The Wasp Project Collective Information thread.

[Beastlymac]

To start off with I am happy to announce that dzarmush is the winner of the logo design contest. His entry can be found here. For that he wins FREE entry to the collective and one FREE share valued at $350 all up.

Introduction
The WASP miner collective (WPC) is working on designing open source hardware that can be used to run multiple different asic chips off the same device. The wasp collective strive to provide high quality design that can be adapted to any asic chip that comes out. We aim to provide a great service and a great product for the community.

The Wasp Project is an open membership collective and we are committed to Open Source Hardware and Software and we are very interested in working with chip fabricators, diy'ers / hobbyists as well as miners looking to upgrade their "ageing" and "inefficient" systems.


What are wasps and hives
The Hives (Mother Planes)

* On board USB hub with a port for each blade. Upstream port connects to linux board or box. At least one extra port for potential billboard display or local display & cooling-controller.

* On board 24-pin and 6/8 pin connectors for PC power supply (650-750W) provides 3.3, 5, and 12 V.

* Last blade connector can accept a server power supply (12V only) for higher power operation, not needed when system is tuned for low-power consumption, or when it has fewer than a full load of blades.

* 8 available connection points for the Wasps.

* Any Wasp no matter the type of the chip will work with the Hives.

* All blades driven through USB hub.

* Stand-alone hive is just a small card with sockets for power and USB.

* Hot swap.

* Linux embedded system to run cgminer/bfgminer bolts right down onto big mobo.


The Wasps (Blades)

* Wasps can slot into mother plane.

* Wasps can stand alone and be stacked FPGA style.

* Wasps are made to fit the Hive form factor.

* Wasps can be independently powered and controlled without mother plane.

Currently being worked on
The Hives (Mother Planes)

• On board USB hub with a port for each blade. Upstream port connects to linux board or box. At least one extra port for potential billboard display or local display & cooling-controller.
• On board 24-pin and 6/8 pin connectors for PC power supply (650-750W) provides 3.3, 5, and 12 V.
• Last blade connector can accept a server power supply (12V only) for higher power operation, not needed when system is tuned for low-power consumption, or when it has fewer than a full load of blades.
• 8 available connection points for the Wasps.
• Any Wasp no matter the type of the chip will work with the Hives.
• All blades driven through USB hub.
• Stand-alone hive is just a small card with sockets for power and USB.
• Hot swap will be added in 2nd or 3rd iteration of the hive.
• Linux embedded system to run cgminer/bfgminer bolts right down onto big mobo.

The Wasps (Blades)

• Wasps can slot into mother plane.
• Wasps can stand alone and be stacked FPGA style.
• Wasps are made to fit the mother plane form factor.
• Wasps can be independently powered and controlled without mother plane.
• +55nm Prototypes

55nm Prototypes

Avalon V2 Wasp (LIVE)
(55nm)

• Avalon Gen 2 Chips Available
• up to 1.6 GH/s per chip
• Bitfury wasp board should require little re-engineering for this

   

BitFury Wasp (LIVE)
(55nm)

• BitFury Chips Available end of December
• 40 Gh/s (16 chips)

28nm Production



A1 Wasp. (LIVE)

• Bitmine A1 Chips Available December
• 240 Gh/s Overclocked (6 chips); more likely, with untested chips, 200 GH/s per board
• Nominal total 2000 Gh/s, or almost 2 full backplanes (assuming that all chips are fully working AND overclockable to 40GH - not really likely, but our software can get the most possible out of them).
• Nominal likely total hashing from 50 chips (and this is all that Bitmine guarantees) is 48 x 25 = 1.2 TH on 12 boards
• Best case: 0.0180625 BTC Gh/s, or about $3 USD GH/s
• Likely case: 0.0301 BTC/GH/s, or about $5 USD GH/s

Minion Wasp. (LIVE)

• Black Arrow Minion Chips Available February
• 520 Gh/s Standard (4 chips)
• Total 2080 Gh/s

What can be expected for wasp blades?

BitFury Wasp Prototype

+  16 to 24 chips  for 300 gh/s to 440 gh/s depending on the configuration.
+  4U Server configuration
+  Design for the power on the Wasp currently being down so 3d renders for the prototype are a week away.
+  By December the prototype testing video should be out.
+  By December the prototypes shipped to a datacenter for longer term testing and troubleshooting.
+  The DIY & Licenced Production could start as early as January for these units should there be a market for them.

Avalon Gen I Wasp Prototype

+  16 to 24 chips for 50 gh/s to 75 gh/s depending on the configuration. (Gen II chips would be higher)
+  4U Server configuration.
+  Design for the power on the Wasp currently being down so 3d renders for the prototype are a week away.
+  By December the prototype testing video should be out.
+  By December the prototypes shipped to a datacenter for longer term testing and troubleshooting.
+  The DIY & Licenced Production could start as early as January for these units should there be a market for them.

A1 Wasp Prototype

+  A1 designs will be applied to the BitFury Wasp design and should take less than a week.
+  4U Server configuration
+  Design for the power on the Wasp currently being down so 3d renders for the prototype would occur in late December.
+  By Late December the prototype testing video should be out.
+  By Late December or Early January the prototypes shipped to a datacenter for longer term testing and troubleshooting.
+  The DIY & Licenced Production could start as early as January for these units.

Minion Wasp Prototype

+  Minion designs will be applied to the lessons learned from the A1 Wasp design and should take less than a week.
+  4U Server configuration
+  Design for the power on the Wasp currently being down so 3d renders for the prototype would occur in January or earlier.
+  By Late February the prototype testing video should be out.
+  By Late February or Early March the prototypes shipped to a datacenter for longer term testing and troubleshooting.
+  The DIY & Licenced Production could start as early as Late February or Early March for these units.

Want to chat with us to learn more multiple members can be reached at #WPC-public on freenode. You can also pm me or bicknellski here on the forum.

To access the channel via your web browser click HERE


Threads relating to WPC designs and information.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=325181.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=299255.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=368956.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=352956.0


*More information will come soon when I update this post*
The thread is self moderated to remove placement post's and random un needed junk. Feel free to post your view I won't delete it.
Photos and more information soon.

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[Beastlymac]

for updating with more information.

[Bicknellski]

We have locked the other threads and will be focusing our information here until we have data to share from the prototype front. While Beastly has a much deserved vacation we will continue communications for him here and we will have a website to feed the community prototype updates when and as soon as they are available. Beastly will resume the communication role in 2 weeks time. Have a great Vaca Beastly!

[thomashrev89]

nice, where can i donate?

[Bicknellski]

nice, where can i donate?

Nope, no donations required as we are covering the costs of our all projects internally. You can purchase miners to support us when fabricators take our designs and build them.

[Dabs]

I'm interested in the minion based ones, and if you have it in your pipeline, anything scrypt (like the new gridseed chips.) And of course, I'm willing to do an Asian based group buy.

[vadoff]

Just let me know when I can purchase any of them.

[tk1337]

will definitely be watching this.

[Fireblade]

How are you planning to sell the "kits"? Will it be selled by resellers across the world, or just one selling point? The initial plan was to design a platform and sell the licence to other people/companies for producing the kits. Is that plan still up? _{I am just a miner} 

[Bicknellski]

How are you planning to sell the "kits"? Will it be selled by resellers across the world, or just one selling point? The initial plan was to design a platform and sell the licence to other people/companies for producing the kits. Is that plan still up? _{I am just a miner}  

As an open source hardware design we will release it to everyone as soon as we are happy it is fully functional from software, firmware and a hardware perspective for each chip that we design into Wasps. Fabricators or end users will license their miners from us and that is how we will recoup our investment by providing a solid long term modular miner that anyone can build and upgrade. We are keen to work with fabricators large or small anywhere in the world who are interested in our designs. If you would like discuss and plan further, once we have working prototypes, feel free to contact us via PM or via our website once our working prototypes are hashing.

Of course our own members will be producing some prototypes for our own needs but the WPC itself will not likely going to be fabricating and selling units as we want to license and support as many people, cooperatives and individuals in this as possible. We feel that if we concentrate mainly on bringing more Wasp designs to the community, as new chips become available, then we can help people get miners faster, that are in stock and not have to see this ugly cycle of pre-order nightmares continue. We want to open up the market to as many people as possible with our designs.

As we have mentioned in the other threads pricing will be quite transparent and can be easily calculated by anyone willing to send out our Gerbers and BOM to a fabricator as well as getting chip prices which are widely available right from Asic chip fabricators here in this forum and on their website. We believe that our modular design will be competitive with the bigger companies in this competitive marketplace.

[drukoz]

when and how will i be able to buy any of ur products?

[Bicknellski]

when and how will i be able to buy any of ur products?

1. Build it yourself.
2. Buy from a fabricator.
3. Buy from a reseller or group buy.
4. ... time will tell maybe a chip fabricator might just use our designs and slot their chips in.

I suspect that there will be plenty of opportunity to buy these units from already established DIY type fabricators here. Or you could do like we did start a collective and pool your resources and start building these miners locally.

[drukoz]

when and how will i be able to buy any of ur products?

1. Build it yourself.
2. Buy from a fabricator.
3. Buy from a reseller or group buy.
4. ... time will tell maybe a chip fabricator might just use our designs and slot their chips in.

I suspect that there will be plenty of opportunity to buy these units from already established DIY type fabricators here. Or you could do like we did start a collective and pool your resources and start building these miners locally.

so no DIY kits out ? aww allright im really down for the A1 chips there need to be more usb miners coming out with them lolololollololololololol jk

[Bicknellski]

when and how will i be able to buy any of ur products?

1. Build it yourself.
2. Buy from a fabricator.
3. Buy from a reseller or group buy.
4. ... time will tell maybe a chip fabricator might just use our designs and slot their chips in.

I suspect that there will be plenty of opportunity to buy these units from already established DIY type fabricators here. Or you could do like we did start a collective and pool your resources and start building these miners locally.

so no DIY kits out ? aww allright im really down for the A1 chips there need to be more usb miners coming out with them lolololollololololololol jk

We won't produce DIY kits but someone might. We can do a single chip board as well 1 chip miner if you are really keen on that.

[Operatr]

Congrats  dzarmush! I was hoping mine may take home the prize but his is a good looking logo, should look mighty fine stamped on the first wasps and hives.

I hope to see a Gridseed wasp in the mix 

[Bicknellski]

If there are chips available from Gridseed... it might be in line after the Minion Wasp.

[bitpop]

I'm confused, you have your own chips and you'll use others?

[Bicknellski]

I'm confused, you have your own chips and you'll use others?

We have not made an ASIC chip (yet).

We are using / going to use the following to build our Wasp Prototypes:

A1 Coincraft: http://bitmine.ch/?page_id=863
Minion: http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/minion-asic.html
BitFury: https://megabigpower.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=33
BitMain: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=364236.0 | https://www.bitmaintech.com/about.htm

[Bicknellski]

What Are Hives and Wasps?

The world of BTC mining is a fast paced, ever changing one where one week's King of the Mountain is the next week's Court Jester, good for a laugh but little more. As companies develop increasingly powerful BTC mining ASICs, those chips are rapidly designed into boards and systems for delivery to the eagerly awaiting throngs of miners who aspire to lead the way in hashing capability, and thereby in profits. Because of the feedback built into the BTC universe, each iteration of mining hardware is only maximizing its profits in the first few weeks after its ASICs are delivered, and before the next round of faster chips reaches manufacturing and delivery.

The WPC Wasps and Hives are an attempt to ride the crest of this racing wave, by building a common basis in hardware, firmware, and software for incorporating each new hashing device as it appears, with maximum re-use of all the assets of a new ASIC's predecessors. By reducing the amount of intellectual property that must be re-engineered, WPC reduces its time-to-market for each new revision, and reduces the engineering charges on each new miner version, as well. This, along with a significant re-use of hardware components, produces a low-cost, high capability system that is worth investing resources in to ensure industrial levels of reliability, maintainability, and management in large scale deployments.

Hives and Wasps are the racks and rack-mounted servers of the PC world, trading minor cost increments for major gains in scalability, configurability, and manageability. This, along with the quick turn deployment of new ASICs, extends the lifetime and lowers the operational costs of large scale BTC mining operations based on Wasps and Hives.

[Bicknellski]

BTC Background: BTC Mining Systems, Past, Present, and Future

• Maturation from CPUs to GPUs to FPGAs to ASICs
• Evolution from individual miners to pools of miners
• The Power of Pools
• Difficulty, and its impact on large scale Mining operations

Mining Software: Directing the hordes

• Miner Software - supervising the Hordes of ASICs, for the Pools
• Miner Firmware - translating the supervisors' jobs into work the hasher hordes understand

Hashers The Crypto-Hordes: Basics of Hashing Asics

• Chips created for one purpose only - to perform the double-SHA256 hashes in BitCoin mining as fast as possible
• Chips developed on smaller and smaller geometries, to get more circuits and higher speeds at lower power
• Eventually, the fastest ASIC at the lowest power wins the race, and will dominate the field as power costs dominate the overall costs of hashing

Industrial Quality Mining Systems: Extending the lifetime of mining systems

• As all the ASICs are migrated to the most current technologies, the performance race will slow
• As the delivery of faster hashers abates, the lowest power-per-gigahash/second becomes the winner.
• As difficulty stops rising exponentially, mining systems will have longer useful lifetimes, and so must be robust  enough to last for years in continuous operation.
• As new coin types evolve, mining systems must be able to integrate multiple kinds of hashers without requiring more investment in mining, maintenance, and support hardware, software, or operational support.
• We are reaching the tipping point, where the cheaper, less robust, short lifetime implementations typical of today are giving way to higher quality, designed-to-last, re-configurable systems that won't require the operations staff to re-learn everything every few weeks.
• Hives and Wasps are designed to live a long time, and work in new modes as those modes are discovered, without taking them out of service for replacement or upgrade.

Design Goals:  Achieving disruptive innovation

• Designed for re-usability, from the most basic circuitry and firmware up
• Designed to protect the expensive hashing ASICs continuously throughout all operating regimes, with continuous monitoring and lifetime logs
• Diagnostics can be run on the hardware while it is hashing.
• Designed with high-power, high efficiency, programmable power supplies to the ASICs
• Full environmental monitoring for temperature and voltages allows the units to automatically reduce their footprints to safe operating areas when the environment changes, while still getting maximum use of the degraded environment.