[ANN] Avalon Gen. 2 Chips Group Buy

[sveetsnelda]

Best solution... modify your designs for Bitfury and avoid Avalon.

Great, but that doesn't help those who have already had PCBs manufactured.

[el_rlee]

Best solution... modify your designs for Bitfury and avoid Avalon.

Great, but that doesn't help those who have already had PCBs manufactured.

Do the new chips need a different voltage? Is it enough to change one resistor in the DC-DC converter to make an Avalon 1 board into an Avalon 2 board?

[Vl4dim1r]

I'm definitely interested. Too many unused parts laying around to count the k16 a loss yet.

A quick google search brought me to the design contest, which has links for the gen2's datasheet and reference.

http://avalon-asics.com/avalon-upload-more-55nm-asic-documents/

https://github.com/BitSyncom/Avalon2-ref/

I havn't looked over anything yet, but this should help us work out any differences from the gen1.

[Bicknellski]

Best solution... modify your designs for Bitfury and avoid Avalon.

Great, but that doesn't help those who have already had PCBs manufactured.

Cut your losses.

[sveetsnelda]

Cut your losses.

I'll make that decision once I have enough info on the v2 Avalon chips.  I've got many thousands wrapped up in this.  If there's a way for me to get more than 50 percent on my investment (which is where I'm sitting now by just scrapping the whole thing), I'll take it.

[kmtan]

i am interest also...

[Unacceptable]

IMO,Bitfury boards MAY use about 60-70% of the Avalon boards parts,just my 2 cents.You may STILL need new PCB's too,so its a lose either way 

I've asked this exact question to several GB coordinaters & this seems to be the best case scenario.

As far as I know a PCB cost what,$5 or so.So it's a small price to pay................................

Personally,I will NOT buy Avalon ever again,they DO NOT deserve "our" BTC or our funds in any way shape or form 

Good Luck with your project 

[TomKeddie]

Ryan,

Did you see this?

Cheers,
Tom

http://avalon-asics.com/apply-for-55nm-sample-chips/

You can still apply for sample chips before choosing to buy a large number. Please fill in the table here when your design is finished: http://avalon-asics.com/avalon-gen2-55nm-open-source-design-contest/. You can buy chips in stock either this website or from Avalon agents. There will be no more pre-ordering.

[TomKeddie]

Chips are being auctioned.

https://www.tradehill.com/auctions

We are pleased to announce the launch of our next auction. BitSyncom is auctioning their Avalon ASIC A3255-Q48 chips: the second generation SHA256 Processor. BitSyncom will be auctioning off 20 reels of 500 chips per reel. Each chip outputs 1.5-1.6 GH/s at a standard 0.9V, with 2.05W consumption. The minimum bid for a single reel will be 24 BTC.

For more detailed information on the A3255-Q48 mining chip, please see Avalon’s Datasheet. This product has already cleared customs and is ready to ship upon the close of the auction.

Bidders who have deposited bitcoin in their Tradehill Auction accounts may begin bidding as of Friday November 1, 2013, 1:00 PM EST. The auction will close on Tuesday November 5, 2013, 2:00 PM EST.

All bidders that have submitted identity documents since the close of the prior auction should have received a response from Tradehill Auction Support either indicating that their account has been approved or detailing additional documentation needs.
For support related to your auction account, please contact auctionsupport@tradehill.com.

For questions related to product specifications or shipping details, please contact support@avalon-asic.com.

[fasmax]

I would be interested in getting a few part to experiment with.

[ryepdx]

Alright, it looks like the Avalon generation 2 chips auction will be starting soon. I got the same email TomKeddie did. With these on the K16s, it looks like each one should produce 24 Gh/s now. However, even with the increased performance, ROI isn't looking too good. (I'm using the calculator over at http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/.)

With that said, I'm still willing to facilitate this group buy if there's interest. It does look like there is, so I've already transferred some of my own BTC over to Tradehill in preparation for the auction. Unless I hear a bunch of "nays" in the face of the released numbers, I'll be writing up a group buy agreement and posting it here in the morning. I'll also send out a PM to JohnK asking for his escrow services.

[TomKeddie]

Alright, it looks like the Avalon generation 2 chips auction will be starting soon. I got the same email TomKeddie did. With these on the K16s, it looks like each one should produce 24 Gh/s now. However, even with the increased performance, ROI isn't looking too good. (I'm using the calculator over at http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/.)

With that said, I'm still willing to facilitate this group buy if there's interest. It does look like there is, so I've already transferred some of my own BTC over to Tradehill in preparation for the auction. Unless I hear a bunch of "nays" in the face of the released numbers, I'll be writing up a group buy agreement and posting it here in the morning. I'll also send out a PM to JohnK asking for his escrow services.

Ryan,

AFAIK the PCB isn't going to be compatible, do you have someone working on a new board design?  Most of the components can be re-used.  I sent a few PMs off today too see if anything was happening.

Thanks,
Tom

[southerngentuk]

Tom beat me to it, interest is dependent on pcb. Have you got a board designer willing to take 'say the klondike' to the next level.

[el_rlee]

Alright, it looks like the Avalon generation 2 chips auction will be starting soon. I got the same email TomKeddie did. With these on the K16s, it looks like each one should produce 24 Gh/s now. However, even with the increased performance, ROI isn't looking too good. (I'm using the calculator over at http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/.)

With that said, I'm still willing to facilitate this group buy if there's interest. It does look like there is, so I've already transferred some of my own BTC over to Tradehill in preparation for the auction. Unless I hear a bunch of "nays" in the face of the released numbers, I'll be writing up a group buy agreement and posting it here in the morning. I'll also send out a PM to JohnK asking for his escrow services.

Ryan,

AFAIK the PCB isn't going to be compatible, do you have someone working on a new board design?  Most of the components can be re-used.  I sent a few PMs off today too see if anything was happening.

Thanks,
Tom

Isn't it just the setting of the DC-DC converter which is different, i.e. one resistor? Maybe too naive thinking of me...

[TomKeddie]

Isn't it just the setting of the DC-DC converter which is different, i.e. one resistor? Maybe too naive thinking of me...

I haven't look into it myself.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.msg3453235#msg3453235

There's still a lot of components to rescue though perhaps?  New PCB, a few resistors to set the voltage and a different oscillator?

From glancing at it, it looked like the comms protocol was similar but I might be wrong.

The real problem is that the rapid growth in the network makes anything like this too risky.  It will be interesting to see what happens to this auction.

Yes it seems to be identical (at least timing is and anything else can be changed in firmware).
So basically only Avalon footprint (pinout) has to be changed (so small modifications to the board around ASICs), then you will have to replace the oscillator for 25MHz one and power regs for PLL (because 55nm Avalon now uses 1.0 instead of 1.2V).
Core voltage is now 0.9V, but since IR3895 can go as low as 0.5V output, no problem with that (you will only change one/two resistors as you're saying).
I'm planning to modify the project, but I'm probably not going to build one (maybe just one board if I'll be able to get a few chips from somewhere - and it wont be an auction).

[ryepdx]

Thanks for the heads-up, TomKeddie and southerngentuk. As time is at a premium for me just now, I'm going to hold off on drafting a formal group buy agreement until I get some insight into the viability of creating new PCBs for the generation 2 chips. It doesn't sound like it'd take much alteration, but I could be wrong.

[TomKeddie]

Thanks for the heads-up, TomKeddie and southerngentuk. As time is at a premium for me just now, I'm going to hold off on drafting a formal group buy agreement until I get some insight into the viability of creating new PCBs for the generation 2 chips. It doesn't sound like it'd take much alteration, but I could be wrong.

There are no bids yet for this product.

Unsurprisingly there doesn't seem to be a huge demand for these chips.  There isn't much point to an auction when the starting price is the price you expect for something.  Will be more interesting if these come back onto the market at bargain prices.

[el_rlee]

Auctioning them on Tradehill with all the verification seams like a bad idea to me

[hephaist0s]

Any word on this?

[TomKeddie]

tradehill.com

There are no bids yet for this product.

I think these chips will be back on the market super cheap soon.