************** UPDATE JUNE 2/2018 ********************
The website and initial downloads are now available at:
www.zetheron.comPLEASE REALIZE THAT TO ACHIEVE THE FULL ADVERTISED HASH RATES REQUIRES EXTENSIVE MODIFICATIONS TO THE STOCK VCU1525 BOARD, as described here:
http://zetheron.com/index.php/hardware-modifications/If you are interested in exploring FPGA mining, it is strongly recommended that you reach each page on the website in detail.
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People asked me to make a new thread on this topic, so here it is.
Here are some pics and video of my 8 x Xilinx VCU1525 rig. Each VCU1525 card has one Xilinx VU9P Virtex Ultrascale+ FPGA. Hash rate for the whole rig combined is:
Keccak (Smartcash, Maxcoin): 136GH/s (17GH/s per card x eight) ($160/day at Apr-30 prices)
Tribus (Denarius, Virtus): 16.8GH/s (2.1GH/s per card x eight) ($304/day at Apr-30 prices)
Phi1612 (Luxcoin, Folm): 5.2GH/s (650MH/s per card x eight) ($456/day at Apr-30 prices)
Skunhash (Various coins): 10.4GH/s (1.3GH/s per card x eight) ($261/day at Apr-30 prices)
Those yield around US$20-$57 per card per day ($160-$456 per day for the rig). Each VCU1525 card costs $4000, or $32K for the whole rig. At $160-$456 per day, ROI is 70-200 days depending on the algorithm. I'm not the only one mining with these cards. Apparently some guy in Germany is getting 64KH/s with Cryptonight-V7 on the same VCU1525's, earning him over $100 per day per card or $800+ per day for a whole rig.
*********** UPDATE JUNE 2/2018: The 64KH/s hash rate is mostly likely fake. GPU_Hoarder has achieved 22KH/s which is the true hash rate for CN7*************
Next up on my implementation list is SHA-224 and Neoscrypt. I am also developing for the Bittware XUPP3R-VU9P which is an almost identical board as the VCU1525. I'm planning on releasing the first bitstreams (FPGA config files) to the public May 30 with an embedded 4% development fee. If you are interested in acquiring hardware, contact
jason.harvey@avnet.com for the VCU1525, or Christian Robichaud of Bittware, for the Bittware XUPP3R-VU9P (
crobichaud@bittware.com). Tell them you were referred by Zetheron Technology and you want the cards for crypto-mining and they can expedite the lead time, which is currently around 4 weeks. The intro price (at Avnet) on the VCU1525 is $3995 USD, but it will be going up to around $5K in July. The Bittware XUPP3R-VU9P crypto version is $5895 USD, and has two advantages over the VCU1525: (1) it has four QSFP28 100G ports so you can daisy chain 4 FPGA's together to mine Xevan at 162MH/s, and (2) it has flexible memory options, so you can install either DDR4 or QDRII+ SRAM; the QDR memory gives way faster hash rates on Equihash vs. DDR4. I've been in communication with many members of this forum who are already organizing a group buy.
***************** JUNE 2/2018: The above information is superseded by information posted on the Hardware page at
www.zetheron.com *****
Pics:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Oh8VV0CDi-R6ls4Up9n7uJk5_gVp5OK2https://drive.google.com/open?id=11NQoU-R08u9kJkJIMTleqe2wTaTj2jw25 second video to hear the noise level:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PYJ1Ht7r3s9zmMisEIpsngbW7C9EIENlYou'll notice the blue USB cables from the riser cards are *not* plugged into the motherboard. The risers are only used to power the FPGA cards. The black USB cables plug directly into the FPGA cards and directly into motherboard USB slots. To get enough full bandwidth USB slots I have added an extra 4xUSB3-to-PCIe adapter card. The whole rig is powered by a single Rosewill Hercules 1600W supply, each card burns 100-160W depending on the algorithm. Any decent mining motherboard will work, the load on the CPU is very low. Any GPU rig can be immediately converted to FPGA by swapping out the GPU cards and replacing them with FPGA cards and performing the USB cable adjustment as I described. Personally I am hoping to sell my 48 GPU's and replace them all with FPGA's but I have been so busy with the FPGA programming I haven't had time yet.
I am also releasing bitstreams for the Avnet KU040 FPGA board and the Nexys Video FPGA board, although due to the small size of those FPGA's they can only mine a couple of algorithms profitably, and if you are serious I suggest a VU9P board. If you are skeptical then I suggest just waiting until someone else you know has an FPGA rig up and running and you can make a decision then. Keep in mind these chips are fully reprogrammable and can mine any algorithm. A lot people are mining with them in secret. I hope others follow my lead and start to release their software/bitstreams publicly. I also suggest searching non-English forums and trying to convince the others who are using these cards to publish their software.
Once the community has switched over to high end FPGA's, crypto as a whole will be far more ASIC resistant, because developing an ASIC will then have a poor ROI. Consider that this 8 x VCU1525 can mine Skein and Myriad-Groestl and make about $7 per card per day ($56/day for the rig); not a great profit, but that is amazing considering you are competing directly against Baikal X10's which are ASIC machines. The fact that you can still make a profit (with FPGA's) when mining directly against an ASIC shows how this technology can change the crypto landscape.
Please forgive me if I am slow to respond to PM's, I am quite busy.
