FPGA development board "Icarus" - DisContinued/ important announcement

[O_Shovah]

I added the Icarus board to my FPGA part of the mining comparison wiki.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#FPGA_Devices

please check and update if needed.

notice that clock is 190MHz, and the FPGA is : XC6SLX150-2FGG484I

Corrected that.

[O_Shovah]

Im currently trying to make  the miner run on my ARM plattform.
Im using a ubuntu 11.04 port with the LXDE desktop.

Altough i have determined the USB port of the Icarus board as usbdev2.8

i get the following serial error

Code:

gumstix@Gumstix:~/Desktop/Icarus/miner_software/simple_ver$ sudo python miner.py -u http//O_Shovah_Icarus_1:default@us.eclipsemc.com:8337 -s /dev/usbdev2.8
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "miner.py", line 180, in <module>
    ser = Serial(options.serial_port, 115200, timeout=options.askrate)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/serial/serialutil.py", line 260, in __init__
    self.open()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/serial/serialposix.py", line 280, in open
    self._reconfigurePort()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/serial/serialposix.py", line 308, in _reconfigurePort
    raise SerialException("Could not configure port: %s" % msg)
serial.serialutil.SerialException: Could not configure port: (25, 'Inappropriate ioctl for device')

[allinvain]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.msg720042#msg720042

Thank you, ngzhang

  unfortunately , i haven't any boards left in my hand. it looks like an sample is needed for the software development.

and now china is in a huge new year holiday, every factory closed for half month.... until Feb.1 

Is that when we can expect Batch 3 to go out..or two weeks after that?

[ngzhang]

2 weeks after that. 


ADD:

sorry guys. i just found a serious mistake in the code. it result in unstable. i will fix this issue in 1 week.

[Inspector 2211]

2 weeks after that. 

ADD:

sorry guys. i just found a serious mistake in the code. it result in unstable. i will fix this issue in 1 week.

Hi, I was trying to look at your PDF schematic, but Adobe reader says it's damaged or incomplete. Can you please double-check that? Thanks!

[ngzhang]

2 weeks after that. 

ADD:

sorry guys. i just found a serious mistake in the code. it result in unstable. i will fix this issue in 1 week.

Hi, I was trying to look at your PDF schematic, but Adobe reader says it's damaged or incomplete. Can you please double-check that? Thanks!

it's ok here, how about change to another version of pdf reader?

[allinvain]

2 weeks after that. 


ADD:

sorry guys. i just found a serious mistake in the code. it result in unstable. i will fix this issue in 1 week.

Will the batch 3 boards run at a higher clockrate?

[ngzhang]

2 weeks after that. 


ADD:

sorry guys. i just found a serious mistake in the code. it result in unstable. i will fix this issue in 1 week.

Will the batch 3 boards run at a higher clockrate?

hard to say now, but possible -- if the FPGAs maintain a good quality as first and second batch's.
but a certain frequency only can be decided after the manufacture. 

[Inspector 2211]

2 weeks after that. 

ADD:

sorry guys. i just found a serious mistake in the code. it result in unstable. i will fix this issue in 1 week.

Hi, I was trying to look at your PDF schematic, but Adobe reader says it's damaged or incomplete. Can you please double-check that? Thanks!

it's ok here, how about change to another version of pdf reader?

I can assure you, my Adobe Acrobat 10.1.2 is fine - and I tried this on multiple computers.
When downloaded from github, the file Icarus_V1.pdf has a length of only 25474 bytes, not enough for a schematic.
Can you attach it to a PM? Is that possible? Or upload it somewhere else?

[ngzhang]

2 weeks after that. 

ADD:

sorry guys. i just found a serious mistake in the code. it result in unstable. i will fix this issue in 1 week.

Hi, I was trying to look at your PDF schematic, but Adobe reader says it's damaged or incomplete. Can you please double-check that? Thanks!

it's ok here, how about change to another version of pdf reader?

I can assure you, my Adobe Acrobat 10.1.2 is fine - and I tried this on multiple computers.
When downloaded from github, the file Icarus_V1.pdf has a length of only 25474 bytes, not enough for a schematic.
Can you attach it to a PM? Is that possible? Or upload it somewhere else?

it's: 1115.404 kb size.
or give me an email, and i will attach it for you.

[reedlaw]

2 weeks after that. 

ADD:

sorry guys. i just found a serious mistake in the code. it result in unstable. i will fix this issue in 1 week.

Hi, I was trying to look at your PDF schematic, but Adobe reader says it's damaged or incomplete. Can you please double-check that? Thanks!

it's ok here, how about change to another version of pdf reader?

I can assure you, my Adobe Acrobat 10.1.2 is fine - and I tried this on multiple computers.
When downloaded from github, the file Icarus_V1.pdf has a length of only 25474 bytes, not enough for a schematic.
Can you attach it to a PM? Is that possible? Or upload it somewhere else?

I am able to open it in Adobe Reader 9.4.6 under Ubuntu.

[BkkCoins]

You're probably trying to open the PDF link with "Save Link as". That won't work on gitHub because it sends an html page (probably 25k size). You need to open the PDF page and use the "Save Link as" option on the "View Raw File" link they provide.

That link will save the actual pdf file.

[Inspector 2211]

You're probably trying to open the PDF link with "Save Link as". That won't work on gitHub because it sends an html page (probably 25k size). You need to open the PDF page and use the "Save Link as" option on the "View Raw File" link they provide.

That link will save the actual pdf file.

Yes, you are correct. Got it now. [bangs head against wall]

[Energizer]

I've just received my Icarus including DEV kit! Very well packed!

It took around 10 mints to unpack, setup, and start mining!

Thank you Zhang!

[ngzhang]

hi, guys.
the holiday is finally over.
i'm going to have some meeting with my supplier and factory, and place some order for the 3rd batch.
it's sure there will be some BOM changes to increase power efficiency, enhanced cooling, and so on.
so later 2-3 days i will very busy. PM and email reply will much slower. please forgive me. confirm an accurate manufacture plan is the most important thing to do now.

regards everyone.

[Inspector 2211]

hi, guys.
the holiday is finally over.
i'm going to have some meeting with my supplier and factory, and place some order for the 3rd batch.
it's sure there will be some BOM changes to increase power efficiency, enhanced cooling, and so on.
so later 2-3 days i will very busy. PM and email reply will much slower. please forgive me. confirm an accurate manufacture plan is the most important thing to do now.

regards everyone.

I thought the Chinese New Year holiday is 15 days long ?!?!
Wikipedia seems to say so: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_new_year
So, if day 1 was Jan. 23rd, day 9 is Jan 31st, day 10 is Feb 1st and day 15 is Feb. 6th

<confused>

[ngzhang]

hi, guys.
the holiday is finally over.
i'm going to have some meeting with my supplier and factory, and place some order for the 3rd batch.
it's sure there will be some BOM changes to increase power efficiency, enhanced cooling, and so on.
so later 2-3 days i will very busy. PM and email reply will much slower. please forgive me. confirm an accurate manufacture plan is the most important thing to do now.

regards everyone.

I thought the Chinese New Year holiday is 15 days long ?!?!
Wikipedia seems to say so: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_new_year
So, if day 1 was Jan. 23rd, day 9 is Jan 31st, day 10 is Feb 1st and day 15 is Feb. 6th

<confused>

yeah, 15 days long "in the country". or even 1 month long.
but in city, about 7-10 days long. 

[randomguy7]

Another question about the communication specs: How do the boards behave after they found a solution? Do they keep working on the current work till they get new work, possibly resulting in 3 or more solutions per work unit?

[ngzhang]

Another question about the communication specs: How do the boards behave after they found a solution? Do they keep working on the current work till they get new work, possibly resulting in 3 or more solutions per work unit?

present configuration is the FPGA will stop working when it find a valid nonce. but the other FPGA in chain will continue working (because it didn't know what is happened on the other FPGA).
this idea is to keep a simple event. so software miner should push a work to FPGA immediately when received a valid nonce.

ADD:

about the detection. there is a simple way to impalement, with out any RTL change.
just push a 512bits dummy work package to the COM port, fot example:
 

Code:

['data'] = "0000000120c8222d0497a7ab44a1a2c7bf39de941c9970b1dc7cdc400000079700000000e88aabe1f353238c668d8a4df9318e614c10c474f8cdf8bc5f6397b946c33d7c4e7242c31a098ea500000000000000800000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000080020000"
['midstate'] =  "33c5bf5751ec7f7e056443b5aee3800331432c83f404d9de38b94ecbf907b92d"

the boards will return "063c5e01" in a short time.

[randomguy7]

Another question about the communication specs: How do the boards behave after they found a solution? Do they keep working on the current work till they get new work, possibly resulting in 3 or more solutions per work unit?

present configuration is the FPGA will stop working when it find a valid nonce. but the other FPGA in chain will continue working (because it didn't know what is happened on the other FPGA).
this idea is to keep a simple event. so software miner should push a work to FPGA immediately when received a valid nonce.

ADD:

about the detection. there is a simple way to impalement, with out any RTL change.
just push a 512bits dummy work package to the COM port, fot example:
 

Code:

['data'] = "0000000120c8222d0497a7ab44a1a2c7bf39de941c9970b1dc7cdc400000079700000000e88aabe1f353238c668d8a4df9318e614c10c474f8cdf8bc5f6397b946c33d7c4e7242c31a098ea500000000000000800000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000080020000"
['midstate'] =  "33c5bf5751ec7f7e056443b5aee3800331432c83f404d9de38b94ecbf907b92d"

the boards will return "063c5e01" in a short time.

Hehe I found this in our miner source, too. Helped me a lot to get the communication working .

About the stop-searching-after-a-nonce-is-found thing, is there some specific reason for this behaviour or could this be changed? I think it would simplify miner developement if it kept searching, because currently a new getwork request has to be made after a nonce is found. Laggy internet connections make the FPGAs idle more and lead to lower hash rates (I think that's why my boards currently only make about 350 mhash each).
If the FPGAs kept searching, a simple getwork-thread could feed the FPGAs new work every about <11 seconds, minimizing the negative effects of a bad connection.
I think for now I'm going to implement some queueing mechanism as a workaround (couldn't flash a different bitstream anyways because I don't yet have a platform cable).