[XPM] Working on a GPU miner for Primecoin, new thread :)

[mtrlt]

New thread!

Currently the newest version is beta 2. If you are a donator with an old version, just redownload the miner from the link I sent you.

I am working on an OpenCL GPU miner for Primecoin. I fully intend to release it open-source and for free when it's ready.

Progress reports: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

When will it be released?

The closed beta is now running (since 2013-09-02), and the public release will be in a week or two. If you are a donator but didn't get the miner, whine to me and I'll send it to you!

Why should I trust you?

I am the creator of the GPU miner Reaper. I was the first person to show that GPU mining Litecoins (i.e. scrypt) is possible and also a lot more efficient than on the CPU. I've made my own GPU miners for many coins, including Bitcoin, Litecoin and Yacoin, although not all of them have been released to the public. The Primecoin GPU miner will be free and open-source.

I am also a university math student, and I have made my own implementation of the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm used by Bitcoin (and all its forks) to make transactions. From scratch. (Yes, that includes my own bignum library.) I know a lot about algebra, prime numbers and such.

Why not CUDA?

CUDA is not cross-platform. It only works on Nvidia cards, but AMD cards are the ones with the best performance. OpenCL works on all GPUs.

What operating systems will the miner support?

Windows and Linux.

How fast is the miner going to be?

Currently it's not really faster than a CPU. It'll be optimized in time, though.

Official development thread at ppcointalk: http://www.ppcointalk.org/index.php?topic=508

[mtrlt]

So, a new update. I had some problems implementing Barrett reduction, but now I only need a division algorithm and I can finally test and hopefully send the miner out.

[bidji29]

Good luck,

So, only one or two days should be enough, no?
Have you an estimate of the speed increase?

[A L I E N]

Thanks for the update and fresh thread.

[AmDD]

Cool, cant wait to see how well this works, however I kinda like being able to mine primes on my cpu and scrypt on my gpus at the same time

[mtrlt]

Good luck,

So, only one or two days should be enough, no?

Yep, but I have plans for the weekend. I'll try to get as much work done as possible before that.

Have you an estimate of the speed increase?

Not really, no.

[vinne81]

Yep, but I have plans for the weekend. I'll try to get as much work done as possible before that.

Drinking 75 BTC worth of "champageun"? :p

[Entz]

Keep up the good work (not bothered by the delays myself) 

[gigawatt]

I forgot to ask in the other thread: will the miner support multiple GPUs?
Secondly, is this a true "miner" or is it solo-mining client replacement?

[mtrlt]

will the miner support multiple GPUs?

Yes.

Secondly, is this a true "miner" or is it solo-mining client replacement?

It's a true miner, a fully standalone program.

[gigawatt]

Secondly, is this a true "miner" or is it solo-mining client replacement?

It's a true miner, a fully standalone program.

So does that mean the requirement for a pool, or simply connecting via RPC?

[ReCat]

75 BTC man. You made a KILLING.

[akspa]

Thanks for the new thread and status update. Here's to hoping we get to see a working gpu miner before September

[NickCoin]

Just saw this thread, planning to donate some, is it too late?

Also, will your miner work on Windows? I have only cgminer experience so far.

[SpaceCadet]

Why not CUDA?

CUDA is not cross-platform. It only works on Nvidia cards, but AMD cards are the ones with the best performance. OpenCL works on all GPUs.

You might want to investigate this some more.  It is very true that AMD (ATI) cards blow Nvidia cards away when doing SHA-256 or scrypt processing, but primecoin uses a VERY different 'hashing' algo.  It is possible that Nvidia may process primes just as well (probably a good topic for a separate thread - any takers?)  I'm far from an expert (or even conversant) on either architecture, but until someone investigates it, it's not fair to make such a statement based on a different problem set. 

Of course, CUDA still is not cross platform, and any miner worth his salt is using AMD cards already, so that is still a valid reason for discounting CUDA. 

[mtrlt]

You might want to investigate this some more.  It is very true that AMD (ATI) cards blow Nvidia cards away when doing SHA-256 or scrypt processing, but primecoin uses a VERY different 'hashing' algo.  It is possible that Nvidia may process primes just as well (probably a good topic for a separate thread - any takers?)  I'm far from an expert (or even conversant) on either architecture, but until someone investigates it, it's not fair to make such a statement based on a different problem set.  

Of course, CUDA still is not cross platform, and any miner worth his salt is using AMD cards already, so that is still a valid reason for discounting CUDA.  

As far as I know, Nvidia cards are faster at floating point operations, which are not used in Primecoin mining.

[Dsfyu]

Good luck,

So, only one or two days should be enough, no?

Yep, but I have plans for the weekend. I'll try to get as much work done as possible before that.

Thanks for the update. I know everyone here is glad to get an update for a highly anticipated project like this one. I can't wait to see the working version.

[mtrlt]

New update!!

The GPU primality tester works now! Finally.. Testing the first, very much unoptimized version on testnet, a HD6990 seems to be about 2x as fast as a Phenom x6 1055T. On mainnet, there's still the problem of having too few candidates left after sieving, which leads to GPU underutilization.

I'll write a better update in the morning, it's 4 AM..

[mtrlt]

I'm looking forward to sending the first version to donators this weekend. Let's see how it goes.

Also, thread is now unlocked. I'm sorry I haven't communicated better, I've hit a rough patch in my life, but it'll get better..

[jasinlee]

"Rough patch" : When the coin is no longer worth mining and he has finished crashing the market.

http://coinmarketcap.com/xpm_30.html