Bounty[PAID OUT] : a bitstream for better utilizing the Cairnsmore1 157-294.5btc

[Glasswalker]

I think if enterpoint also honor him it is only fair to give the bounty.
I will send my BTC to you.

To clairify, I haven't achieved an improved bitstream YET... But hopefully soon

I hope you didn't mean you'd send ME your money now (but the OP so he can gather the bounty)

Just clarifying, didn't want a misunderstanding. I DO however hope to succeed very soon. I'm busting my ass to get this working.

[Hpman]

Thanks!

Thanks to you!  I can imagine how much time it consumes and how difficult it is find this time beside the daily business.

Do you work on the array controller also? What additional third party tools was in the game ?


 

[Lethos]

Glad we got people like Glasswalker working on this.

Thank you!

[Glasswalker]

Fair enough. Thanks for all of your support.

I hope I can stand up to your expectations and deliver very soon.

As for the controller, It was built purely by enterpoint. I have access to their source code and I have played with it (and made several suggestions to them, some of which have been implemented) but all the code at this point has been written by them. I have some ideas for it, but I'm focusing 100% on the matrix chips for now.

I'll post more information once I have it. It's a slow process but I definitely feel like I'm VERY close right now. At the very least you should start seeing several incremental improvements over what you have now in the coming days.

Thanks again.

[BCbitcoin]

To be fair to ngzhang, he lists the software he uses and the fact that it's pirated. Piracy is legal in China and makes up a sizeable chunk of their economy.


From the icarus thread:

4, DEV kit include a XILINX platform cable USB, a USB stick with XILINX ISE 13.2/ altium 10/ synplify 2011.03, modelsim 10, all with crack but use as your own risk, commercial use is  illegal in my country (but legal for personal use in my country )) .

[Glasswalker]

To be fair to ngzhang, he lists the software he uses and the fact that it's pirated. Piracy is legal in China and makes up a sizeable chunk of their economy.


From the icarus thread:

4, DEV kit include a XILINX platform cable USB, a USB stick with XILINX ISE 13.2/ altium 10/ synplify 2011.03, modelsim 10, all with crack but use as your own risk, commercial use is  illegal in my country (but legal for personal use in my country )) .

Yes I agree, I wasn't intending that as an "accusation" but more of a statement as to why it's complicated for anyone else to recreate his results from his source code.

Also it should be clear this software isn't all used in synthesizing his bitstream, only Xilinx ISE and Synplify.

And the part that is a pain though, is his opensource code doesn't include any project files, settings, or configurations, and it requires a fairly elaborate setup mixing multiple tools for various subsections of the bitstream in order to get it to build at all without failing hard. None of this is documented or provided (without extraordinary measures in digging up the info)

I was mostly trying to be clear that I will in fact release the source (I must because it's opensource) including my work and modifications for cairnsmore, but when I do it will be challenging for others to recreate without these tools (though I will do my best to provide better resources to at least assist in the process).

My own bitstream will not be using anything but the default Xilinx ISE to do the build. But once again, that one is a long way off (and the model for it to be released is still "undetermined", if I beat Enterpoint to the punch, they will license it from me, but that's not an exclusive license, so I may still release it in another form). Depending on the circumstances at the time, I may very well opensource it completely, that's all to be determined still...

Either way the opensource bitstream built off ngzhang's code (which is in turn derived from Ztex code) should provide a SIGNIFICANT boost over the existing options, and provide a means for the cairnsmore to get up to at least 2x Icarus type performance (760Mhash), with a hope I'll hit 800Mhash with it. I won't try to push it much beyond that unless we have any more major breakthroughs. But after that I'll release the code, and the community is welcome to go nuts with it while I shift my focus to the 100% custom bitstream which is far more optimized for the cairnsmore's unique benefits.

Also there is a chance once I'm done with it, that enterpoint can "tweak" it to get a bit more of a boost out of it. We'll have to wait and see where they take it.

Anyway, I'm going to get back to work, I'll post back more info once we have it.

[simon66]

Why don't you guys just open a kick starter page?

Here, if you're lazy

http://www.kickstarter.com/

[Glasswalker]

I can't start a Kickstarter because I'm canadian, Kickstarter only works for US residents with a US SSN. You can't start a kickstarter if you're not. You can only contribute to a kickstarter from outside the US.

A bitcoin friendly kickstarter type site was one of the many projects I had planned for the Syndicate to develop and launch, but it's a long way off at this stage

As for the bounty group starting a kickstarter, the problem there is the one starting the kickstarter would be "responsible" for delivering on any promises. Might be a bit tricky to get around the limitations.

[Isokivi]

First draft of the bounty terms is up, 2nd post in this thread, you have 2 days to suggest changes or show approval.

[Stephen Gornick]

A bitcoin friendly kickstarter type site was one of the many projects I had planned for the Syndicate to develop and launch, but it's a long way off at this stage

Incidentally:

 - http://www.BitcoinFunding.com
 - http://Booster.io
 - http://Propster.me

[Slipbye]

I'm happy to match Zefir and Entropy-uc with 50btc for a bitstream before the 31/8/12 as per Isokivi Bounty terms.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that Glasswalker is first over the line 

[makomk]

And the part that is a pain though, is his opensource code doesn't include any project files, settings, or configurations, and it requires a fairly elaborate setup mixing multiple tools for various subsections of the bitstream in order to get it to build at all without failing hard. None of this is documented or provided (without extraordinary measures in digging up the info)

You should be able to build ngzhang's Icarus miner using just ISE's built-in synthesis tools, it's actually a relatively straightforward combination of bits from various existing miner projects that were originally meant to be built that way. The options to achieve this are a bit esoteric though - it's the nature of the beast really. I just did a SmartXplorer run on a dual-core and it hit Fmax = 166 MHz in under 24 hours; not quite what I was aiming for but not too shabby.

[ebereon]

... The options to achieve this are a bit esoteric though - it's the nature of the beast really. I just did a SmartXplorer run on a dual-core and it hit Fmax = 166 MHz in under 24 hours; not quite what I was aiming for but not too shabby.

Can you please tell us what options you use? I think that is the biggest problem to get something out the works.

[makomk]

... The options to achieve this are a bit esoteric though - it's the nature of the beast really. I just did a SmartXplorer run on a dual-core and it hit Fmax = 166 MHz in under 24 hours; not quite what I was aiming for but not too shabby.

Can you please tell us what options you use? I think that is the biggest problem to get something out the works.

Whole bunch of the nicked pretty much wholesale from ztex's project files, which is where the hashing code comes from originally. Unless I've screwed something up the cairnsmorewip branch at https://github.com/makomk/Icarus/tree/cairnsmorewip should have them in. It's probably just a problem of running SmartXplorer against that to search for a seed that works well.

[Glasswalker]

And the part that is a pain though, is his opensource code doesn't include any project files, settings, or configurations, and it requires a fairly elaborate setup mixing multiple tools for various subsections of the bitstream in order to get it to build at all without failing hard. None of this is documented or provided (without extraordinary measures in digging up the info)

You should be able to build ngzhang's Icarus miner using just ISE's built-in synthesis tools, it's actually a relatively straightforward combination of bits from various existing miner projects that were originally meant to be built that way. The options to achieve this are a bit esoteric though - it's the nature of the beast really. I just did a SmartXplorer run on a dual-core and it hit Fmax = 166 MHz in under 24 hours; not quite what I was aiming for but not too shabby.

I agree that you *should* because it's derived from ztex, and if you found a way to do it in pure ISE using some of ztex's notes that's awesome.

The main problem is that the icarus code as-is fails par because it can't fit it into the chip. I've tried several optimization options and it just downright fails. And based on posts from ngzhang himself, I was able to confirm he in fact uses a bit of a strange method, he synthesizes the sha256 core itself seperately in a seperate ise project, using some specific optimization flags, then he passes the ngd into the fpgaminer_top project, and synthesizes that using synplify pro, and THEN does an implementation phase based on the synthesized top level, and the already built sha256 core.

So I've reversed my build out of this. Plus my build now includes some custom logic, and a bunch of custom constraints, and completely different clocking code. Plus some other modifications.

But ultimately yes, closing timing is just a function of a massive smartxplorer run. I can hit lower clock rates fairly easily on a couple passes. But optimizing for 200Mhz is a problem. (my last smartxplorer run ran for nearly a week, and was unable to close 200Mhz, but it came damn close).

Anyway, if you want to try to pull this off on your own, then more power to you, My primary day to day job isn't FPGA development, so I'm probably not as skilled as someone who is a professional at this day in and day out . I'm always up for a little competition. Or if you want to collaborate, we can likely negotiate terms to share the bounty if you want to contribute to my existing effort.

Either way I'll keep pushing on this, and I hope to have the bitstream running very soon.

[Glasswalker]

I am fine with the terms but suggest it be clear that Glasswalker's contribution would qualify even if it his bitstream is released by Enterpoint.  Since he has been working the problem at his own risk with no assured compensation from Enterpoint, I believe that is fair.

I'd like to chime in as well to ask for clarification on this. Since chances are it will be Enterpoint that release my work. That said I'll be the one opensourcing it after the fact, and I'm sure Yohan will have no trouble verifying that I am the source of the bitstream. That said if them releasing it on my behalf will exclude me from the bounty, then that may be a problem. So I'll need to discuss that with them if that's the case, so please let me know which way this will be in the "official" requirements?

Thanks!

[Glasswalker]

FYI quick teaser for you

About 10 minutes ago I managed to close timing on the 175Mhz build. This means that according to the Xilinx tools, I have a viable 175Mhash/chip bitstream that should run stable on all 4 chips.

Now comes some additional work required to ACTUALLY run it on a hardware and verify this. And I need to test it for stability for 24h or so. So we're not "there" yet, but this is a fabulous leap forward. In addition, my machine is still chewing on it optimizing, and hopefully it will squeeze another 0.75ns out of the clock cycle. Which means I could push this to 200Mhash and keep it within "spec" (and honestly, the one enterpoint is testing now is using worse clocking code, and was out of spec by over 1.5ns and it was still semi-stable for them, showing the cairnsmore hardware can run a bit out of spec if needed).

Anyway, just a quick update, to be clear this is NOT yet a stable bitstream, but it's a jump forward. And barring any major bugs, within 24/48h I hope to deliver much better news to you

[ShadesOfMarble]

"3. The bitstream does not include any forced donation of hashingpower."

I would change that to

"3. The bitstream does not include any form of online DRM/forced donation, e.g. relaying work to 3rd-party server"

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Furthermore, add 2 BTC from me.

[Isokivi]

First draft of the bounty terms is up, 2nd post in this thread, you have 2 days to suggest changes or show approval.

Iso,

I am fine with the terms but suggest it be clear that Glasswalker's contribution would qualify even if it his bitstream is released by Enterpoint.  Since he has been working the problem at his own risk with no assured compensation from Enterpoint, I believe that is fair.

Also, if the general terms of the bounty is to withdraw it upon an Enterpoint release, that is the condition I will stand with.  My statement was only that I would support Zefir's proposal if everyone else went with it.

My bonus depends on most board owners contributing to the main bounty.  There are a several people who have openly acknowledged holding large numbers of boards who have not signed on.  I hope that changes soon.

Were hoping to have hundreads of ppl pledge in to this, I cannot and will not maintain everyones conditions in the bounty, especially since everyone seems to be tossing in different terms, sorry. If someone else has the time and devotion to do this, I will gladly step down from organizing things.

[Isokivi]

Term update:
"9. glasswalkers solution, even if released by enterpoint will qualify for the bounty if all other qualifications are met"

I hope this pleases all ?