Please help donate 107 BTC for CGMINER support for x6500 fpga(0 still needed)

[-ck]

First of all, MPBM is not a product of FPGA Mining LLC, but of me personally. And it does support all kinds of monitoring as well. The X6500 being supported by cgminer would surely not be the end of MPBM development, and MPBM development is not paid by FPGA Mining LLC.
The only real advantage of cgminer is GPU mining support, and possibly also a bit lower CPU usage than MPBM. On the other hand, MPBM has lots of features that cgminer can't offer (yet). It also doesn't support the X6500 exclusively, but it does support all FPGA boards that are currently available on the market (except for the newest ztex firmware, which broke compatibility basically overnight without any prior notice, but this will be fixed soon).

It almost looks like you're taking this to heart too much, as though it's a vote against MPBM, which it isn't. I could ask precisely the same question about GPU mining apps as to why people use anything but cgminer, but I don't. People just want options, and one person's idea of what fits is never going to be the same for everyone. Almost certainly, the vast majority will want it to consolidate their software with GPU+FPGA miners, but it could just be they like cgminer and it fits.

I do understand why some people prefer some other software, and I do think alternatives are a good thing.
This particular guy, however, has asked me (or rather the company) several times now to just throw away MPBM and go cgminer-only ("consolidate"), which is of course unacceptable, not just to me, but probably to many other MPBM users. (I already had some long, troll-ish discussion with him in the GPUMAX thread, and I'm just tired of him. He seems to not even have seen some of the stuff he's talking about, and spreads a lot of FUD against both our company and MPBM.)

Anyway, we are willing to support cgminer, the company with a bounty, and me personally with knowledge and assistance where necessary.

I missed all of that so cannot pass judgement on it.

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[hashking]

We only need 17 more bitcoin.

[rjk]

We only need 17 more bitcoin.

I sent 3 just now.

[kano]

Hmm - I was given an Icarus for free for helping debug and get it working on cgminer.
(though that was a rather difficult thing to do without any hardware at all or the ability to even run the code )

I'd love to know a reason why larger developers consider that too much ...

(I also bought a full price 2nd one a few days later since it seemed to me a good idea to support Icarus also - I just didn't have enough BTC when I first helped with the Icarus.c code - and also thought that getting 2 sent together would be a good idea when I did have enough just after that)

... and an aside on that - xiangfu has the latest best Icarus code for cgminer.
The one that went into cgminer the other day is ... well ... not optimal.
(and I got really pissed off about having to argue with Luke-jr about why his icarus bugs were bugs - including the one that reduced the actual hash rate of the hardware - and have thus taken a break from cgminer software work for a while ... due to issues about the importance of FPGA mining code and it's reliability in cgminer ... and other issues ...)

I'd guess if this project went ahead and ckolivas got an FPGA also, he'd take interest in the FPGA code in cgminer ...

[-ck]

Hmm - I was given an Icarus for free for helping debug and get it working on cgminer.
(though that was a rather difficult thing to do without any hardware at all or the ability to even run the code )

I'd love to know a reason why larger developers consider that too much ...

(I also bought a full price 2nd one a few days later since it seemed to me a good idea to support Icarus also - I just didn't have enough BTC when I first helped with the Icarus.c code - and also thought that getting 2 sent together would be a good idea when I did have enough just after that)

... and an aside on that - xiangfu has the latest best Icarus code for cgminer.
The one that went into cgminer the other day is ... well ... not optimal.
(and I got really pissed off about having to argue with Luke-jr about why his icarus bugs were bugs - including the one that reduced the actual hash rate of the hardware - and have thus taken a break from cgminer software work for a while ... due to issues about the importance of FPGA mining code and it's reliability in cgminer ... and other issues ...)

I'd guess if this project went ahead and ckolivas got an FPGA also, he'd take interest in the FPGA code in cgminer ...

I thought you might be interested in coding up this x6500 support instead of me. I did not expect you to come here and complain about your relationship with Luke-jr, as this is not the thread for it. As far as I was aware he addressed everything you told him to address and have included his code on that expectation, while withholding his code that touched your API code unnecessarily. If you wish to discuss this further, talk to me in private, or in another thread. No point taking your frustration with Luke-jr out on this thread.

[-ck]

I'm really sorry but I'm going to have to backtrack on this as I've realised I don't have the time to dedicate to getting this working. I'd still like to see the x6500 support in cgminer, so you should put it back as a generic bounty as you originally planned and open it up for tenders again.

This still stands by the way. However if you really can't find anyone and manage to put together the bounty, I will still do it, but there may be some delay in getting the support since I'll be busy and intermittently away.

Why hasn't anyone responded to this comment? I'm trying to say I'd prefer not to do this as I can't guarantee any reasonable time frame.

[TheHarbinger]

By ignoring your statement that you don't want to do it, it forces you to do it.   

[-ck]

By ignoring your statement that you don't want to do it, it forces you to do it.   

I know that goddamnit LOL.

[hashking]

By ignoring your statement that you don't want to do it, it forces you to do it.  

I know that goddamnit LOL.

Sorry haven't been back to the thread, we are 14 BTC short now.  Thanks for offering to do this when you get a chance.  I talked to LUKE Jr.  and he said he would do it.  I told him I would message him back once I received all the funds.  I wasn't trying to start such a big debate over this, it's just that I have bought a number of the x6500 FPGA boards and cgminer is my favorite miner.  It's what I'm used to.  So hopefully we could get this done and this would be good for everyone.

[TheSeven]

Hmm - I was given an Icarus for free for helping debug and get it working on cgminer.
(though that was a rather difficult thing to do without any hardware at all or the ability to even run the code )

I'd love to know a reason why larger developers consider that too much ...

(I also bought a full price 2nd one a few days later since it seemed to me a good idea to support Icarus also - I just didn't have enough BTC when I first helped with the Icarus.c code - and also thought that getting 2 sent together would be a good idea when I did have enough just after that)

... and an aside on that - xiangfu has the latest best Icarus code for cgminer.
The one that went into cgminer the other day is ... well ... not optimal.
(and I got really pissed off about having to argue with Luke-jr about why his icarus bugs were bugs - including the one that reduced the actual hash rate of the hardware - and have thus taken a break from cgminer software work for a while ... due to issues about the importance of FPGA mining code and it's reliability in cgminer ... and other issues ...)

I'd guess if this project went ahead and ckolivas got an FPGA also, he'd take interest in the FPGA code in cgminer ...

I must admit that I was also given an Icarus board by ngzhang for free, for adding MPBM Icarus support. Which I actually consider way too much, because it just took me like a few minutes to implement that, given its similarity to a previously existing module, and given that I did already implement it before he even sent out that board, testing via ssh on someone else's board. I consider that very generous of ngzhang

FPGA Mining LLC paid me just a bit more than offered here for MPBM X6500 compatibility, and that was at a point where the pre-existing code was much less documented and streamlined, so this offer fits in comparison. And being close to the end of a batch, not being able to satisfy all orders currently, is certainly another point why we aren't just giving away a board.
Given the complexity of this task, I would really say that getting a board for it is well-deserved, on the other hand just piggybacking on this bounty was probably just too tempting for fizzisist

[Fefox]

 5 BTC sent  

[kano]

By ignoring your statement that you don't want to do it, it forces you to do it.  

I know that goddamnit LOL.

Sorry haven't been back to the thread, we are 14 BTC short now.  Thanks for offering to do this when you get a chance.  I talked to LUKE Jr.  and he said he would do it.  I told him I would message him back once I received all the funds.  I wasn't trying to start such a big debate over this, it's just that I have bought a number of the x6500 FPGA boards and cgminer is my favorite miner.  It's what I'm used to.  So hopefully we could get this done and this would be good for everyone.

I will repeat my last comment I made (that ckolivas mightn't like either )

I'd guess if this project went ahead and ckolivas got an FPGA also, he'd take interest in the FPGA code in cgminer ...

He doesn't have any FPGA hardware, and I think if he did it would be better for all

[-ck]

I will repeat my last comment I made (that ckolivas mightn't like either )

I'd guess if this project went ahead and ckolivas got an FPGA also, he'd take interest in the FPGA code in cgminer ...

He doesn't have any FPGA hardware, and I think if he did it would be better for all

I still have trouble caring about FPGAs, and am happy to leave that to outsiders to work on. GPUs are far more interesting to me. (No I wasn't trying to start a debate about the relative pros/cons of each as we're all well aware of them by now).

[nelisky]

I'm doing ztex support on cgminer, and I can certainly do x6500 too if there is still a need for this.

[freshzive]

how many left now hashking? guess i'll supply the rest

[kano]

Well - since it is ckolivas' cgminer and also since you might be able to convince him ...
Try one last time and see if he will do it - even if it takes him a while - I still think it would be best if he had an FPGA device
(you'll need to ship it to Australia)

Especially after the discussion that's going on in the cgminer thread at the moment ...

[-ck]

Well I said I could do it, but the timeframe would likely be longer than someone else doing it.

[hashking]

Thanks to everyone for donating towards getting this project going.  We have received the amount needed and will update once we have everything set. 

[freshzive]

Excellent, keep us updated hashking

[hashking]

I sent 97 bitcoins to Fizzisist and he offered to cover the remaining 10 bitcoins.  He is going to send a x6500 board to Nelinsky who offered to set this up with CGMiner.  Thanks again everyone for helping me put this together.  

Edit: Fizzisist put in an extra 25 bitcoins due to the shipping.