Raspberry Pi $25 PC - Could we run GPUs/FPGAs on this?

[CubedRoot]

No pre-orders have been taken because the organisation said it did not want to take anyone's cash without having something to hand over in return.

That part reminded me of ButterflyLabs

Come on now, lets not turn this thread into the pile of shit that was the BFL threads with all the trolls in it.

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[Transisto]

No pre-orders have been taken because the organisation said it did not want to take anyone's cash without having something to hand over in return.

That part reminded me of ButterflyLabs

Come on now, lets not turn this thread into the pile of shit that was the BFL threads with all the trolls in it.

No chances it is to happen

PS: What I quoted is the opposite of what BFL did.

[norulezapply]

The Raspberry Pi is far from what BFL are proposing to produce.

Anyway, BFL are taking preorders at the moment with nothing to show for it.

[CubedRoot]

Let's keep it on topic. There are to many trolls around for this thread to get off topic.
I think the raspberry pi are supposed to ship in January's.

[defxor]

I just made a comment on "that other thread" about people willing to pay out of pocket for being part of running Bitcoin with no interest in the actual mining profits from it. I was thinking of the Raspberry Pi connected to one FPGA-miner and using Wifi to communicate with a pool. Preferably wall socket mounted even.

[Transisto]

Wow, this a great moment for innovation, This thing will turn into so many new and custom product,

Arduino on steroid...

Same at eetimes comments may be more relevant .
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4229945/A-slice-of-Pi---the--25-computer-on-show

700MHz ARM11, the board has 128MB or 256MB of SDRAM, OpenGL ES 2.0, 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode and composite and HDMI video output

www.raspberrypi.org for lots and lots of information

[rph]

This looks cool, but when you can buy an Atom mini ITX motherboard for $25 more.. and need an ATX supply to run the FPGAs anyway..

-rph

[naypalm]

Now on my "To buy" list for next year.

[norulezapply]

This looks cool, but when you can buy an Atom mini ITX motherboard for $25 more.. and need an ATX supply to run the FPGAs anyway..

-rph

"$25 more" is double the price.
So that's actually a lot more.

As for the ATX I'm sure plenty of people have lots of cheap PSUs laying around. I know I for one would be glad to sell all my spare PSUs off for $5 or less if it means I'm rid of the things.

[DeathAndTaxes]

This looks cool, but when you can buy an Atom mini ITX motherboard for $25 more.. and need an ATX supply to run the FPGAs anyway..

-rph

"$25 more" is double the price.
So that's actually a lot more.

As for the ATX I'm sure plenty of people have lots of cheap PSUs laying around. I know I for one would be glad to sell all my spare PSUs off for $5 or less if it means I'm rid of the things.

The point is that cheap ATX power supply could power the FPGA AND motherboard.

While $25 is 70% more (The model B w/ ethernet is $35) the increase is trivial compared to the cost of FPGA.

Say $1/MH (likely higher).  1GH FPGA array is $1000.  5GH is $5000.  $25 "more" isn't much more when it means you gain access to the larger and better developed (at least for Bitcoin) x86 architecture.

Take a 5GH array.
$5000 FPGA
$100 PSU
$100 cables, usb hubs, various parts, possibly an enclosure
-----
$5200 + $35 Pi = $5235
$5200 + $60 mATX atom/VIA/sempron board + $10 RAM = $5270

The Pi system is 0.7% cheaper but requires all development to be on the ARM architecture.  Personally I would pay the $35 premium to gain x86 compatibility.  To each his own though.


Still the Pi is interesting.

[BkkCoins]

What interests me is the easy access to the GPIO pins for high speed interfacing to FPGAs. I'm not sure you have that on an Atom. I have an Atom here but I think the only thing like that is the parallel port and generally they aren't that fast. So for the Atom you likely need to also use a USB based micro controller to talk to FPGAs (as most of the the boards so far do).

At least that's my take on it. I wouldn't bother with the Raspberry if I were just going to use it's USB port to talk to FPGAs.

[norulezapply]

This looks cool, but when you can buy an Atom mini ITX motherboard for $25 more.. and need an ATX supply to run the FPGAs anyway..

-rph

"$25 more" is double the price.
So that's actually a lot more.

As for the ATX I'm sure plenty of people have lots of cheap PSUs laying around. I know I for one would be glad to sell all my spare PSUs off for $5 or less if it means I'm rid of the things.

The point is that cheap ATX power supply could power the FPGA AND motherboard.

While $25 is 70% more (The model B w/ ethernet is $35) the increase is trivial compared to the cost of FPGA.

Say $1/MH (likely higher).  1GH FPGA array is $1000.  5GH is $5000.  $25 "more" isn't much more when it means you gain access to the larger and better developed (at least for Bitcoin) x86 architecture.

Take a 5GH array.
$5000 FPGA
$100 PSU
$100 cables, usb hubs, various parts, possibly an enclosure
-----
$5200 + $35 Pi = $5235
$5200 + $60 mATX atom/VIA/sempron board + $10 RAM = $5270

The Pi system is 0.7% cheaper but requires all development to be on the ARM architecture.  Personally I would pay the $35 premium to gain x86 compatibility.  To each his own though.


Still the Pi is interesting.

That's true. If you want x86 then that's the way to go for sure.

But also what's the wattage like running a mATX board? The wattage for the Pi is 1 watt.

It might not be a huge difference but it's an achievement nonetheless

[DeathAndTaxes]

This looks cool, but when you can buy an Atom mini ITX motherboard for $25 more.. and need an ATX supply to run the FPGAs anyway..

-rph

"$25 more" is double the price.
So that's actually a lot more.

As for the ATX I'm sure plenty of people have lots of cheap PSUs laying around. I know I for one would be glad to sell all my spare PSUs off for $5 or less if it means I'm rid of the things.

The point is that cheap ATX power supply could power the FPGA AND motherboard.

While $25 is 70% more (The model B w/ ethernet is $35) the increase is trivial compared to the cost of FPGA.

Say $1/MH (likely higher).  1GH FPGA array is $1000.  5GH is $5000.  $25 "more" isn't much more when it means you gain access to the larger and better developed (at least for Bitcoin) x86 architecture.

Take a 5GH array.
$5000 FPGA
$100 PSU
$100 cables, usb hubs, various parts, possibly an enclosure
-----
$5200 + $35 Pi = $5235
$5200 + $60 mATX atom/VIA/sempron board + $10 RAM = $5270

The Pi system is 0.7% cheaper but requires all development to be on the ARM architecture.  Personally I would pay the $35 premium to gain x86 compatibility.  To each his own though.


Still the Pi is interesting.

That's true. If you want x86 then that's the way to go for sure.

But also what's the wattage like running a mATX board? The wattage for the Pi is 1 watt.

It might not be a huge difference but it's an achievement nonetheless

Power consumption for ULV x86 chips (sempron, atom, VIA) is much higher.  Maybe 20W to 40W depending on specific CPU, load, chipset, motherboard design, etc.

[norulezapply]

Ah well that'd definitely be enough for me to prefer a Raspberry Pi. That's just personal preference of course, but I think it's a really impressive bit of kit.

[Jay_Pal]

And they started manufacturing the first 10k batch!

[Bossland]

They use the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VideoCore

BCM2835  video chip

anyone knows how much minihash it does ?

[mimarob]

If you're getting impatient maybe try the Carambola?

No video but wifi :-)

http://www.8devices.com/wiki_carambola/doku.php

[Kluge]

This looks cool, but when you can buy an Atom mini ITX motherboard for $25 more.. and need an ATX supply to run the FPGAs anyway..

-rph

"$25 more" is double the price.
So that's actually a lot more.

As for the ATX I'm sure plenty of people have lots of cheap PSUs laying around. I know I for one would be glad to sell all my spare PSUs off for $5 or less if it means I'm rid of the things.

That's a curious fallacy humans apply to cost-analysis. 2x more does not equate to "a lot more," but people do this all the time when considering which item to buy. For a very telling example of why that line of thinking is so wrong, consider buying a pair of earphones vs. a car -- assume you check prices at two different stores which aren't far apart (and they both carry cars and earphones):

First, you go to Store A. They sell XYZ earphones @ $12, YXZ cars @ $12,000.
Store B sells XYZ earphones @ $5, YXZ cars @ $12,100.

The majority of people will likely buy both the car and the earphones @ Store B because in their minds, they think "$100 isn't very much in the context of a $12,000 purchase," so they aren't willing to drive all the way back for such relatively meager savings. These same people, were they just buying earphones, and went to Store B first, would likely go back to Store A to buy the earphones, because in their mind "$7 is a lot in the context of a $12 purchase." But, your finances don't really give a damn where your money comes or go. There is no "context" -- it's just numbers. This odd way most humans calculate whether or not to purchase something is why salesmen are so successful at selling people garbage add-ons & warranties. The cost of them is a small amount in the context of the whole purchase, but stores know better, and can see huge profit boosts by selling people on the small stuff. (P.S. $50 in the context of a $6,000 FPGA farm purchase is a drop in the bucket )

ETA: derp. I will read threads all the way through before posting so I don't give redundant information. I will read threads all the way through before posting so I don't give redundant information. I will read threads all the way through before posting so I don't give redundant information.

... So.... on-topic. This could be very exciting with a video adapter. It probably would be quite cheap to have these PCs shipped here, give it a unique aesthetic (I'm thinking a Hot Pockets box), then rebrand it as the Ghetto PC. Surf the web, watch videos, play basic (and I mean BASIC ) games, edit documents, read your email -- perfect for poorer & older people.

[norulezapply]

This looks cool, but when you can buy an Atom mini ITX motherboard for $25 more.. and need an ATX supply to run the FPGAs anyway..

-rph

"$25 more" is double the price.
So that's actually a lot more.

As for the ATX I'm sure plenty of people have lots of cheap PSUs laying around. I know I for one would be glad to sell all my spare PSUs off for $5 or less if it means I'm rid of the things.

That's a curious fallacy humans apply to cost-analysis. 2x more does not equate to "a lot more," but people do this all the time when considering which item to buy. For a very telling example of why that line of thinking is so wrong, consider buying a pair of earphones vs. a car -- assume you check prices at two different stores which aren't far apart (and they both carry cars and earphones):

First, you go to Store A. They sell XYZ earphones @ $12, YXZ cars @ $12,000.
Store B sells XYZ earphones @ $5, YXZ cars @ $12,100.

The majority of people will likely buy both the car and the earphones @ Store B because in their minds, they think "$100 isn't very much in the context of a $12,000 purchase," so they aren't willing to drive all the way back for such relatively meager savings. These same people, were they just buying earphones, and went to Store B first, would likely go back to Store A to buy the earphones, because in their mind "$7 is a lot in the context of a $12 purchase." But, your finances don't really give a damn where your money comes or go. There is no "context" -- it's just numbers. This odd way most humans calculate whether or not to purchase something is why salesmen are so successful at selling people garbage add-ons & warranties. The cost of them is a small amount in the context of the whole purchase, but stores know better, and can see huge profit boosts by selling people on the small stuff. (P.S. $50 in the context of a $6,000 FPGA farm purchase is a drop in the bucket )

ETA: derp. I will read threads all the way through before posting so I don't give redundant information. I will read threads all the way through before posting so I don't give redundant information. I will read threads all the way through before posting so I don't give redundant information.

... So.... on-topic. This could be very exciting with a video adapter. It probably would be quite cheap to have these PCs shipped here, give it a unique aesthetic (I'm thinking a Hot Pockets box), then rebrand it as the Ghetto PC. Surf the web, watch videos, play basic (and I mean BASIC ) games, edit documents, read your email -- perfect for poorer & older people.

This is true, but I meant relative to the original price, for someone with a low budget.

And yeah I believe they'll be really good at getting more people involved with technology.

[Sp0tter]

The majority of people will likely buy both the car and the earphones @ Store B because in their minds, they think "$100 isn't very much in the context of a $12,000 purchase," so they aren't willing to drive all the way back for such relatively meager savings.

I completely disagree.  Most people would use the total cost of their purchase to decide where to buy, not some relative proportion.  You fell victim to the "everyone but me is stupid" disease.  It runs rampant on the internet.  Humans making rational decisions is part of the foundation of economics...