BFL board project COINTAMINATION - EU facility - ORDERS OPENED for Chili

[nexus99]

For those of us that have chips from other sources will we be able to purchase boards and chip mounting services?

[Lucko]

For those of us that have chips from other sources will we be able to purchase boards and chip mounting services?

Yes...

Interested. So potentially we are looking at for 16 chip setup

16 x $55 + $~200 = $1080 for 64GH/s ?

Whats the most optimistic timeline that you see you will be shipping?

Board 300$ for 16 chips...

If we are talking board alone end of the month but if you are talking fully made board with chips and you didn't bought them till now I guess 120 days...

And we think that we can get more then just 4GH out of the chip with our firmware. But we can't test it since samples are poor quality chips that are not even D grade... But we got on average 3,6GH out of them...

And just in case you don't know:
Chips are sold in mixed grade lots.

  A grade has 16 engines, 60%

  B grade has 15 engines, 20%

  C grade has 14 engines, 15%

  D grade has 12 engines.   5%

  All chips run at a minimum of 250 mhz.

  Higher grade chips will run up to 294 mhz.

[GrapeApe]

And just in case you don't know:
Chips are sold in mixed grade lots.

  A grade has 16 engines, 60%

  B grade has 15 engines, 20%

  C grade has 14 engines, 15%

  D grade has 12 engines.   5%

  All chips run at a minimum of 250 mhz.

  Higher grade chips will run up to 294 mhz.

Well I guess that brings up a couple of questions.

1: Will the chips be labelled or do you have to test them to know what grade they are?

2: If the grade of the chips is known then do you divide them up to everyone using that same strategy, for example if someone bought 10 chips would they get 6 A grade, 2 B grade , 1 C grade  and 1 D grade?

I hope I don't sound petty here I am really just curious. I just learned they had grades when the discussion came up about the sample chips. I've got 16 chips coming that I plan to mount on 1 board and I will be happy if it hashes anywhere between 60GH/s and 70GH/s.

edit; I guess I should say anything over 60GH/s no reason to stop you at 70GH/s.

Also if it's luck of the draw I'm okay with that as well.

[Bogart]

 All chips run at a minimum of 250 mhz.

  Higher grade chips will run up to 294 mhz.

Interesting.

Is there any possibility to set the clockspeed of each chip on the board individually (like my ztex quad fpga boards do), or do they all need to run in lockstep, as it were?

[Lucko]

Well I guess that brings up a couple of questions.

1: Will the chips be labelled or do you have to test them to know what grade they are?

2: If the grade of the chips is known then do you divide them up to everyone using that same strategy, for example if someone bought 10 chips would they get 6 A grade, 2 B grade , 1 C grade  and 1 D grade?

I hope I don't sound petty here I am really just curious. I just learned they had grades when the discussion came up about the sample chips. I've got 16 chips coming that I plan to mount on 1 board and I will be happy if it hashes anywhere between 60GH/s and 70GH/s.

edit; I guess I should say anything over 60GH/s no reason to stop you at 70GH/s.

Also if it's luck of the draw I'm okay with that as well.

Not marked it is luck of the draw. And they are hard to test. Once on board you will have hard time removing them. It is possible to make a test socket with springs but it would be expansive and hard...

  All chips run at a minimum of 250 mhz.

  Higher grade chips will run up to 294 mhz.

Interesting.

Is there any possibility to set the clockspeed of each chip on the board individually (like my ztex quad fpga boards do), or do they all need to run in lockstep, as it were?

Yes every chip is clocked individually...

[GrapeApe]

Not marked it is luck of the draw. And they are hard to test. Once on board you will have hard time removing them. It is possible to make a test socket with springs but it would be expansive and hard...

I'm okay with that, luck of the draw it is then.

[joeventura]

Not marked it is luck of the draw. And they are hard to test. Once on board you will have hard time removing them. It is possible to make a test socket with springs but it would be expansive and hard...

I'm okay with that, luck of the draw it is then.

Its a shame the chips are of such an inferior quality but that is par for the course.

They do sell FPGA sockets, binning the chips would be good for everyone

[Lucko]

Not marked it is luck of the draw. And they are hard to test. Once on board you will have hard time removing them. It is possible to make a test socket with springs but it would be expansive and hard...

I'm okay with that, luck of the draw it is then.

Its a shame the chips are of such an inferior quality but that is par for the course.

They do sell FPGA sockets, binning the chips would be good for everyone

Well samples are. No idea about  real chips... They advertised them differently... I hope for the best...

I don't see why binning them would be good. Every chip has his own frequency and even if only one engine is working that is one engine more then without chip... And even samples are not that catastrophic...

[MikeMike]

Not marked it is luck of the draw. And they are hard to test. Once on board you will have hard time removing them. It is possible to make a test socket with springs but it would be expansive and hard...

I'm okay with that, luck of the draw it is then.

Its a shame the chips are of such an inferior quality but that is par for the course.

They do sell FPGA sockets, binning the chips would be good for everyone

Well samples are. No idea about  real chips... They advertised them differently... I hope for the best...

I don't see why binning them would be good. Every chip has his own frequency and even if only one engine is working that is one engine more then without chip... And even samples are not that catastrophic...

From BFL Website:

Considerations:


    Chip grades:  Chips come in four grades of performance.  Chips are sold in mixed grade lots.  A grade has 16 engines, B grade has 15 engines, C grade has 14 engines and D grade has no less than 12 engines.  All chips run at a minimum of 250 mhz.  Higher grade chips will run up to 294mhz.  The percentage distribution in each lot is 60% Grade A, 20% Grade B, 15% Grade C and 5% Grade D.

https://products.butterflylabs.com/65nm-asic-bitcoin-mining-chip.html

[form]

Good news everyone.
The board design is ready and we clarify the prices for boards and assembly now.

Changes since rev. 1.0 (COINADO):
- New name: COINTAMINATION
- New size: 189.23 x 144.78 mm
- 4-layer PCB for better power-distribution
- Up to 16 BFL-chips can be mounted in 4x4 clusters. (because of heatsink-balance it is not possible to mount a single chip in one cluster, but 2-4 chips per cluster works)
- Each cluster will have one heatsink and a dedicated fan-connector. (plus one main-fan-connector - we try with passive heatsinks and one central fan first)
- Multiple mounting holes for central fan (for 92 and 120 mm fan)
- Now four power-modules (each for every cluster, with independent adjustable voltages and a better sensing-system now)
- USB-Connector changed to "Mini-USB type B"
- two PCIe power-connectors (for up to 8 chips one of them is sufficient)
- Power- and USB-Connectors are now accessible from one side
- Firmware is still BFL-compatible. You can use their software or a tuned version from any open-source project. (There will be many sometime)


http://my.root4u.de/board3.png

[chanberg]

wow looks good...

Price still around 300 per board?

[Mudbankkeith]

If the mined bitcoins are worth more than the electricity used to produce them, then all the chips are good.
The problem comes when the difficulty factor starts to eat into your profits.
Lower quality chips, with a lower hashing rate, still need the electricity, so they will have a shorter viable life.
I suspect this is why BFL have a +10/-10% tolerance on their miners.(it saves them having to reject 5% of their chips at "grade D",(quite a big difference to their profits))
If you get a -10% board its part of the bitcoin lottery.
Towards the end of life for these miners there may be an advantage in disabling the lowest performing chips to save electricity costs.(someone will now tell me otherwise!!!!!!)

[peonminer]

As far as FrankenJala's go, any idea on pricing for your team to mount the chips? Like a per chip price? Or??? If you have no idea yet, no biggie. It'll be another 2 months until my Jala is here anyway. I am loving the EXPRESS TRAIN that the COINTAMINATION has jumped on

[Mudbankkeith]

Good news everyone.
The board design is ready and we clarify the prices for boards and assembly now.

Changes since rev. 1.0 (COINADO):
- New name: COINTAMINATION
- New size: 189.23 x 144.78 mm
- 4-layer PCB for better power-distribution
- Up to 16 BFL-chips can be mounted in 4x4 clusters. (because of heatsink-balance it is not possible to mount a single chip in one cluster, but 2-4 chips per cluster works)
- Each cluster will have one heatsink and a dedicated fan-connector. (plus one main-fan-connector - we try with passive heatsinks and one central fan first)
- Multiple mounting holes for central fan (for 92 and 120 mm fan)
- Now four power-modules (each for every cluster, with independent adjustable voltages and a better sensing-system now)
- USB-Connector changed to "Mini-USB type B"
- two PCIe power-connectors (for up to 8 chips one of them is sufficient)
- Power- and USB-Connectors are now accessible from one side
- Firmware is still BFL-compatible. You can use their software or a tuned version from any open-source project. (There will be many sometime)

I Need this board!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will the power still be in the range 110 watts per connector/ 8 chips?
I see you have only one B type usb. So no daisy chain, for multiples we will need a hub, will it need to be powered?

Here's a challenge. Asic blades have an ethernet connector and an onboard host so no need for a PC
Can this be made as an accessory for these units, or is the solution something like a Pi, or even a nexus?

If the Pi is a solution how many Gh/s can it handle?

[Mudbankkeith]

Hi Form

What do you expect the 16 chip hash rate to be?
It looks like you have produced a 3rd generation device BEFORE the second generation have started to ship.

Bring on the chips I ca'nt wait.....

[form]

Will the power still be in the range 110 watts per connector/ 8 chips?

Yes something like this.

I see you have only one B type usb. So no daisy chain, for multiples we will need a hub, will it need to be powered?

No powered hub is neccessary. The boards get power via the PCIe connectors.

Here's a challenge. Asic blades have an ethernet connector and an onboard host so no need for a PC
Can this be made as an accessory for these units, or is the solution something like a Pi, or even a nexus?

An onboard CPU with ethernet etc. would drive up the cost per board. I think even more than a RasPi costs. That calculation gets even worse when you want to run multiple boards.

If the Pi is a solution how many Gh/s can it handle?

I heard it has no problem with a terrahash minirig.

What do you expect the 16 chip hash rate to be?

It should be 16 times the performance of one chip

[Lucko]

Nice! With time left on the clock. Thanks form! This is the way to do it. Overdeliver...

Can this be made as an accessory for these units, or is the solution something like a Pi, or even a nexus?

If you are referring to BFL android platform it will probably work... It is still detected as BAJ device...

[asjfdlksfd]

Hi,

is there selling boards with full soldered parts but without BFL chips possible to order?
I'll like to solder the chips by myself if they arrives. Some samples are allready waiting for soldering

How can I order 6 to 12 boards and when will they arrive to germany if I will order tomorrow

Are boards without chips pre-tested?

Cheers...

[Mudbankkeith]

Hi Lucko

COINTAMINATION


I notice from your posts you are estimating 20 days from chip arrival to mount the boards.

I will need 2 "full" boards for certain for my batch 2 chips 17th July +120 days

I will need 2 "full" boards for certain for my batch 3 chips 14th August +120 days

The unknown at the moment is my BFL little single.

If this arrives before the batch 2 chips,( 27th October?) I need to decide on upgrade or not to upgrade.
(some guidance may be required as to the cost of this)

If it does not arrive by then( 27th October?) my question is:-
When would I need to confirm a "half" board to meet with the remainder of my batch 2 chips?

Maybe I'm asking this to soon. You are still to announce your board costs.

Its possible that when your batch 1 chips arrive, and you have better chips, the "COINTAMINATION"
may leave the BFL's out in the cold with regard to Hashing rates.

[form]

is there selling boards with full soldered parts but without BFL chips possible to order?
I'll like to solder the chips by myself if they arrives. Some samples are allready waiting for soldering

That would be difficult. How do you want to solder your chips when the rest of the components are already soldered?
When you do some hotair or reflow, the other components will maybe fell off. (There are components from both sides)

Are boards without chips pre-tested?

All boards are being e-checked via flying probe testing before assembly.

Maybe there is an option you can send your chips in, to get them assembled to the boards. Lucko has to answer that.