yohan (OP)
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June 01, 2012, 08:41:33 PM Last edit: June 02, 2012, 06:52:57 AM by yohan |
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Update
Ok today was basically a good one and we think we have the in-built programmer sorted. We have a couple of tweeks to go in mainly related to us getting our unique sub-ID today for the USB from FTDI but it's basically working with the default ID. That tidy up should be done over the weekend. In parallel with this we are going to test the entire set of boards with this before we let them our of our clutches and send to those expecting them. Ok so that means they didn't ship today but we do want to be as sure as we can that there no bugs with a feature as important as this.
Our new bench and test kit was fitted into place today and we did a pile of testing today with boards. It will still take a few weeks to full refine the processes but it was working well today and doing everything we wanted out of this part of the process.
Bitstream - No progress today due to all the other things going on.
Packaging for the first 100 boards arrived late yesterday so we are ready to go on that front.
Stacking kit - We have not fully decided on what to offer as standard in the kit. Obvious will be pillars and an up/down cable. What we have not decided on are things like power linkages or r/a brackets for push pull fans.
UP/DOWN - Our structure and use of the UP/DOWN is now fairly well defined and a single USB cable should support an entire stack of boards with CGminer. MUltiple USB cable, multiple stack, combinations are also possible. There are a pile of commands we are putting in for extended CGminer facilities.
Some of you have asked about power linkages and input power. Using the PCIe power connector as input 1 board could be chained using the disk drive connector as those are simply hard wired together. I wouldn't recommend 2 but that might work. 2 units will take a greater current than the disk drive connector is technically rated for. The pheonix and jack are fed in through a diode to protect against bad polarity on the jack and bad wiring on the pheonix. That diode stops output power feeding on those 2.
For the ultimate of power routing the phenoix connector offers the ability to use heavy, low loss, wire gauges over 3 strands of 12V and 3 strands of GND so a heavy power distribution for a high current supply is possible and power bussing for a board stack is very practical. We talk a bit more of the options here as we get to the point of shipping large orders of Cairnsmore1.
Yohan
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zefir
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June 01, 2012, 09:38:18 PM |
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Thanks, that's a really helpful and very promising update. Looking at roomservice's FPGA mining farm setup nicely shows how daisy chaining the communication will reduce the cable mess when setting up such a cluster of boards Great job!
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rampone
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dafq is goin on
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June 01, 2012, 10:45:41 PM |
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Even if shipping did not happen today, we had been warned also that this might happen Pretty much satisfied, except the non bit-pay payment option. Also: as eldentyrells tricone firmware is out and a "Board Developer Kit" for the firmware http://www.tricone-mining.com/bdk.html, is enterpoint looking into that (you probably watched the development), or do you even think you can suceed in developing an even better formware without commission? TY and Kudos so far, Rampone
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yohan (OP)
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June 02, 2012, 02:59:29 PM |
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Enjoy
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rjk
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1ngldh
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June 02, 2012, 03:02:15 PM |
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OOooOOoOOooO. Do want.
Pretty please, a pic of them stacked with the correct connectors hooked up?
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Lethos
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June 04, 2012, 08:21:28 AM |
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Enjoy Look forward to getting mine now even more.
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MXRider
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June 04, 2012, 08:53:56 AM |
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Even if shipping did not happen today, we had been warned also that this might happen Pretty much satisfied, except the non bit-pay payment option. Also: as eldentyrells tricone firmware is out and a "Board Developer Kit" for the firmware http://www.tricone-mining.com/bdk.html, is enterpoint looking into that (you probably watched the development), or do you even think you can suceed in developing an even better formware without commission? TY and Kudos so far, Rampone I think best option for customers and for enterpoint is to develop a bitstream that works only with boards manufactured by Enterpoint. That way Enterpoint gets a proper compensation for their work. They would also get new customers who want to use the faster bitstream. There is no use selling that bitstream because potential buyers already have Enterpoint boards with that same bitstream. Is this possible? I can not think any downsides?
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Lethos
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June 04, 2012, 09:18:51 AM |
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Not sure it be as beneficial as you think. Just because they are the designers/developers of the hardware and software does not guarantee it would be the fastest possible bitstream. There could be other developers out there, given the chance whom could make a faster one. That is why Yohan has the developers program.
Now I doubt I'll be one of the developers to make the fastest bitstream, but I at least want to try and learn, so one day I could. Everyone has to start somewhere.
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yohan (OP)
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June 04, 2012, 09:30:09 AM Last edit: June 04, 2012, 12:53:30 PM by yohan |
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Enterpoint. like all the hardware producers, has a ready made charging model in the shape of the boards and that is initial intention that's a straight forward sale. Obviously if the bitstream gets ripped off and used elsewhere we might have to look at that again. It's different for firmware and software producers that don't have the hardware dongle.
We might. or not, end up with the fastest bitstream done by ourselves but the key to anything being scccessful is a good hardware platform and I think we have that in Cairnsmore1. It's up to customers which bitstream provider they want to use and how much they might pay for that. We don't have any problems with this model.
Regards John
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wildemagic
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June 04, 2012, 10:31:58 AM |
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Yohan, so long as it hashes like other quad spartans, in the ballpark of 800Mhash/sec, I dont mind.
Its well priced hardware that looks pretty good.
kind regards
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.,-._|\ Offgrid 1.7kW Solar and 3G wireless internet powering my mining rig. / .Oz. \ \_,--.x/ [219.5btc of successful trades total] with : rastapool, miernik, flatronw & OneFixt o
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MrTeal
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June 04, 2012, 03:12:40 PM |
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Assuming each board will consume less than 40W, I prepared two 1.2kW PSUs and need some additional information to prepare power and communication cabling. If it was not already answered somewhere else, could you please respond to the following:
Wow, how many boards did you order?
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steamboat
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June 04, 2012, 03:26:08 PM |
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Assuming each board will consume less than 40W, I prepared two 1.2kW PSUs and need some additional information to prepare power and communication cabling. If it was not already answered somewhere else, could you please respond to the following:
Wow, how many boards did you order? 2400/40?
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MXRider
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June 04, 2012, 03:37:09 PM |
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Assuming each board will consume less than 40W, I prepared two 1.2kW PSUs and need some additional information to prepare power and communication cabling. If it was not already answered somewhere else, could you please respond to the following:
Wow, how many boards did you order? 2400/40? No. If you had components drawing about 600W would you use 600W or 800W or maybe even 1000W PSU. My guess is 40-50 boards max.
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zefir
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June 04, 2012, 03:41:37 PM |
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Assuming each board will consume less than 40W, I prepared two 1.2kW PSUs and need some additional information to prepare power and communication cabling. If it was not already answered somewhere else, could you please respond to the following:
Wow, how many boards did you order? I see, you did not read the announcement in my sig 50 from the first batch go to my mining company. I'd be able to replace 4GH/s GPU force with 10x more FPGA force at the same energy consumption. Now that's what I call significant improvement
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rjk
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1ngldh
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June 04, 2012, 03:48:15 PM Last edit: June 04, 2012, 04:14:12 PM by rjk |
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Giving it a nice round even 50 boards, = $32,000. That would result in 40 Ghash/s at the bare minimum, at 2KW. With an improved bitstream, it takes on the Rig Box (which has been replaced with the Mini Rig). If we assume 1ghash/s from a new bitstream, that works out to 50 Ghash/s hopefully at no additional cost, and maybe a few additional watts. This really is competitive at the $640 price, but that will be going up in the future by about 50%. However, I think there will be plenty that will pay even the higher price for a good product.
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zefir
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June 04, 2012, 03:59:03 PM |
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Giving it a nice round even 50 boards, = $32,000. That would result in 40 Ghash/s at the bare minimum, at 2KW. With an improved bitstream, it takes on the Rig Box (which has been replaces with the Mini Rig). If we assume 1ghash/s from a new bitstream, that works out to 50 Ghash/s hopefully at no additional cost, and maybe a few additional watts. This really is competitive at the $640 price, but that will be going up in the future by about 50%. However, I think there will be plenty that will pay even the higher price for a good product.
That's the math I did when I decided to jump in. The 40$ premium over a BFLS will equalize for me (.15$/kWh) within 9 months. Enough time to drive out GPUs and remain profitable in the long run. OTOH - if BFL's ASIC comes too fast, we all are going to be pushed out and I'll maybe need to re-program the boards for WPA2 cracking or some other 'useful' work
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yohan (OP)
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June 04, 2012, 04:45:43 PM |
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We have been looking at high power ATX PSUs and have a few coming in this week to sample and try out. We will use them on our burn in rig. There are several that offer 8 PCIe connections plut Disk Drive connections and we are looking at how best to extract the power and deliver to the boards. One way might be a combined switch on and distribution board and we are looking at whether that is worth doing for our own test purposes or even more generally.
Yohan
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zefir
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June 04, 2012, 07:19:51 PM |
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We have been looking at high power ATX PSUs and have a few coming in this week to sample and try out. We will use them on our burn in rig. There are several that offer 8 PCIe connections plut Disk Drive connections and we are looking at how best to extract the power and deliver to the boards. One way might be a combined switch on and distribution board and we are looking at whether that is worth doing for our own test purposes or even more generally.
Yohan
<OFF_TOPIC> Yohan, could you maybe clarify whether you are John (like you signed one of your last posts here)? Just to prevent you entering schizo mode when I write ' Hi John, yohan said...' to boadsales@enterpoint </OFF_TOPIC>
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MXRider
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June 05, 2012, 07:42:06 PM |
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God Save the Queen! Now give us some performance numbers I don't remember when was the last time I wanted to buy something so badly.
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yohan (OP)
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June 05, 2012, 08:48:52 PM |
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We might get a bitstream into the board this week based on a re-build of standard stuff but for higher performance one of our own is probably about 4 weeks away. That's also dependent on what else we have to do in the next few weeks on other projects. There may be third party solutions available before our optimised solution is available. So don't expect spectacular bitstream results from us this week. You are going to have to be a bit patient on this. Our target this week is ensuring that the in-built programmer is totally rock solid, getting the production line more optimised, actually shipping boards and trying to get a standard bitstream working to our satisfaction. That's all on top of a large number of UK people being on holiday this week.
Although we have not had a massive amount of time to work with standard bitstreams but we have had some progress and can get a test nonce to run now using our CGminer based test harness. We still have some coms issues to resolve and that is the main area of work this week at the bitstream level.
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