- One String - a novel bitfury miner design -

[cscape]

A tiny NXP ARM, LPC11U24FHI33/301.

Note that the design is not dependent on the exact type of microcontroller. As long as it has a built-in USB interface, some I/O pins, and a few kB of RAM, it can be used in the design. We picked the LPC because we had already used it on the bi*fury.

[1713506083]

1713506083

[1713506083]

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[bclcjunkie]

neat and amazing job... are you guys planning to do the same for the latest avalon chips?

[cscape]

I don't think Avalon chips have a String feature.

[Felipeo]

I really like this design

[intron]

I really like this design

You can have it:-)

[Dexter770221]

It can be done with any chips, but requires extra components (opamp + mosfet)

[rupy]

So when will we see this hitting the streets?

[ninjaboon]

now get this to hash scrypt!....nice design.

[intron]

now get this to hash scrypt!....nice design.

Hand me some chips, we'll make you a miner:)

[aauer1]

Good job guys. I really like new design ideas!

[allinvain]

This is the kind of design you need for a massive yet more cost effective mining farm. If had a bunch of bitfury chip reels guess what I'd be doing....

Congrats to intro and team for innovative board designs.

[vs3]

Intron - Is this design based on the same idea that Tytus had:

2. 8-chip cards that were supposed to give more hashrate per chip using the same 30Amp power regulator, this design failed !!! the new PCB was designed as 2 layers and it generates too much noise to connect 2 h-cards in one bank ... so we can use such cards only in the last position of the bank.
3. provisional 5V string designs [no power regulator], this is a very promising design, chips run very clean and fast, but require cooling. If this is not provided or if it fails, chips heat up, leakage increases, chips consume more power and heat up more and melt and burn finally http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300314.JPG, http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300316.JPG ... the chips don't have any thermal sensors so I am still thinking how to detect such problems using the hardware we have.

(in case the images above don't work here are the two images again: http://imgur.com/D7yH26n and http://imgur.com/gqVOtA5 )

and where you later commented that it was an experiment that went out of control -

What's that pic ... the new boards?

and what's that pic ? ^^

http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300314.JPG

It's an experiment that went a bit out of control.
The latest scientific explanation I heard is that
"the boards don't like women." Not really sure
about that though:)

intron

So basically - is it the same design? If so - what has been done (and was there anything done) to avoid the same outcome as tytus' ?

And just out of curiosity - are you guys going to be publishing the design schematics?

[klondike_bar]

Intron - Is this design based on the same idea that Tytus had:

2. 8-chip cards that were supposed to give more hashrate per chip using the same 30Amp power regulator, this design failed !!! the new PCB was designed as 2 layers and it generates too much noise to connect 2 h-cards in one bank ... so we can use such cards only in the last position of the bank.
3. provisional 5V string designs [no power regulator], this is a very promising design, chips run very clean and fast, but require cooling. If this is not provided or if it fails, chips heat up, leakage increases, chips consume more power and heat up more and melt and burn finally http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300314.JPG, http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300316.JPG ... the chips don't have any thermal sensors so I am still thinking how to detect such problems using the hardware we have.

(in case the images above don't work here are the two images again: http://imgur.com/D7yH26n and http://imgur.com/gqVOtA5 )

and where you later commented that it was an experiment that went out of control -

What's that pic ... the new boards?

and what's that pic ? ^^

http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300314.JPG

It's an experiment that went a bit out of control.
The latest scientific explanation I heard is that
"the boards don't like women." Not really sure
about that though:)

intron

So basically - is it the same design? If so - what has been done (and was there anything done) to avoid the same outcome as tytus' ?

And just out of curiosity - are you guys going to be publishing the design schematics?

this was my concern too, but intron's design has its own controller, so perhaps (hopefully) it is capable of detecting a lost chip and acting (restart the mining process or turn off) so that we dont see a bunch of home fires and molten PCBs

[vs3]

Intron - Is this design based on the same idea that Tytus had:

2. 8-chip cards that were supposed to give more hashrate per chip using the same 30Amp power regulator, this design failed !!! the new PCB was designed as 2 layers and it generates too much noise to connect 2 h-cards in one bank ... so we can use such cards only in the last position of the bank.
3. provisional 5V string designs [no power regulator], this is a very promising design, chips run very clean and fast, but require cooling. If this is not provided or if it fails, chips heat up, leakage increases, chips consume more power and heat up more and melt and burn finally http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300314.JPG, http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300316.JPG ... the chips don't have any thermal sensors so I am still thinking how to detect such problems using the hardware we have.

(in case the images above don't work here are the two images again: http://imgur.com/D7yH26n and http://imgur.com/gqVOtA5 )

and where you later commented that it was an experiment that went out of control -

What's that pic ... the new boards?

and what's that pic ? ^^

http://150.254.111.246/img/S7300314.JPG

It's an experiment that went a bit out of control.
The latest scientific explanation I heard is that
"the boards don't like women." Not really sure
about that though:)

intron

So basically - is it the same design? If so - what has been done (and was there anything done) to avoid the same outcome as tytus' ?

And just out of curiosity - are you guys going to be publishing the design schematics?

this was my concern too, but intron's design has its own controller, so perhaps (hopefully) it is capable of detecting a lost chip and acting (restart the mining process or turn off) so that we dont see a bunch of home fires and molten PCBs

The microcontroller is pretty much irrelevant for that issue.

The issue that Tytus had is the same one that you get with any Christmas lights string - if one light shorts the rest get some extra voltage. If two short, the remaining lights get even more overpowered. And it gets worse and worse even faster until they all melt and/or the fuse blows.
Or if one light burns - they all die.

In tytus' case he was getting the first option - when chips overheat they tend to use more power and then they start overheating even further even faster until they hit the limit and the melting point. At which point you get either a short in one of the chips (and then everything dies very quickly), or the chip cuts the string and again everything dies. Actually my preference would be for the second option - at least the rest of the chips may survive
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) bitfury's chip has a very solid design, and it's much easier to melt the silicon inside than to burn all of those power wires.

Bitfury said at some point that he gave up on that design (quoting various reasons) but as time goes people may have found a workaround - and if that's the case - lots of respect for intron and co!

And I guess that's the root of my question - is it some novel approach?

[intron]

We have three One String boards hashing now,
looks like performance is rock solid.

Board temperature well below 45 oC. Hottest
ASIC about 70 oC.




intron

PS: The little blip in the green trace was
cgminer going down and needed restarting:)

[Trongersoll]

Ok, so the selling point on these isn't so much the hashrate as the lower cost of the power supply? You are losing me there. can you give an example of a typical power supply used and a lower cost alternative? I'm not sure what we are talking about.

[cscape]

This design uses 12V to power the chips directly. Other designs, such as the H-CARD have an on-board 12V -> 0.8V power regulator with 30-50Amp capability.

In both cases, you need a 12V supply, but for our new board, you avoid the additional cost of the 0.8V regulator. Also, the 0.8V regulator is typically only about 90% efficient, so it creates 10% more heat for the same hashrate. The powerful switching regulator also produces lots of electrical interference that can degrade reliability of the overall system, and requires additional components (capacitors/inductors) to help reduce the noise.

[Trongersoll]

This design uses 12V to power the chips directly. Other designs, such as the H-CARD have an on-board 12V -> 0.8V power regulator with 30-50Amp capability.

In both cases, you need a 12V supply, but for our new board, you avoid the additional cost of the 0.8V regulator.

Oh, so the cost savings is in the parts list, not the actual power supply. The only reason i asked is that i'm getting tired of miners requiring ATX power supplies. Unless you get a modular one you have to deal with a bunch of unneeded cables. also they take up more room than a power brick. Unless you use some sort of case to put your miner in, your work space can become quite messy/unwieldy. This is one of the reasons i won't buy ASICminer Cubes, 1-2 Cubes per powersupply can make for a lot of power supplies laying around. I'm a Hobbyist.

[acidfox]

But this design has a very big disadvantage. If the first chip in the series connection got damaged the other chips doesnt work anymore, too.

[cscape]

But this design has a very big disadvantage. If the first chip in the series connection got damaged the other chips doesnt work anymore, too.

That depends on the exact nature of the damage. If the hashing core is damaged (which makes up the biggest part of the chip), the chip may still provide a working connection to the other chips.

It's not much different than low-voltage bitfury designs, such as the H-CARD. In those designs the communication between the chips also forms a chain. Actually, the M-BOARD has 4 H-CARDS with total of 64 chips in each chain.