Cairnsmore1 - Quad XC6SLX150 Board

[LazyOtto]

<a lot of useful info>

Thank you, Glasswalker.

[yohan]

Guys sorry I have been a bit distant today and not done a few things I said I would do but thanks to *** I was run off my feet handling new orders and thanks to customers for all of those. I'm sure we will live up to everyones faith.

Dip switches - One of things I have not quite got to as yet. One thing I was reminded about is that the functions on the Controller dip switches changed mid production ship so this might cause confusion when you are playing with them. The normal positions should be the same if I remember right but what they change differs. Hopefully that makes some sense. This change came in about board 26. We are nearly ready to give out the programming software setup and that's already partially on our server albeit not linked in as yet. We are doing some final testing on virgin machines to check all is ok with that and putting together some instructions of how to use it all. Once that is in place everyone will be able to update their Cairnsmore1 Controllers to the latest standard. When this comes out we will be interested in any feedback on how we might make the process easier or better or indeed if you have any problems doing this.

Bitstreams - It is slow progress here and we are actually managing more time on our new original design that the Icarus rebuild. I am hoping that more time will be available as the week goes on and certainly next week. This isn't totally far from our own internal prediction for progress so I'm not worried by that and this more to reassure customers that it is moving albeit slowly. We are supported third party solutions as best we can so you are not just reliant on the Enterpoint team moving this forward. I expect we will reach a turning point fairly soon on what we are doing in bitstreams and then things will happen in a fairly fast and furious fashion.

Shipping -Reached a new high today with the shipment heavier than the courier that came to collect it. Our test, final assembly and packing lines showed a massive improvement today and the data looks very good. Numbers of boards that we struggled to handle last week were handled by half the staff with time to spare. That's fairly key to us taking a big step next on the primary assembly line where we go to running two P&P machines instead of one. It's very much a game of balancing the different processes and we have some to do there.

Clocking - We do have problem with 100MHz clock on one particular FPGA position however we think we have a firmware fix that will solve that. It's not been fully tested as yet. It's also possible to run between 25MHz and 50MHz and to multiple it up locally at the FPGA and that way is stable for all FPGAs and one definate way forward. Icarus builds already do this going 100MHz to 190MHz and we can do the same from 50MHz or 25MHz to 190MHz or whatever is appropriate for a given bitstream. This therefore should not be a problem to any of our customers beyond this initial phase.

[norulezapply]

..
Shipping -Reached a new high today with the shipment heavier than the courier that came to collect it.
..

  

Thanks for the update yohan.

Looking forward to getting my hands on the USB programming software!

[JustJason]

The performance version with Ethernet support I don't have a timeline for as yet or a even full specification for as yet. It will come in it's own good time.

I'm very interested for such board. Either with Gigabit Ethernet or PCIe interface, but something with higher bandwidth and lower latency than the USB. At least one chip should be LX150T to achieve that. The chips on the board should be interconnected with each other with whatever means you find cost-efficient to maximize the cross-sectional bandwidth.

If you still haven't fully worked out the dual LX150 board then I urge you to consider connecting every free pin on the Spartans with each other, obeying the differential pair rules.

Thanks.

+1

PCIe preferable, but I'll take GigE
Maximising inter-FPGA bandwidth is also a great idea.

[mem]

...
Questions

• Any settings etc I should be wary of when getting these going ? (dont want to blow them 1st round)

...

I'm sure you can't blow it, i switched everything and it's hashing ~140Mh/s and cold as an refrigerator

As Yohan stated some pages befor, the shipping switches should be:
SW1 all on
SW6 all on (57600 baud 100Mh/s, 1 off 115200 baud ~140Mh/s)

SW2 all on
SW3 134 on, 2 off
SW4 134 on, 2 off
SW5 all on

Thanks

<a lot of useful info>

Thank you, Glasswalker.

Yep, thanks heaps Glasswalker.

Guys sorry I have been a bit distant today and not done a few things I said I would do but thanks to *** I was run off my feet handling new orders and thanks to customers for all of those. I'm sure we will live up to everyones faith.

I have a complaint Yohan, you are being far to forth coming and honest about your product - please start ignoring and insulting your clients the way we FPGA bitcoiners  have become accustomed to.

In all seriousness, you guys rock and its a pleasure to see a launch done right. (pre launch actually and that just makes it even more impressive).

[Keninishna]

We need firmware! what if the more advanced firmware reveals a bug in the hardware and no one can get all the fpgas running? Just food for thought.

[LazyOtto]

We need firmware! what if the more advanced firmware reveals a bug in the hardware and no one can get all the fpgas running? Just food for thought.

That is the risk of buying pre-production hardware.

If you want safety, wait for the final/proven version before you buy.

Of course, the purchase cost is 50% higher at that point.

[Keninishna]

We need firmware! what if the more advanced firmware reveals a bug in the hardware and no one can get all the fpgas running? Just food for thought.

That is the risk of buying pre-production hardware.

If you want safety, wait for the final/proven version before you buy.

Of course, the purchase cost is 50% higher at that point.

I do believe they are still selling it as a working piece of equipment that is all fpgas should work and would be covered under warranty. Now I don't think they have gaurenteed a hashrate yet so if it maxes out at like 300mhs thats another story :/

[Hyper 1]

I have a complaint Yohan, you are being far to forth coming and honest about your product - please start ignoring and insulting your clients the way we FPGA bitcoiners  have become accustomed to.

In all seriousness, you guys rock and its a pleasure to see a launch done right. (pre launch actually and that just makes it even more impressive).

I had a chuckle reading this, I have just experienced the accustomed way of communicating today.
But Yohan you have been a pleasure to deal with so far so I look forward to dealing with you for a long time.

Funny how customer service has a big influence on peoples choices.
Maybe it has something to do with the after sales support people believe they may or may not get!

[yohan]

Ok time for a commercial nugget. We have decided a few things here in response to great support we have been getting from the vast majority of you all.

The first decision is that for any Cairnsmore1 order already placed/received or placed before the end of June we will allow the same customer to place orders up to the a total of the same amount again, and at the same price, anytime during July, August or September 2012. If by chance we have a better offer they will be switched to that and receive that pricing.

The second decision is that until the we reach 800 MH/s on Cairnsmore1 the offer price will be available for any new orders. The 800 MH/s performance can be by any available bitstream and that changeover is at our sole discretion. The pricing changeover will be announced in this thread. The post 800MH/s pricing structure will be announced at this point and not before.

Our third decision is that any of competitors, apart from ***, that operate in a fair way are welcome to take advantage of our silicon prices and have their unit built in our line. There will obviously be some discussion on the price to do this work and you may, or not, like the price but that is an offer essentially with no strings attached. You are welcome to use this offer or not. We believe that Bitcoin will be better served with a range of competing FPGA hardware solutions available and that is the spirit in which this offer is made.

Yohan

[wildemagic]

Yohan, your a legend.  Keep up the good work mate.

kind regards

[Gomeler]

Ok time for a commercial nugget. We have decided a few things here in response to great support we have been getting from the vast majority of you all.

The first decision is that for any Cairnsmore1 order placed before the end of June we will allow the same customer to place orders up to the same amount again and at the same price during July, August or September 2012. If by chance we have a better offer they will be switched to that and receive that pricing.

The second decision is that until the we reach 800 MH/s on Cairnsmore1 the offer price will be available for any new orders. The 800 MH/s performance can be by any available bitstream and that changeover is at our sole discretion. The pricing changeover will be announced in this thread. The post 800MH/s pricing structure will be announced at this point and not before.

Our third decision is that any of competitors, apart from ***, that operate in a fair way are welcome to take advantage of our silicon prices and have their unit built in our line. There will obviously be some discussion on the price to do this work and you may, or not, like the price but that is an offer essentially with no strings attached. You are welcome to use this offer or not. We believe that Bitcoin will be better served with a range of competing FPGA hardware solutions available and that is the spirit in which this offer is made.

Yohan

Um. Wow. That is incredibly generous and I agree on all points. Bringing down the MH/$ ratio with such an offer is great for everyone even if it isn't an Enterpoint board.

[spiccioli]

The first decision is that for any Cairnsmore1 order placed before the end of June we will allow the same customer to place orders up to the same amount again and at the same price during July, August or September 2012. If by chance we have a better offer they will be switched to that and receive that pricing.

Yohan,

I read in your offer that we, early adopters (order placed at the end of april), are entitled to such offer as well

spiccioli

[yohan]

The first decision is that for any Cairnsmore1 order placed before the end of June we will allow the same customer to place orders up to the same amount again and at the same price during July, August or September 2012. If by chance we have a better offer they will be switched to that and receive that pricing.

Yohan,

I read in your offer that we, early adopters (order placed at the end of april), are entitled to such offer as well

spiccioli

Yes I just modified the post to make that clearer.

[norulezapply]

Ok time for a commercial nugget. We have decided a few things here in response to great support we have been getting from the vast majority of you all.

The first decision is that for any Cairnsmore1 order already placed/received or placed before the end of June we will allow the same customer to place orders up to the same amount again and at the same price during July, August or September 2012. If by chance we have a better offer they will be switched to that and receive that pricing.

The second decision is that until the we reach 800 MH/s on Cairnsmore1 the offer price will be available for any new orders. The 800 MH/s performance can be by any available bitstream and that changeover is at our sole discretion. The pricing changeover will be announced in this thread. The post 800MH/s pricing structure will be announced at this point and not before.

Our third decision is that any of competitors, apart from ***, that operate in a fair way are welcome to take advantage of our silicon prices and have their unit built in our line. There will obviously be some discussion on the price to do this work and you may, or not, like the price but that is an offer essentially with no strings attached. You are welcome to use this offer or not. We believe that Bitcoin will be better served with a range of competing FPGA hardware solutions available and that is the spirit in which this offer is made.

Yohan

Wow, thank you for the great offer Yohan

And it's great to see you offering other competitors to use your production line. This is something that really surprised me! But it's great to see that you've obviously got some of the spirit of the Bitcoin community and are not entirely profit-driven!

<3

Um. Wow. That is incredibly generous and I agree on all points. Bringing down the MH/$ ratio with such an offer is great for everyone even if it isn't an Enterpoint board.

I agree. This is great for the community and very sporting of Enterpoint to offer such a deal to competitors.

[TheHarbinger]

Ok time for a commercial nugget. We have decided a few things here in response to great support we have been getting from the vast majority of you all.

The first decision is that for any Cairnsmore1 order already placed/received or placed before the end of June we will allow the same customer to place orders up to the same amount again and at the same price during July, August or September 2012. If by chance we have a better offer they will be switched to that and receive that pricing.

The second decision is that until the we reach 800 MH/s on Cairnsmore1 the offer price will be available for any new orders. The 800 MH/s performance can be by any available bitstream and that changeover is at our sole discretion. The pricing changeover will be announced in this thread. The post 800MH/s pricing structure will be announced at this point and not before.

Our third decision is that any of competitors, apart from ***, that operate in a fair way are welcome to take advantage of our silicon prices and have their unit built in our line. There will obviously be some discussion on the price to do this work and you may, or not, like the price but that is an offer essentially with no strings attached. You are welcome to use this offer or not. We believe that Bitcoin will be better served with a range of competing FPGA hardware solutions available and that is the spirit in which this offer is made.

Yohan

Holy fucking epic Batman!

Do you folks ride to work on unicorns and fart rainbows by an chance?

Yohan, be careful, you guys are quickly crossing into the "To good to be true" spectrum.

Mods, can you sticky this post as a reminder to certain other "companies" on how a business should be run?

[mem]

Ok time for a commercial nugget. We have decided a few things here in response to great support we have been getting from the vast majority of you all.

The first decision is that for any Cairnsmore1 order already placed/received or placed before the end of June we will allow the same customer to place orders up to the same amount again and at the same price during July, August or September 2012. If by chance we have a better offer they will be switched to that and receive that pricing.

The second decision is that until the we reach 800 MH/s on Cairnsmore1 the offer price will be available for any new orders. The 800 MH/s performance can be by any available bitstream and that changeover is at our sole discretion. The pricing changeover will be announced in this thread. The post 800MH/s pricing structure will be announced at this point and not before.

Our third decision is that any of competitors, apart from ***, that operate in a fair way are welcome to take advantage of our silicon prices and have their unit built in our line. There will obviously be some discussion on the price to do this work and you may, or not, like the price but that is an offer essentially with no strings attached. You are welcome to use this offer or not. We believe that Bitcoin will be better served with a range of competing FPGA hardware solutions available and that is the spirit in which this offer is made.

Yohan

^ I have died and gone to bitcoin heaven.

[gyverlb]

Received confirmation by mail that I was scheduled for ordering and ordered my boards yesterday.

Just when I wondered if there was some delay to be expected here...

I'm very pleased with the way Enterpoint is communicating with us and matching their schedule since day 1.
The pricing offer for early adopters is the icing on the cake.

@yohan : do you plan to publish the total number of boards ordered or delivered ? The community often tries to keep track of these numbers (there are dedicated threads for this purpose for other manufacturers) but it would be nice if Enterpoint would communicate them at regular intervals.

[rjk]

@yohan : do you plan to publish the total number of boards ordered or delivered ? The community often tries to keep track of these numbers (there are dedicated threads for this purpose for other manufacturers) but it would be nice if Enterpoint would communicate them at regular intervals.

Although most businesses don't like to reveal info like this, it's always interesting to know from a statistical perspective.

[Gomeler]

@yohan : do you plan to publish the total number of boards ordered or delivered ? The community often tries to keep track of these numbers (there are dedicated threads for this purpose for other manufacturers) but it would be nice if Enterpoint would communicate them at regular intervals.

Although most businesses don't like to reveal info like this, it's always interesting to know from a statistical perspective.

Yup, some of us enjoy fun stats like the amount of GH/s provided by various solutions.