[ANN][BLC] Blakecoin Blake-256 for GPU/FPGA With Merged Mined Pools Stable Net

[BlueDragon747]

FPGA = awesome.

Will it work with the X6500s?

I have 3 of them laying around.

https://github.com/kramble/x6500-miner

Ahh, thank you!

Off to mine some Blakecoin!

not sure which is the best bitstream though 
https://github.com/kramble/FPGA-Blakecoin-Miner/tree/master/experimental

[1714055675]

1714055675

[Jude Austin]

Ok, getting it programmed just fine:

Code:

2014-02-01 17:02:46 | Opening bitstream file: X6500-Robust-v04-2core-fmax-100MHz
.bit
2014-02-01 17:02:46 | Bitstream file opened:
2014-02-01 17:02:46 |  Design Name: blakeminer_top_routed.ncd;UserID=0x42240402
2014-02-01 17:02:46 |  Firmware: rev 4, build: 2
2014-02-01 17:02:46 |  Part Name: 6slx150fgg484
2014-02-01 17:02:46 |  Date: 2013/10/29
2014-02-01 17:02:46 |  Time: 17:31:23
2014-02-01 17:02:46 |  Bitstream Length: 4220212
2014-02-01 17:02:46 | Device 0 opened (A5VOPER6)
2014-02-01 17:02:46 | Connected to 2 FPGAs
2014-02-01 17:02:46 | Pre-processing bitstream for chain = 2...
2014-02-01 17:06:16 | Pre-processed bitstream in 210.252000 seconds
2014-02-01 17:06:16 | Saving pre-processed bitstream...
2014-02-01 17:06:17 | Saved pre-processed bitstream in 0.165000 seconds
2014-02-01 17:06:17 | Beginning programming...
2014-02-01 17:06:17 | Programming both FPGAs...
Completed: 100.0% [67 kB/s] [0s remaining]

But when I run  mine.py I get:

Code:

Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\Users\block_000\Desktop\x6500-miner-master\x6500-miner-master\Console
Logger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

Hmm.

[BlueDragon747]

But when I run  mine.py I get:

Code:

Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\Users\block_000\Desktop\x6500-miner-master\x6500-miner-master\Console
Logger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

Hmm.

I have not used this one yet

did you try to pass in a device number?

-d DEVICENUM, --devicenum=DEVICENUM
                        Device number, optional. If left out, the first available
                        device will be opened.

did you try to comment out that line as it is just a loger? does it repeat in other functions/lines?

[Jude Austin]

But when I run  mine.py I get:

Code:

Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\Users\block_000\Desktop\x6500-miner-master\x6500-miner-master\Console
Logger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

Hmm.

I have not used this one yet

did you try to pass in a device number?

-d DEVICENUM, --devicenum=DEVICENUM
                        Device number, optional. If left out, the first available
                        device will be opened.

did you try to comment out that line as it is just a loger? does it repeat in other functions/lines?

Yeah, I did.

I think I have something wrong.

When the programming part stops it just hangs, I can't even end the task, tells me permission denied.

I think that might have something to do with it.

I need to setup a linux box to do this on, this shit is no fun on Windows.

[BlueDragon747]

But when I run  mine.py I get:

Code:

Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\Users\block_000\Desktop\x6500-miner-master\x6500-miner-master\Console
Logger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

Hmm.

I have not used this one yet

did you try to pass in a device number?

-d DEVICENUM, --devicenum=DEVICENUM
                        Device number, optional. If left out, the first available
                        device will be opened.

did you try to comment out that line as it is just a loger? does it repeat in other functions/lines?

Yeah, I did.

I think I have something wrong.

When the programming part stops it just hangs, I can't even end the task, tells me permission denied.

I think that might have something to do with it.

I need to setup a linux box to do this on, this shit is no fun on Windows.

I noticed this and is missing from mine.py:
https://github.com/kramble/x6500-miner/blob/master/program.py#L44 was at line 181 Doh!

[Jude Austin]

But when I run  mine.py I get:

Code:

Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\Users\block_000\Desktop\x6500-miner-master\x6500-miner-master\Console
Logger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

Hmm.

I have not used this one yet

did you try to pass in a device number?

-d DEVICENUM, --devicenum=DEVICENUM
                        Device number, optional. If left out, the first available
                        device will be opened.

did you try to comment out that line as it is just a loger? does it repeat in other functions/lines?

Yeah, I did.

I think I have something wrong.

When the programming part stops it just hangs, I can't even end the task, tells me permission denied.

I think that might have something to do with it.

I need to setup a linux box to do this on, this shit is no fun on Windows.

I noticed this and is missing from mine.py:
https://github.com/kramble/x6500-miner/blob/master/program.py#L44

What are you trying to say?

lol

[BlueDragon747]

What are you trying to say?

lol

nvm I found it at 181

seems to open the port and get device number in program.py though

[BlueDragon747]

I got the x6500-miner to load and run the new code.  No rejects, which might be a problem, or blocks so far.  I'll un-comment the debug output and try get an idea if it is working.

I also managed to get MPBM to load the bitstream, point the source to the BLC client (reported correct info such as current diff), and report the blockchain info.  Unfortunately, after what seems like the start of mining, it crashes with a proxy error (I'll rerun it and post the error).

I put the test against network target back in, so it will only submit shares at the block winning difficulty (one in 6526 right now). You can submit all shares by uncommenting line 104 of mine.py. This is probably a good idea, at least until its proven to successfully find a block. To print the hash just uncomment lines 88,89 (also a good idea to check its generating valid hashes).

I haven't made the time to investigate MPBM yet. I just did the quick blake hack, but it won't run properly for me (even without the hack).

A fixed 100MHz clock bitstream is now at https://www.dropbox.com/s/3xkuo97m154v24x/X6500-StaticClock-v01-2core-100MHz.bit - it was an 8 hour build overnight. Overclock won't do anything on this build as I took that code out. I'll do faster (or slower if it doesn't work) versions later, but right now I've got a ztex 1.15y version to build  

OK, the initial ztex test build is up at at https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8tare3wqy5zolb/ztex_ufm1_15y1-v01-1core-80MHz.bit

Its just a single core and clocks at 80MHz (the input clock is 160MHz, I just halve it internally), but it will do for a start. It probably won't work, but as a shot in the dark it may be worth a try. I've done a modified version of MPBM for Blake at https://github.com/kramble/Modular-Python-Bitcoin-Miner/tree/master (NB this is the master branch, the default is Testing if you go there from the root of my github, so you'll need to select Master from the branch drop-down). It runs but the web interface is all messed up on my browser so its a bit awkward. You'll need to disable the default bitcoin pools and add your own blakecoind instead. Unfortunately with diff so high you won't be finding a block any time soon, but the stats will at least show if its hashing.

I'm currently looking at cgminer. The Blake version a few pages back upthread won't work for fpga as the blake code is inserted in the GPU Scrypt driver, but I'll have a poke around with it and see if I can move it somewhere useful. It was a bit of a pain just getting it to build on linux as the zip file was already configured for mingw so I had to start from the official github and just copy over the changed files. These "professional" C/C++ code distrubutions are still somewhat of a mystery to me, eg how would I go about adding a source file to the build process? For the moment I think I'll follow the lead of the hacked blake version and just #include the files directly in the existing source.

Awesome!  I'll try the new x6500 bitstream asap.

I ran "X6500-StaticClock-v01-2core-100MHz.bit" for ~12hours.  The static clock seems to work great.  Below is the result:

Code:

python mine.py -d 0 -u 127.0.0.1:8772 -w <username:password>

2013-10-31 09:32:51 | Device 0 opened (xxxxxxxx)
2013-10-31 09:32:51 | Connected to 2 FPGAs
2013-10-31 09:32:51 | FPGA 0 is running at 100MHz
2013-10-31 09:32:51 | FPGA 1 is running at 100MHz
2013-10-31 09:32:51 | Connected to server
2013-10-31 09:34:32 | 78a54dac invalid!!
2013-10-31 11:08:01 | be880bd invalid!!
2013-10-31 11:56:18 | 7ec2196e invalid!!
2013-10-31 12:18:45 | 1a1d757d invalid!!
2013-10-31 14:25:24 | 45c4fa70 invalid!!
2013-10-31 15:03:15 | 6a17ada3 invalid!!
2013-10-31 15:28:23 | 447f5e9 invalid!!
2013-10-31 15:59:54 | 78352ea invalid!!
2013-10-31 17:32:23 | 3c4347eb invalid!!
2013-10-31 18:02:31 | 1539eae5 invalid!!
2013-10-31 19:38:21 | 31d688eb invalid!!
2013-10-31 20:22:34 | 35dd20e6 invalid!!
2013-10-31 20:38:19 | 775f320e invalid!!
2013-10-31 20:52:24 | 63d15138 invalid!!
2013-10-31 21:15:11 | 35a118b6 invalid!!
2013-10-31 21:44:12 | Exiting...  

Run Summary:                    
-------------
Device: 0
Serial: xxxxxxxx
Number of FPGAs: 2
Running time: 12h11m
Getwork interval: 20 secs
FPGA 0:
  Accepted: 0
  Rejected: 0 (0.00%)
  Invalid: 7 (0.34%)
  Hashrate (all nonces): 199.47 MH/s
  Hashrate (valid nonces): 198.79 MH/s
  Hashrate (accepted shares): 0 kH/s
FPGA 1:
  Accepted: 0
  Rejected: 0 (0.00%)
  Invalid: 8 (0.41%)
  Hashrate (all nonces): 192.52 MH/s
  Hashrate (valid nonces): 191.74 MH/s
  Hashrate (accepted shares): 0 kH/s
Total hashrate for device: 392.00 MH/s / 390.53 MH/s / 0 kH/s

so it should be working right?

[Ignatius]

Ok, getting it programmed just fine:
But when I run  mine.py I get:

Code:

Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\Users\block_000\Desktop\x6500-miner-master\x6500-miner-master\Console
Logger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

Hmm.

Just spam the launch string a few more times..

Code:

C:\x6500-miner-master>"c:/python26/python.exe" mine.py -c 2 -i 5 -u 192.168.1.12:8337 -w user:x
2014-02-02 00:36:55 | Exiting...
Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\x6500-miner-master\ConsoleLogger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

C:\x6500-miner-master>"c:/python26/python.exe" mine.py -c 2 -i 5 -u 192.168.1.12:8337 -w user:x
2014-02-02 00:36:56 | Exiting...
Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\x6500-miner-master\ConsoleLogger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

C:\x6500-miner-master>"c:/python26/python.exe" mine.py -c 2 -i 5 -u 192.168.1.12:8337 -w user:x
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | Device 0 opened (AH01A6C3)
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | Connected to 2 FPGAs
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | FPGA 0 is running at 125MHz
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | FPGA 1 is running at 125MHz
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | Connected to server
2014-02-02 00:36:59 | Long-poll: connected to 192.168.1.12:8337
0 kH/s | 0/0/0 0.00%/0.00%

Otherwise, unplug the miner usb connection and plug it back in, spam the launch string.

[BlueDragon747]

Just spam the launch string a few more times..

Code:

C:\x6500-miner-master>"c:/python26/python.exe" mine.py -c 2 -i 5 -u 192.168.1.12:8337 -w user:x
2014-02-02 00:36:55 | Exiting...
Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\x6500-miner-master\ConsoleLogger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

C:\x6500-miner-master>"c:/python26/python.exe" mine.py -c 2 -i 5 -u 192.168.1.12:8337 -w user:x
2014-02-02 00:36:56 | Exiting...
Run Summary:
-------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mine.py", line 271, in <module>
    logger.printSummary(settings)
  File "C:\x6500-miner-master\ConsoleLogger.py", line 210, in printSummary
    self.say('Device: %d' % self.devicenum, True, True)
AttributeError: 'ConsoleLogger' object has no attribute 'devicenum'

C:\x6500-miner-master>"c:/python26/python.exe" mine.py -c 2 -i 5 -u 192.168.1.12:8337 -w user:x
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | Device 0 opened (AH01A6C3)
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | Connected to 2 FPGAs
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | FPGA 0 is running at 125MHz
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | FPGA 1 is running at 125MHz
2014-02-02 00:36:58 | Connected to server
2014-02-02 00:36:59 | Long-poll: connected to 192.168.1.12:8337
0 kH/s | 0/0/0 0.00%/0.00%

Otherwise, unplug the miner usb connection and plug it back in, spam the launch string.

ahh the magic touch lol 

[Jude Austin]

Ok, so I got it working but now it won't get shares from ny1.blakecoin.com:8337.

It connects, sees longpoll but then doesn't get shares.

Code:

Long-poll: connected to ny1.blakecoin.com:8337
0: Error getting work! Retrying...
1: Error getting work! Retrying...
0: Error getting work! Retrying...
1: Error getting work! Retrying...
0: Error getting work! Retrying...
1: Error getting work! Retrying...
0: Error getting work! Retrying...
1: Error getting work! Retrying...
0: Error getting work! Retrying...
1: Error getting work! Retrying...
0: Error getting work! Retrying...

Haha, I just cant win!

[mogrith]

I've not able to even get the driver running need to retrace my steps again. might move to ubuntu if no luck still trying win764 and a x6500.

works a sha256 miner with cgminer. do ineed to unload something from that?

[Jude Austin]

I've not able to even get the driver running need to retrace my steps again. might move to ubuntu if no luck still trying win764 and a x6500.

works a sha256 miner with cgminer. do ineed to unload something from that?

Let me know how it works for you on Linux.

[hamiltino]

so when scrypt/asics come out and when GPU's become redundant for scrypt mining. Do you think people will turn to blake-256?

edit: scratch that thought, the new FPGAS will take over and be an ASIC like race  all over again.

[boymok]

Blakecoin is listed on cryptocoincharts.info

http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/#jump-BLC-BTC

[BlueDragon747]

so when scrypt/asics come out and when GPU's become redundant for scrypt mining. Do you think people will turn to blake-256?

edit: scratch that thought, the new FPGAS will take over and be an ASIC like race  all over again.

GPU's will still mine Blake-256 for some time to come, FPGA don't beat GPU's for speed only power usage!

Just look at the name Asic = Application-specific integrated circuit

No algo can avoid getting an Asic if the demand is there  

That's why I have always said it is pointless to be resistant, if an Asic was done for Blake-256 due to not trying to be resistant it would be a smaller chip that is cheaper to make and uses less power yet would also have a fast hashing rate e.g. it would be faster than the current SHA-256 at the same manufacturing process

Blake-256 = Small, Fast, Simple, Power efficient  

I also like FPGA's they are re-programmable and lots of ex-SHA-256 boards about that can be reused for Blake-256  

[kramble]

Ok, so I got it working but now it won't get shares from ny1.blakecoin.com:8337.

It connects, sees longpoll but then doesn't get shares.

It was never tested against a pool. Atavacron got it working solo (in the pre-pool days), see from here to here.

To get this debugged, I suggest the first thing to check is that the FPGA is returning valid hashes. So you'll need to uncomment some of the debug output in mine.py (lines 91-102) which prints out the getwork data received from the pool, and the nonce returned from the FPGA, then plugs that into checkblake

There may be an issue with difficulty/target values, though these are now the same as bitcoin, so perhaps this is unlikely. Anyway, see how you get on with that for now.

[Aside: the X6500 port was only ever very experimental as it was done blind. Getting it to work with cgminer will be even more difficult as there was never a driver written for it, though bfgminer does have one, but that's another can of worms to either port it to cgminer or get bfgminer working with blakecoin].

[rupy]

so when scrypt/asics come out and when GPU's become redundant for scrypt mining. Do you think people will turn to blake-256?

edit: scratch that thought, the new FPGAS will take over and be an ASIC like race  all over again.

Just look at the name Asic = Application-specific integrated circuit

No algo can avoid getting an Asic if the demand is there  

That's why I have always said it is pointless to be resistant, if an Asic was done for Blake-256 due to not trying to be resistant it would be a smaller chip that is cheaper to make and uses less power yet would also have a fast hashing rate e.g. it would be faster than the current SHA-256 at the same manufacturing process

Blake-256 = Small, Fast, Simple, Power efficient  

I also like FPGA's they are re-programmable and lots of ex-SHA-256 boards about that can be reused for Blake-256  

This is where I think one should just appreciate the flexibility and power efficiency of FPGA and build a coin that modifies the hashing algo in such a fundamental way every difficulty change that it can't be made into an ASIC.

Blakecoin is a great hedge against weaknesses in SHA256, that's it really (just like any non SHA256 altcoin). But I agree that litecoin miners will probably move to any non SHA256 or scrypt mining if the price of those currencies doesn't rise as that hedge is worth something.

[BlueDragon747]

so when scrypt/asics come out and when GPU's become redundant for scrypt mining. Do you think people will turn to blake-256?

edit: scratch that thought, the new FPGAS will take over and be an ASIC like race  all over again.

Just look at the name Asic = Application-specific integrated circuit

No algo can avoid getting an Asic if the demand is there  

That's why I have always said it is pointless to be resistant, if an Asic was done for Blake-256 due to not trying to be resistant it would be a smaller chip that is cheaper to make and uses less power yet would also have a fast hashing rate e.g. it would be faster than the current SHA-256 at the same manufacturing process

Blake-256 = Small, Fast, Simple, Power efficient  

I also like FPGA's they are re-programmable and lots of ex-SHA-256 boards about that can be reused for Blake-256  

This is where I think one should just appreciate the flexibility and power efficiency of FPGA and build a coin that modifies the hashing algo in such a fundamental way every difficulty change that it can't be made into an ASIC.

Blakecoin is a great hedge against weaknesses in SHA256, that's all really (just like any altcoin).

if you mod the algo dynamically like you are saying its not going to be power efficient as you are trying to create resistance  

and if you can put it on FPGA then some part of it could be put into silicon!

not seen another coin that tries to be efficient they all follow the resistance path  

Scrypt/Skein/Keccak/and multi algo's hashes like QRK none of these look at power usage or hash/watt really  

Blake
"Advantages
Design
• simplicity of the algorithm
• interface for hashing with a salt

Performance
• fast in both software and hardware
• parallelism and throughput/area trade-off for hardware implementation
• simple speed/confidence trade-off with the tunable number of rounds

Security
• based on an intensively analyzed component (ChaCha)
• resistant to generic second-preimage attacks
• resistant to side-channel attacks
• resistant to length-extension"  
https://131002.net/blake/blake.pdf

Tuned the rounds to 8 and that is the Blake-256 algo used in Blakecoin

I took the the adequate approach to the security buffer 2²⁰⁰! which djb talks about in one of his latest talks: http://cr.yp.to/talks/2014.01.18/slides-dan+tanja-20140118-a4.pdf  <-- see page 60

[BlueDragon747]

Blakecoin is listed on cryptocoincharts.info

http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/#jump-BLC-BTC

nice this one is good too
http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/v2/pair/BLC/BTC/atomic-trade