are known to be capable of 7Gh/sec between them and factory lifetime warranty on those. Plus if you have an early order, at the present point in time, if you're just a few days messing around with it trying to achieve the extra 2Gh/sec, you will have lost the purchase price in lost earnings.

There will of course be customers boasting long and loud about how they are a genius and how they got theirs to 8 or even 9GH/sec "for free", but these will be the lottery winners, the lottery losers will be a somewhat silent majority, well they'll be there if you look, but won't be in your face, leading to a false perception. Though expect at least one example of in your face nerd rage from someone who lets the magic smoke out their jally by over-optimistic under-skilled hackery and is then surprised and outraged when BFL refuses to warranty it.

^^^^ Speaking the truth!!!

[Inaba]

If you blow your chips due to overclocking to ridiculous amounts or failure to cool your chips, there is no warranty.

[pvtbrutus]

in cgminer:
java API stats | egrep '\[Firm| BA' oops that's the next version
java API stats | egrep '\[GetIn| BA'

[GetInfo] is the full dump of the GetInfo reply from the BFL ASIC

Being a Jalapeno it will most likely be 1.0.0

Wow whole new terrain for me there. Had to install Java on my Ubuntu machine and enable API in cgminer. But i did manage to get the info.

Code:

[ID] => BAJ0
[GetInfo] => 
DEVICE: BitFORCE SC0x0a
FIRMWARE: 1.0.00x0a
MINIG SPEED: 5.22 GH/s0x0a
PROCESSOR 3: 13 engines @ 192 MHz0x0a
PROCESSOR 7: 15 engines @ 183 MHz0x0a
ENGINES: 280x0a
FREQUENCY: 189 MHz0x0a
XLINK MODE: MASTER0x0a
CRITICAL TEMPERATURE: 00x0a
XLINK PRESENT: NO0x0a
OK0x0a
0x00

(added some BR to make it readable)

So if im not mistaken my Jala has 2 full processors, but one is of better quality than the other?

[kano]

in cgminer:
java API stats | egrep '\[Firm| BA' oops that's the next version
java API stats | egrep '\[GetIn| BA'

[GetInfo] is the full dump of the GetInfo reply from the BFL ASIC

Being a Jalapeno it will most likely be 1.0.0

Wow whole new terrain for me there. Had to install Java on my Ubuntu machine and enable API in cgminer. But i did manage to get the info.

Code:

[ID] => BAJ0
[GetInfo] => 
DEVICE: BitFORCE SC0x0a
FIRMWARE: 1.0.00x0a
MINIG SPEED: 5.22 GH/s0x0a
PROCESSOR 3: 13 engines @ 192 MHz0x0a
PROCESSOR 7: 15 engines @ 183 MHz0x0a
ENGINES: 280x0a
FREQUENCY: 189 MHz0x0a
XLINK MODE: MASTER0x0a
CRITICAL TEMPERATURE: 00x0a
XLINK PRESENT: NO0x0a
OK0x0a
0x00

(added some BR to make it readable)

So if im not mistaken my Jala has 2 full processors, but one is of better quality than the other?

Does that work with cgminer?
It says 1.0.0 but the GetInfo output contains 1.2.x information.
I hope it really is acting like a 1.0.0 otherwise you'll get errors galore with the work queue replies.