ZTEX USB-FPGA Modules 1.15x and 1.15y: 215 and 860 MH/s FPGA Boards

[CA Coins]

Well, I have to give it to you.  If you're willing to code support for ztex on a Hackintosh, you are a better man than I am.  I also run VMware.  I notice the workstation version runs much better with win7 as a host than Ubuntu.  Believe it or not, I ran a Win2k8 server as a VM inside Win7 (don't ask me why) running a web/SQL server.  No issues for 5 straight months.

Regardless, good luck with your endeavor.  I see you have a nice setup with the 1.15d although I have to say I like how compact the 1.15x is (big where it counts=heatsink  )

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[CA Coins]

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[quote author=catfish link=topic=49180.msg767929#msg767929 date=1330164218]
[quote author=CAcoins link=topic=49180.msg767881#msg767881 date=1330158965]
Well, I have to give it to you.  If you're willing to code support for ztex on a Hackintosh, you are a better man than I am.  I also run VMware.  I notice the workstation version runs much better with win7 as a host than Ubuntu.  Believe it or not, I ran a Win2k8 server as a VM inside Win7 (don't ask me why) running a web/SQL server.  No issues for 5 straight months.

Regardless, good luck with your endeavor.  I see you have a nice setup with the 1.15d although I have to say I like how compact the 1.15x is (big where it counts=heatsink  ;D)
[/quote]
Cheers :)

The board is very much a Test Unit as per the child-like writing on the piece of MDF :D

I like the additional length and 'wind tunnel' feature of the 1.15d / Exp. Board 1.3 combo - and not just because I can bolt in a big SDHC card to run rainbow table apps etc. Purely focusing on BTC mining right now, I've run into big thermal problems with a 9 GHash GPU-based frame rig contraption (pics on the other thread here, won't clutter this one up). Running high-density units (in my first case, GPUs) horizontally, with the fan having to blow air *down* onto a heatsink, with maybe another hot unit sitting above or to the side, is just thermodynamically inefficient. The fans are working against physics, and if there's another GPU directly above the fan, then it can only blow red-hot air from the back of the upper GPU core onto the heatsink. Cue high temperatures and fans running at 85-100% capacity.

I've had loads of fan failures on GPUs and eventually switched to a vertical layout, where the main GPU exhaust points straight upwards. This allows convection to provide cool air for the fans to blow sideways onto the heatsinks... but with a high-density setup, radiated heat from the backside of the GPU next door is *still* a problem. The retail GPUs don't cool the rear side of their circuit boards and I've measured them at up to 90˚C in places using an IR thermometer.

With the 1.15x all-in-one solutions, the design is very much like a traditional GPU / CPU. A fan blows air down onto a big heatsink. Of course, the TPC is so much lower that my considerations are almost moot... but with the comment that the FPGA must have hit 90˚C (by Stefan, discussing when the active fan failed), there's room for making use of convective cooling as well as relying on downward-blowing physics-fighting fans :)

OK, so I'm a mad fan of the Apple G4 Cube. If there was a hope in hell of compiling Stefan's SDK for PowerPC then I'd be using my example (pride of place on my desk, kept alive at all costs, though not doing much right now after having burnt out 4 GPUs, 3 hard drives and a PSU) to control the FPGA array I'll eventually build.

Using the same concepts, look at the 1.15d and how it connects to the Exp Board 1.3. My picture above is my Test Unit as explained. My quad-board rig design (had to downsize from 5-board because the fans pushed the power budget too close to the PSU max output!!!! heh) will have each unit mounted vertically, with the power and USB connections at the bottom, in a Cube-styled enclosure with adequate venting for cool air to enter from below, rise up through the boards, and exit at the top.

I don't plan to use ANY active fans on the 25mm heatsinks supplied with the 1.15d boards. The cheap crappy fan on my picture above is there for safety, and I'll be removing it during testing to see whether the horizontal fan keeps the board cool enough.

You see, there's a tunnel between the FPGA board and the Experimental Board. Even with convection only, cool air will flow through this 'tunnel' and provide cooling to the immediate *reverse* of the FPGA, which will be getting hot. The Experimental Board itself will provide a heat barrier to prevent the back of the FPGA heating the front of the board next to it (remember it's high-density, like the GPU solutions).

I think this 'tunnel' and the ability to direct cooling air to the *back* of the board, something most people ignore with GPUs (and is a very significant heat load in high density rigs) is a great feature of the 1.15d setup, which is why I'll be going to use these rather than the optimised 1.15x boards.

Without tall, small-diameter fans on each FPGA heatsink, my enclosures can be made more elegant whilst still maintaining high density. I don't know what Stefan's 1.15x active cooling product is like, as I can't use it, but my experience with small-diameter cooling fans as per those used on older GPUs etc. is that they can make a horrible high-pitched whining noise. I'm sure Stefan's is a quality item but in 6 months, will it be making a racket like some of my GPU fans?

This is all moot if my design doesn't work, of course. I'm doing a Cube but having two 80mm PC case fans blowing cool air up from the bottom, and two identical fans at the top of the enclosure blowing hot air out. Inside a sealed acrylic enclosure, this should provide enough pressure to ensure air is *forced* through the 'tunnels' and through the pins on the FPGA heatsinks. We're only talking about 10W per board max, after all...

If there's a way to read the temperature of the FPGA core and feed this back to the fans, then a *really* neat automatic solution could be built - but to begin with I'll simply chuck a potentiometer in with the fans. I'm hoping that four 80mm 3W fans is massive overkill for my design, and the fans can be run slowly and *quietly*.


Put it this way, my girlfriend has put up with my GPU frame rigs for months now. The noise made by all the fans is enough to affect *my* sleep and I'm accepting it, not getting irritated by it. Hopefully my FPGA rigs, when complete, will be damn-near silent. It would be poetic to have the G4 Cube managing the FPGAs... but the Cube doesn't even have USB2 and I still haven't managed to compile the SDK on a reasonably-standard Intel Snow Leopard Mac yet... so my old first-gen AppleTV, which (with a bit of hacking) can be made to run the regular OS, may be put into use if there are no OS snags. Otherwise it's a Mac Mini.

Regardless, it's going to look cool, hopefully run cool, and whilst replacing 9 GH/sec is beyond my financial means at the moment, once I've got this SDK built on the Mac, I'll be discussing volume discounts and best deals with Stefan ;)
[/quote]

I can see where you're coming from, and it looks like your setup will probably work pretty well with the fan blowing in from the side.  I actually remember your rig when I was setting up mining rig for the first time and looking at the pictures of all the different rigs.  And I agree with you, most people under-estimate the thermal issue.  I ran into that problem setting up my first Beowulf cluster a long time ago (and have learned my lessons). GPUs are a pain in the butt in-terms of heat.  (If I can't touch the back-plate of the GPU because it is too hot, it doesn't belong in my computer).  And forget blowers, the noise is too much!

Coming from that, I think you would be pleasantly surprised about the 1.15x.  It's cool, the fan is quiet, and even with the top-blowing-down of the chipset cooler design, it is almost self-sufficient.  It's winter right now, but I had a bunch of them running in a somewhat enclosed rack with no additional fans and the heatsink temp never got above 30C (measured with a probe).  All the boards clocked above 200MHz.  I have some Silverstone fm 121's blowing on them at like 1000 RPM, and you don't hear the chipset fan and the airflow is more than enough.

The LX150 has high junction temperature but low thermal conductivity, so you have to make sure the heat is being conducted away from it efficiently.  But with TDP like 9 watts, I think you, and your girlfriend, will appreciate the decrease in heat/noise.  I am glad I didn't go the 6990 route 

[Turbor]

The way i cool my 1.15d boards. 120mm fan from above, 92mm from the side on the other side of the box.



I'm glad i went that route.

[CA Coins]

Very nice!

[antirack]

I am currently looking into setting up a licensed production of the 1.15x over here in Hong Kong (as well as setting up a GPU farm or other options), but I have slight difficulties to acquire the Xilinx XC6SLX150-N3CSG484C.

Everything else would be ready. I have a contract manufacturer that can do smaller quantities for me standing by (I worked with them during the past 10 years a couple of times), other parts are a no-brainer, Stefan could send out the boards and license within a relative short time frame, but Xilinx/Avnet just not organized enough to actually give me a quote and take my order :/ I've had numerous phone calls and plenty of (unanswered emails) during the past few weeks. It seems over here they always expect the next Apple to call with a demand of a quadrillion units over the next few years or so. If anybody has tried to go this path or could help supplying the FPGAs please let me know via PM.

Hong Kong is not on the list of designated countries so shipping crypto hardware etc is not a problem, but in worst case I'd even come and pick them up (along with securing payment up-front of course, as I'd have to do that when ordering direct anyway). To be fair, I could actually place an order on Avnet Express anytime with a lead time of about 4 weeks, but they only have one price no matter if you buy 1 piece or 5000 pieces (no, I don't want to order 5000 pieces), and it's above the target price on which ZTEX based his math. (the FPGA seems to be considerably cheaper in Germany than in the US, which I find hard to believe).

-- // --

I only have one single 1.15x and the ambient temperature in the room is usually around 20-25C right now, but it doesn't seem like heat will be a problem. It barely gets warm underneath the FPGA/PCB.

I'll also get some Icarus this week for testing (as said, I am looking into all options including 7990 but ZTEX so far makes the best impression to me on the FPGA front).

[CA Coins]

Let me see if I can help.  Will send you a PM.

[cypherdoc]

The way i cool my 1.15d boards. 120mm fan from above, 92mm from the side on the other side of the box.



I'm glad i went that route.

could you shoot another pic from that angle for the other fan?  nice setup!

[Turbor]

You can't see much different from the other side. Since the PSU is emitting warm air, i decided not to drill a hole in the wall. The fan would just suck hot air out of the PSU. Instead i moved the fan about 1cm from the wall to help blowing the cold air from above over the boards. It makes a big difference ! At first my plan was to go only with the 120mm fan but it did not work out as i expected. Both fans run at 13.8V which gives them a little boost. They are from be quiet, below 20db. Best fans for the money imo ! I love them.

You can see that board nr6 needs some help to stay cool but the clamp is also transfering some heat away.  

[CA Coins]

Nice custom setup!  It looks like for the 1.15x you have ditched the stock heatsink.  Are those aluminum heatsinks?  I am thinking copper won't make much of a difference since the key bottleneck is the transfer from the FPGA to the heatsink.

[Turbor]

Nice custom setup!  It looks like for the 1.15x you have ditched the stock heatsink.  Are those aluminum heatsinks?  I am thinking copper won't make much of a difference since the key bottleneck is the transfer from the FPGA to the heatsink.

This are 1.15d boards ! The heatsinks come with them but you can't really go bigger because the heatsink would collide with some parts on the board. 1.15x leaves you more room for modifications.

[CA Coins]

Oh, my bad. I know you're running a mix of 1.15d and 1.15x and thought the one on the right is a 1.15x. I guess part of the board just got cut off in the picture.

[ztex]

Compilation of the SDK for MacOS is known to work. Several customers did it. But don't ask me about the MacOS version or names of development packages or so.

For compiling the Java bindings of libusb you need to use the "Makefile.macosx" in the libusbJava-src directory. Dependencies are libusb, the java development kit (jdk) and certain OS headers (for type  definitions.)

Compilation of bmp works without modifications. It is tested at least it at with Freepascal versions 1.0, 2.0 and 2.2. There are no other requirements.

As written earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49180.msg752052#msg752052)  you just need to copy the library to the working directory of your BTCMiner, i.e. compilation of bmp is not required.

AFAIR one customer created some MacOS packages of the SDK and published them somewhere (ask google).

...
One polite request Stefan - could you list the actual versions of the APIs / SDKs / libraries that your SDK depends on?
...

[rupy]

Quick cluster tutorial:

java -cp ZtexBTCMiner-120221.jar BTCMiner -f ztex_ufm1_15d3a.ihx -m p
java -cp ZtexBTCMiner-120221.jar BTCMiner -host XXXX -u XXXX -p XXXX -m c

Done!

[irobindotse]

Maybe not the right thread to post in, but is anyone know if ztex(stefan) is working/planning to release on a new board with higher hashspeed? And maybe an eventual date?

Regards
Robin

[bulanula]

Maybe not the right thread to post in, but is anyone know if ztex(stefan) is working/planning to release on a new board with higher hashspeed? And maybe an eventual date?

Regards
Robin

I suggest going to look at the BFL product.

I think people using Spartan 6 will not get any higher hashrate from now and it looks like 180 - 200 MHash/s is the cap.

[rupy]

[irobindotse]

Im aware of BFL, forgot to mention that I live in Europe.

Reasons,

1.Insane prices to ship from US and pay toll and taxes.
2. And Ztex offers better guarantees and discounts.

Thats why im asking

Regards
Robin

[bulanula]

Im aware of BFL, forgot to mention that I live in Europe.

Reasons,

1.Insane prices to ship from US and pay toll and taxes.
2. And Ztex offers better guarantees and discounts.

Thats why im asking

Regards
Robin

Well I think somebody will end up being a EU reseller with manageable prices and no import duty etc.

But ZTEX offers 2 year warranty while BFL only 6 months

[rupy]

ztex is more expensive but the MH/w is higher and thus the chips can be completely silent like my solution above!

[antirack]

ztex is more expensive but the MH/w is higher and thus the chips can be completely silent like my solution above!

rupy how long are those hex spacers between the boards?