Cairnsmore1 - Quad XC6SLX150 Board

[yohan]

****PRE-ORDER IS COMPLETED****



Pricing for new orders:





Features

FPGAs

4 x Spartan(TM)-6 XC6SLX150 FPGAs can be run as singles, duals or quad combos depending on Controller version/bitstream in use.

Array Power

12A, 1.2V power supply for each array FPGA. Input is 12V nominal from jack, disk drive connector (Molex), PCIe graphics power connector (6 way) and Pheonix connector.

Array Controller  

Manages array can shutdown power to each FPGA on individual basis.
Controls clock generator and clocks to each FPGA.
Can read temperature sensors (attached to and next to each array FPGA).
Can drive JTAG chain (needs development work).
Controller powers up on USB supply only for debug.
Can be used to pass data between FPGAs.
Supports up and down interfaces for data flow within board stacking.
Fan monitoring.

USB

FT4232 USB controller can be used in multiple ways including 4 COM ports. Can also support JTAG engine. Product is supplied with 1M USB cable.

DIP Switches

For mode setting etc..

Fan Connectors

4 x 3 pin fan connectors supporting 12V fans. Fan monitoring hardware.

Fan + Heatsink

Fitted with Arctic F12 fan and high performance heatsink on each array FPGA.



Prices are based on current exchange rates or staying within 5% of current rates.

We will accept pre-orders on the basis that no money will be charged until your board is ready to ship. We reserve the right not to sell to any person or organisation and/or to ask for more information in respect of and for export control. To pre order send an email to bitcoin AT enterpoint DOT co DOT uk with address and contact details.

Local duties and any applying taxes will be charged direct to you by courier. For UK and EEC we will charge UK VAT unless you are VAT registered in your country (not UK).

[Chefnet]

watching + mail

[ShadesOfMarble]

mail sent

[spiccioli]

yohan,

this is not a pci-e board is it?

Are you going to develop mining software or use an existing one, like

mpbm  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=62823.0

or

cgminer  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78192.0

And, while we are at it, please consider, while developing your FPGA bitstream, the p2pool issue, that is FPGA should be able to report a valid hash as soon as it finds it and be able to be interrupted before exhausting the full nonce range.

spiccioli.

[mrb]

Finally some tough competition against the BFL Single!

This $640 quad LX150 board would have about the same perf/dollar as the Single (1.33 vs. 1.39 Mh/s/$), but should have twice the Mh/Joule efficiency!
And if you, Enterpoint, can truly deliver first prototypes by the end of May, you would beat the (currently) 10-week waiting period for Single orders.

* mrb preorders...

[yohan]

This isn't a PCIe board. We may do one more specific PCIe board for Bitcoin and better price than the Merrick6 option currently available. I won't promise this at the moment but anyone has a serious interest, i.e. some numbers, do come and talk to us.

We have stock of the XC6SLX150 at our Xilinx distributor on normal call off that would cover maybe 500 boards. It's a part we already use in reasonable numbers on other things. That is why we can do these timescales. After that silicon is currently on about 6 weeks lead and a manufactured board would have been about 10 weeks.

The design side is easy for our very able team. To give you an idea the design, and first proto was built, of Merrick1 in 8 weeks. That's 100X the complexity of what we are doing on this first Bitcoin product. I could give a very long list of similar examples of other projects. This is a professional design and manufacture team that's at the top of profession teams.

We will look at FPGA optimisations and software aspects but I won't promise any timelines. That's part of the reason for the current price. You will have to do a bit of work yourself so this may not be for everyone in this raw form. The timelines on this will depend on what else the design team end up doing. The team is rarely underloaded so this sort thing can take time.

[BR0KK]

on it; Love to see competitors for Ztex

[spiccioli]

The design side is easy for our very able team. To give you an idea the design, and first proto was built, of Merrick1 in 8 weeks. That's 100X the complexity of what we are doing on this first Bitcoin product. I could give a very long list of similar examples of other projects. This is a professional design and manufacture team that's at the top of profession teams.

We will look at FPGA optimisations and software aspects but I won't promise any timelines. That's part of the reason for the current price. You will have to do a bit of work yourself so this may not be for everyone in this raw form. The timelines on this will depend on what else the design team end up doing. The team is rarely underloaded so this sort thing can take time.

yohan,

some rough edges are not a problem as long as the board has its FPGA bitstream and there is a description of the protocol used to communicate with onboard FPGAs so that mining programs can be upgraded to use your boards.

if, on the other  hand, you're selling a "naked" board, without any software nor FPGA bitstream, then this should be clearly stated since very few here will be able to use them even adding a lot of work

spiccioli.

 

[norulezapply]

Fantastic to see a UK alternative for FPGAs!

Subscribed and sent preorder email

[bulanula]

WOW. This looks really good

Couple of these boards and a router mining would be golden for me !

When will they be shipped ( lead time ) ?

[Glasswalker]

Email sent.

One question. Will you consider a method of payment which is "Bitcoin Friendly" such as accepting bitcoin itself or if that is too high risk due to fluctuating prices, at least accepting mtgox codes which can be sent in local currency and withdrawn by you for lower fees than paypal, while still allowing users to essentially pay with bitcoin?

Bank transfer is a decent option but paypal is not overly bitcoin friendly. Also in my case we operate 100% in bitcoin, withdrawing to pay in $USD creates some added complications. (Not to say it would stop us from buying mind you lol)

Also are you simply porting existing mining cores to this or developing your own core from scratch (with your experienced dev team you could likely build a much improved sha256 hashing core whch could further improve your performance). Or are you sending the boards without bitstreams and leaving it up to the community to develop one?

[yohan]

We will look at mtgox or even Bitcoins directly but we are newbies in this market so we start with what we are already good at i.e. making boards and using payment systems we that have used for years. We are aware these payment systems might be an issue to some people in Bitcoin community so it will get looked at. It is a learning process for us and it would not be good for the business, or our customers, if we get it wrong. All of our cost base is in traditional money so we do need take care on conversion rates and so on. So please have patience in this respect and let us find our footing. it will get better in this respect. Our first target is to deliver what we have promised and ship customers their boards from late May.

Even with the large number of pre-orders we have received in the last 8 hours we are still well within our May and June capacity. As of this minute any pre-orders place are likely to be fulfilled by about mid-June if not sooner. We will have a better idea on timelines when we hit the milestone of ordering in the bare PCBs some time next week.

[Gomeler]

The design side is easy for our very able team. To give you an idea the design, and first proto was built, of Merrick1 in 8 weeks. That's 100X the complexity of what we are doing on this first Bitcoin product. I could give a very long list of similar examples of other projects. This is a professional design and manufacture team that's at the top of profession teams.

We will look at FPGA optimisations and software aspects but I won't promise any timelines. That's part of the reason for the current price. You will have to do a bit of work yourself so this may not be for everyone in this raw form. The timelines on this will depend on what else the design team end up doing. The team is rarely underloaded so this sort thing can take time.

yohan,

some rough edges are not a problem as long as the board has its FPGA bitstream and there is a description of the protocol used to communicate with onboard FPGAs so that mining programs can be upgraded to use your boards.

if, on the other  hand, you're selling a "naked" board, without any software nor FPGA bitstream, then this should be clearly stated since very few here will be able to use them even adding a lot of work

spiccioli.

 

If it is based on a XC6SLX150, shouldn't we be able to use the one of the many bitstreams for various boards out there? So long as we have an interface to program the FPGA it should be smooth sailing? I own no FPGAs but as you say this is a critical issue.

Also, could you guys use a through-hole mounting system for the heatsinks. Something in a similar manner to most other FPGAs. It makes mounting various heatsinks much easier than clip-on heatsinks. Depending on the design, I might attempt to mill a waterblock for these and a through-hole mounting system is far superior than clips.

[yohan]

We are looking at the bitstream aspect right now whilst the layout is completing but we should be able either directly use a bitstream or alternatively rebuild for our package/pinout.

On doing our own core that is certainly a possibility as is just improving existing ones. By past experience the team here are capable of reducing logic size, reducing power or even increasing performance over most "average" user designs. In extreme cases we have seen designs shrick by as much as 30-50% when we have worked seriously on a design. I won't say that can always be done, or it's easy, but we can often do something in this respect.

We are going to support the holes for heatsinks with fans by having suitable holes for these. Our shipping standard will be the 12cm fan with individual heatsinks. The 12cm fan should be a lot less noise and more reliable than the small heatsink mounted ones. For stacks we are planning a push-pull fan arrangement. Between all the holes planned in the PCB there should be a possibility to do a water cooled or single piece heatsink or even heatpipe. There will be 4 fan connectors to take power from and use those any sensible way you like.

[norulezapply]

How are you able to produce these boards for such a low cost? Compared to ZTEX and the other alternatives.

[yohan]

We build FPGA boards in fairly large numbers so we get silicon cheaper than most and hence the price. The Spartan6 for this design has been used in designs here for over 2 years now and we use loads of them in other applications. Have a look at what we do in our Merrick family boards. Anything up 101 FPGAs on a single board.

[Gomeler]

We are looking at the bitstream aspect right now whilst the layout is completing but we should be able either directly use a bitstream or alternatively rebuild for our package/pinout.

On doing our own core that is certainly a possibility as is just improving existing ones. By past experience the team here are capable of reducing logic size, reducing power or even increasing performance over most "average" user designs. In extreme cases we have seen designs shrick by as much as 30-50% when we have worked seriously on a design. I won't say that can always be done, or it's easy, but we can often do something in this respect.

We are going to support the holes for heatsinks with fans by having suitable holes for these. Our shipping standard will be the 12cm fan with individual heatsinks. The 12cm fan should be a lot less noise and more reliable than the small heatsink mounted ones. For stacks we are planning a push-pull fan arrangement. Between all the holes planned in the PCB there should be a possibility to do a water cooled or single piece heatsink or even heatpipe. There will be 4 fan connectors to take power from and use those any sensible way you like.

Thanks for the response. Look forward to the prototype renderings.

[Dexter770221]

Price is very attractive indeed. But this board will be huge...

[Cablez]

Very interested.  Give BFL a run for their money, they need it.   

[Gomeler]

Will there be a warranty available? Also, will there be non-warranty repair service available? For instance, if a component were to fail, outside of the warranty period if one is offered, would it be possible to mail the device back for repair?