GekkoScience BM1384 Project Development Discussion

[Mikestang]

I sure hope s1 repurposing with the latest chips is still on the agenda....

Ditto, been hanging on to my old S1 since that potential was first announced.  Hope to see it come to fruition soon, maybe in time for this coming winter.

[PlanetCrypto]

I sure hope s1 repurposing with the latest chips is still on the agenda....

Ditto, been hanging on to my old S1 since that potential was first announced.  Hope to see it come to fruition soon, maybe in time for this coming winter.

I got a butt load of S1's, S3's, and C1's as well.
To the best of my knowledge it's Bitmain not selling chips is the holdup.

[elrippo]

I sure hope s1 repurposing with the latest chips is still on the agenda....

Ditto, been hanging on to my old S1 since that potential was first announced.  Hope to see it come to fruition soon, maybe in time for this coming winter.

I got a butt load of S1's, S3's, and C1's as well.
To the best of my knowledge it's Bitmain not selling chips is the holdup.

Would be nice to see an S1 running on BM1385 chips  (just kidding)
I would be pleased to get boards with the BM1385 chip with a better efficiency than the S7 

[QuintLeo]

I would also like to see a more efficient (via more chips per string or via controlable voltage regulation) BM1385-based varient.

 Do the S1/S3/S5 all use the same frame mount points for their hash boards?

[PlanetCrypto]

I would also like to see a more efficient (via more chips per string or via controlable voltage regulation) BM1385-based varient.

As far as as I know, the 18 chip board will be a 20 chip board whose mounting is hole compatible with 1/2 of a S1/S3/S5/C1 heatsink/waterblock.
Assuming stock clock and Vcore with an operating efficiency of .216 W/GH/s and 80 chips total. 80 x 32.5 GH/s = 2600 GH/s (2.6 TH/s) drawing ~561W.
IF GS et. al. works a little magic and permits Vcore adjustment (which likely they will) this board via devolting/declocking will remain profitable to operate well into 2016.

Do the S1/S3/S5 all use the same frame mount points for their hash boards?

Plus/minus a couple of holes and in a word, YES.
and because the C1 uses S3 hash boards that unit can be included as well.

Now if Bitmain will sell chips, which currently they refuse to do, this endeavor could proceed forward.

[PlanetCrypto]

BTW, using the projected design one could get 8 20 chip boards into a C1 chassis versus 4 for the S1/S3/S5 making it a 5.2 TH/s liquid cooled machine drawing ~1125W.

And all we (the community) needs are the chips.

[sidehack]

They don't have to come from Bitmain either, if anyone else would be willing to let us play with their silicon. Avalon, Innosilicon and LK (unless they're using Innosilicon's chip) could contribute. Bitfury and 21e6 are technically able but very likely unwilling due to their selfish and/or nonsensical business models.

[QuintLeo]

I'm not sure you'll get the full 32.5 GH/s per chip with the undervolt to .6 volts per chip, but should be fairly close with a small undervolt like that at worst.
Depends on how much "overclock" headroom the chips turn out to have.

Trick is to keep the cost under 1/4 of whatever a S7 ends up selling for, otherwise it would make more sense to just get more S7s.

Are thel BM1385 chip specs posted yet anywhere?

[sidehack]

All our boards should have full-range voltage control. There'll be no 0.6V upper limit. If the S7 doesn't have inherent undervolting ability, our board would actually be better so even priced the same it'd still be the smarter purchase because the viable life is significantly extended without hacking required.

If we can't build the boards priced low enough to be worth buying, we won't build 'em. If the only way to do it is to either outsource manufacturing to a slave-labor or near-slave-labor country, or crap on the design in a way that kills flexibility or reliability, we won't build 'em.

I have seen no chip specs released yet except the sparse data that's been posted in BM1385's announcement.

[J4bberwock]

I'm not sure you'll get the full 32.5 GH/s per chip with the undervolt to .6 volts per chip, but should be fairly close with a small undervolt like that at worst.
Depends on how much "overclock" headroom the chips turn out to have.

Trick is to keep the cost under 1/4 of whatever a S7 ends up selling for, otherwise it would make more sense to just get more S7s.

Are thel BM1385 chip specs posted yet anywhere?

Do you mean the datasheet that is available on Bitmain website since the announcement of the chip?

https://bitmaintech.com/files/download/BM1385_Datasheet_v2.0.pdf

[TheRealSteve]

Do you mean the datasheet that is available on Bitmain website since the announcement of the chip?

Technically that was posted a bit later (had to adjust wiki when it popped up).  It's also somewhat incomplete compared to the previous chips' datasheets.  Unless I keep scrolling past it, there's no package outline - and even fewer sample points on hash rate/power.

[J4bberwock]

Do you mean the datasheet that is available on Bitmain website since the announcement of the chip?

Technically that was posted a bit later (had to adjust wiki when it popped up).  It's also somewhat incomplete compared to the previous chips' datasheets.  Unless I keep scrolling past it, there's no package outline - and even fewer sample points on hash rate/power.

Less specs maybe because they don't want to sell the chips, at least for now.

[TheRealSteve]

Less specs maybe because they don't want to sell the chips, at least for now.

Maybe -  or they just forgot to include those drawings into the PDF.. plenty of other technical detail in there for those wanting to get a bit of a head start.

We'll see, whenever...

[...] Bitmain expects that the next-gen chip will be available for consumer purchase in the near future.

...near future may be

[sidehack]

Yeah, that datasheet wasn't posted when I looked for it a few hours after the announcement. I hadn't checked back, thanks for the link.

If the datasheet is less complete than previous, it must be pretty sorry because the previous datasheets were severely lacking in data. I'll tear into it here in a few hours when I'm not placing parts on Compacs.

[chiguireitor]

Yeah, that datasheet wasn't posted when I looked for it a few hours after the announcement. I hadn't checked back, thanks for the link.

If the datasheet is less complete than previous, it must be pretty sorry because the previous datasheets were severely lacking in data. I'll tear into it here in a few hours when I'm not placing parts on Compacs.

They put the protocol on the sheet: Nice.

The package outline seems QFP? Nice.

OMG, hope they did read this thread.

[QuintLeo]

I didn't see it either when I looked for it the day after the original announcement.

 The limited number of voltages listed has some interesting implications - seems like we are definitely hitting the hard limits on 28nm (not a shock if it's full custom), though I'm a bit supprised that the max voltage listed is so low.

 I'm even MORE supprised that the "default" is now a mid-voltage point, as opposed to Bitmain's normal "highest voltage is the default".
 THAT makes me wonder if the S7 is going to turn out to be a 17 chip per string device, not an 18 as some of us have speculated - but upon reflection, no way they'd have published that "230 watts at the wall per TH" claim if so.

[AJRGale]

I'm not sure you'll get the full 32.5 GH/s per chip with the undervolt to .6 volts per chip, but should be fairly close with a small undervolt like that at worst.
Depends on how much "overclock" headroom the chips turn out to have.

Trick is to keep the cost under 1/4 of whatever a S7 ends up selling for, otherwise it would make more sense to just get more S7s.

Are thel BM1385 chip specs posted yet anywhere?

Do you mean the datasheet that is available on Bitmain website since the announcement of the chip?

https://bitmaintech.com/files/download/BM1385_Datasheet_v2.0.pdf

looking at the footprint, yet another different layout Again! at least this one looks a little more logical! no more odd blocks and tracks to throw the VCC in.. buuut still have to physically see it it might still bee some odd block for the power..

[sidehack]

Wow, that datasheet is a heck of a lot better than they've put out before! I really like that the protocol is detailed.

Regarding the pinout and such, they did implement a lot of the stuff that's been mentioned in this thread. Given this chip's been in development for months I'd say they beat us to the punch, but that doesn't mean I don't like it. Also if I'm reading right, I think the _A pins are the signal pins with integrated level shifters? And an integrated 0.9V LDO for the PLL?

Dude. I really want to play with some of these chips. You know how much easier the designer's job gets with integrated level shifters? Holy cats.

[VirosaGITS]

If the work seem easier with these chips, maybe we could think of a crowdfunding plan for obtaining a batch of these chips? Kind of a group buy thing.

[alh]

If the work seem easier with these chips, maybe we could think of a crowdfunding plan for obtaining a batch of these chips? Kind of a group buy thing.

While that sounds great, I'd be stunned if Bitmain would give up any of the BM1385 parts any time soon, even for a King's ransom. Maybe sidehack can "sweet talk" them, but I don't expect they will yet.