Butterfly Labs - Bitforce Single and Mini Rig Box

[yochdog]

Just got back from BFL's office. 

Just gonna say... BFL SINGLES EVERYWHERE, yikes!  Lots of shipping boxes, printed info sheets, units in various states of assembly, etc...  From what I understand, several units have already shipped to interested parties, besides myself.  I did not inquire as to who that might be.

Anyway, I got a slightly revised unit with bigger/more heatsinks and a new power supply unit.  It's hooked up and running right now with CGMiner... I am told that the new firmware load exposes the temp of the chips, but that option is not yet available in cgminer.  As soon as the codebase for cgminer is updated, you (I) should be able to see the temp of the core(s?).  The current compile of Ufasoft is apparently not seeing the BFL unit, so I'm waiting on a new set of code for Ufasoft before trying it.  I'm told that it will support hot plugging, which is fairly awesome.

I also saw a revised HSF that looks great for units going forward (Rev 2?) and should alleviate a lot of the heat issues people in hotter environments might run into.

I also got a bit more info on the Rigbox, which I'm not sure how much BFL wants me to share with regards to that... but suffice to say I understand now how the hashrate calculation is increased from the singles. It makes sense to me, but time will tell.

As of this post, I'll keep an eye on the hashrate and see how it sticks.  I still need to move the unit to a different location, which I plan on doing tomorrow. Hopefully, though, it won't be overheating tonight.

Hey, so clear something up....are they really building these in an apartment, or is that simply BS? 

[1715344881]

1715344881

[Red Emerald]

I want this to be real

[Inaba]

They are not building these in an apartment.  It's an actual place of business and the address that's floating around is not the place of manufacture as it were. 

As far as the temp goes, Kano - I am running 2.2.7 and Sonny told me the firmware he loaded exposed the temp, but I'm not seeing it in 2.2.7, so something is broken somewhere.  Thinking back on it, perhaps he meant that the current code to get the temp in CGminer is broken, not that it wasn't in there or something?  I'm not sure, I will have to clarify that. 

[kano]

I'll point him to your post if you can verify that.
He's usually in #cgminer where I 'live'

[WhitePhantom]

They are not building these in an apartment.  It's an actual place of business and the address that's floating around is not the place of manufacture as it were. 

Is the reason for secrecy of their actual place of business due to fear that a crazed mob might break their doors down?

[mc_lovin]

They are not building these in an apartment.  It's an actual place of business and the address that's floating around is not the place of manufacture as it were. 

Is the reason for secrecy of their actual place of business due to fear that a crazed mob might break their doors down?

More bitcoins, more problems.

[heavyb]

I am becoming increasingly excited for my 2 singles to be delivered soon!!

[nmat]

For those of you who are not following the off-topic thread, gigavps posted unboxing pictures:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=53530.msg763375#msg763375

[RoloTonyBrownTown]

Right, now that the other thread has been blissfully locked, this is the main thread for the BitForce units.   As mentioned, it'd be nice to get some updated info in the first post, but not the end of the world if it doesn't happen I guess.

Let's try to keep it civil, yeah?

[SysRun]

I would encourage gigavps to start his own thread when he posts next. Call it

"Why I'm cooler than all of you or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the BFL Singles."

<edit> Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!

[RoloTonyBrownTown]

I would encourage gigavps to start his own thread when he posts next. Call it

"Why I'm cooler than all of you or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the BFL Singles."

<edit> Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!

Works for me

[jamesg]

Bounty claim post -> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=65752.0

[DeepBit]

+22C recommended environment ?
Oh, I'll never be even close to have a chance to use BFL single :(

[BFL-Engineer]

+22C recommended environment ?
Oh, I'll never be even close to have a chance to use BFL single

Hello Deepbit,

We were wondering, what is the actual environment temperature you're operating in?


Regards,

[DeepBit]

+22C recommended environment ?
Oh, I'll never be even close to have a chance to use BFL single :(

We were wondering, what is the actual environment temperature you're operating in?

Usually around +30 C.
+38C at this moment, but it's not usual for most normal people.

Backside of Icarus boards right under the chip reaches +96C in still air at those temps (+38), so I added additional small fan to be sure, since only up to +100C is allowed for those FPGAs. But at least it still worked fine without any errors :)

I care about such things because I don't see a way to create a cold environment for a big farm in 19" enclosures without some serious air conditioning.

* This post doesn't implies that BFL singles are bad in some way, it's clear that my environment is obviously unnaturally hot.

[nbtcminer]

This runs true for even those people who live in cold climate countries / areas; running an FPGA card in a heated room can result in poor mh/s. 22C is a good temperature but real world ambient tempuratures tend to be much higher.

[Inaba]

Someone asked this in another thread... yes you can run both BFLs and GPUs from the same CGMiner session:

[Turbor]

  that's cool !

[Garr255]

Awesome! I want one now! (Everyone wants one now) Oh yeah…

[bombo999]

I wonder what their production capacity is, would be very interesting to know how many orders have been placed since the device has been confirmed