any news and Q&A will post in this thread.
as we all know, Lancelot is a improvement edition for past "icarus" board. now the hardware design work is nearly finish ), but the firmware development is facing serious difficulties.
i write down what is confirmable and what we are still working at.
please feel free to ask questions, and i will answer what i can answer, if i can't answer right now, i will answer them later.
the design is not finished yet, so if there is any valuable suggestion i will put it into the design.
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ADD @ 8/5
accept bitsteam developer's orders.
one set for one person only.
on set include:
1* Lancelot, with standard cooling system, WITHOUT power adapter.
1* DEV kit, with necessary software, documents.
1* EMS shipment Service.
the total price is 500USD.
if you want to place an order, please sent a email to:
ngzhang1983@msn.comor a PM, or both for a measure.
the message must include : your address.
payment accept MTGOX redeem code and bitcoins.
the shipment date is in 1 week after the payment.
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ADD some pictures.
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1st batch production date fixed @ 7/17! quantity is 100. ----already finished, and tested.
bitsteam development reached a milestone. single core running correctly (very small but fast), but overall performance still waiting measurement. maybe will release at about 550MH/s per board, and rise to over 700MH/s after 1-2 bitsteam updates.
pre-order is still NOT acceptable.
price will reduce significantly after batch 2 (hope will have batch 3. )
EXTREMELY busy these days! reviewing HDL codes with other developers to mid night everyday! fix the hardware bugs! do the prepare work for the production! and lots of school works!
apologize for all delay, include mails and messages. will catch up next week..
sample stage reached (@6/6)! doing the hardware test.
some pictures:
notice: all test batch boards are green, and retail products is blue PCB. this is a personal habits.
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1, price.
500 USD for one, and will lower up to 20% if your order is large (>50 Pcs).
2, delivery time.
still unknown. hardware will come out in may, first batch delivery will in July.
3, architecture.
XC6SLX150 *2, maybe -2C/ -2I/ -3C/ -N3C speed grade. first batch will be -2I speed grade.
4, speed.
still unknown, our design goal is higher than 550MH/s pre board (-2I speed grade), but.... who knows. certainly, will not slower than icarus.
5, power consume.
better than icarus. (hope for 10-25% more MH/W performance, means 25MH/w)
6, other features.
a, board temperature monitoring.
b, PWM fan control and speed monitoring.
c, standard 6 or 9CM low speed(1200RPM) fan.
d, MCU friendly port for development.
e, 64 GPIOs for general purpose application. plus 8LEDs, 8Switches, 4 push buttons, 24 internal connections.
f, 100 CM^2 PCB size.
g, both 2.5/5.5mm power plug and D-type Molex power connector.
h, 6-layer PCB with 2OZ copper for enhance cooling. special layout design for lower the FPGA core temperature.
i, USB port for communication.
j, ROHS.
k, will compatible with present icarus bitsteam at first.
l, core power module can provide 14A(25A peak) for each FPGA VCCINT, and io power module can provide 6A for VCCIO and VCCAUX (share by 2 FPGAs), all continuous output.
m, 2 milliOHM MOSFET.
7, pre-orders.
not start yet. will start when we begin the first batch's production.
8, cluster model.
our plan is implement a cluster model by a mother board. and will have LAN and WIFI function for independent operation.
but this mother board is still at the beginning stage of development . i hope will have a sample in future 2-3 months.
happily, there is no technical difficulties on this part, only need is to do.
9, about developer tools.
DEV KIT is still available.
10, open source.
hardware will still fully open sourced, software and firmware will have open sourced versions too.
on of ouer plan is to apply a close sourced commercial SHA256 core, but this practice is still under valuation.
11, payment
will same as past, BTCs, MTGOX$, wire, paypal(with 5%plus fee), LR. but NO Dwolla.
12, warranty.
will have a 90 days limited warranty and 1 year repair service with charge.
limited warranty means will have a free repair service for any unartificial caused damage. but NOT include FPGA damage (for any reason) and Artificial damage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------Small installation guide---------------------------------------------------------
Introduction:
All Lancelot mining board delivery with a default bitsteam, so the boards can operate "out of box".
the Power switch is at the right side of the board, default is OFF. please keep the board OFF when you do the assembling work.
Hardware installation:
1, connect the Power cable, use Molex-D-type connector or 5.5/2.5mm power plug. please do not use both of them.
2, connect the USB cable. notice that computer will not found any new hardware when the board is power OFF.
3, keep the environment cool.
4, turn on the board. the fan will start to operate, and the white LED (DONE1 and DONE2) will light up. and your computer will find some new hardware.
software installation:
1, the only need driver is the FT232R driver, you can download it here:
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htmuse the "Virtual COM Port Drivers".
2, open your device manager, and record the COM port number.
3, download cgminer, i only test the 2.4.1 version.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0start the program by a .bat file, the following is an example:
cgminer -G -o http://pit.deepbit.net:8332 -u ngzhang1983@msn.com_0 -p 1234 -S com6
pause
the "-G" parameter means disable the GPU devices, the "-S com6" parameter indicate the Lancelot mining board is at com port "6". you must change this number to your board number.
you should get the follow screen:
cgminer version 2.4.1 - Started: [2012-08-22 20:29:26]
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(5s):363.9 (avg):253.4 Mh/s | Q:6 A:0 R:0 HW:0 E:0% U:0.0/m
TQ: 1 ST: 3 SS: 0 DW: 1 NB: 2 LW: 0 GF: 0 RF: 0
Connected to http://pit.deepbit.net:8332 with LP as user 4382312@gmail.com_0
Block: 000002e6078f1b66e8735513a4a298e7... Started: [20:29:39]
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[P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
ICA 0: | 184.4/253.4Mh/s | A:0 R:0 HW:0 U:0.00/m
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[2012-08-22 20:29:23] Started cgminer 2.4.1
[2012-08-22 20:29:23] Found 0 ztex board(s)
[2012-08-22 20:29:23] Probing for an alive pool
[2012-08-22 20:29:26] Long-polling activated for http://pit.deepbit.net:8332/li
stenChannel
[2012-08-22 20:29:26] Pool 0 http://pit.deepbit.net:8332 alive
[2012-08-22 20:29:27] Pool 1 http://mine3.btcguild.com:8332 alive
[2012-08-22 20:29:27] Long-polling activated for http://mine3.btcguild.com:8332
/LP/
[2012-08-22 20:29:39] LONGPOLL from pool 0 detected new block
