Bitcoin what is fpga

Bitcoin what is fpga

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Field programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by the customer or designer after manufacturing—hence «field-programmable». FPGAs are integrated circuits that can be tailored to suit a particular task like mining bitcoins, after their manufacturing thus creating ASIC.

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What is FPGA? [ edit ]

The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (circuit diagrams were previously used to specify the configuration, as they were for ASICs, but this is increasingly rare). FPGAs can be used to implement any logical function that an ASIC could perform. The ability to update the functionality after shipping, partial re-configuration of a portion of the design and the low non-recurring engineering costs relative to an ASIC design (notwithstanding the generally higher unit cost), offer advantages for many applications.

FPGAs contain programmable logic components called «logic blocks», and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects that allow the blocks to be «wired together» somewhat like many logic gates that can be inter-wired in (many) different configurations. Logic blocks can be configured to perform complex combinational functions, or merely simple logic gates like AND and XOR. In most FPGAs, the logic blocks also include memory elements, which may be simple flip-flops or more complete blocks of memory [1] .

FPGA Architecture [ edit ]

The FPGA includes three main programmable element:

• non-commuted programmable logic blocks (PLBs);
• I / o units (I / o units));
• internal communication.

Lbf are the functional elements for constructing user’s logic. BVV provide communication between the contacts of the body and the internal signal lines. Programmable internal communications resources control the ways of connecting the inputs and outputs of PLBs and I / o units (I / o units) to the respective networks. All trace channels have the same width (the same number of conductors). Most I / o units (I / o units) are either in the same row (height) or in the same column (width) of the valve array.

The logical unit (PLB) of a classical PMPP consists of a truth table (see discussion) (eng. lookup table, LUT) on four inputs and one trigger (see figure below). In recent years manufacturers have begun converting to a truth table with large number of inputs, which allows you to use fewer logic blocks for typical applications.

Technology [ edit ]

A typical logical block [ edit ]

The logical unit (PLB) has a truth table with four inputs and a clock input. The unit output is only one-register or non-register output truth table. Since the synchronization signals in commercial AVMS (and often other signals parallelized by a large number of inputs — high-fanout signals) are traced in a special way by special tracing circuits, the management of these signals is done separately.

For the following example architecture, the location of the logical block contacts is shown below.

Location of logical block contacts [ edit ]

The inputs are located on separate sides of the logical unit; the output pin can be traced in two channels: either to the right of the unit or to the bottom. The output pins of each logical unit can be connected to trace segments in adjacent channels. Similarly, the I / o unit (pad) contact area can be connected to a trace element in any adjacent channel. For example, the upper contact area of the chip can be connected to any of the W conductors (where W is the width of the channel) in a horizontal channel located directly below it.

As a rule, the AVM trace is not segmented, that is, each conductor segment connects only one logical block with the switch block. Due to the diffraction of the programmable switches in the switch trace turns out to be longer. In order to increase the speed of in-system connections, longer trace connections are used between logical blocks in some IMPM architectures.

Switch blocks are created at the intersection of vertical and horizontal channels. With this architecture, there are three programmable switches for each conductor in the switch box that allow it to connect to three other conductors in adjacent channel segments. The switch model or topology used in this architecture is the planar or domain topology of the switch units. In this topology, a guide to highway 1 is only connected to the conductor tracks of the number 1 in the adjacent channels, the guide route No. 2 is connected only to the conductors of the track number 2 and so on. The figure below shows the connections in the switch box.

The topology of the switch block [ edit ]

Modern FPGA families expand the opportunities listed above and include built-in functionality at a high level. Due to the presence of these common functions in the silicon crystal, it is possible to reduce the area of the crystal, in addition to this scheme, these functions will work faster than when they are implemented on the basis of primitives. Examples of such functions are multiplexers, digital signal processing units, built-in processors, fast I / o logic, and built-in memory.

PMTCT is also widely used for suitability testing systems, including pre-and post-silicon suitability testing, as well as in the development of programs for embedded systems. This allows manufacturers of integrated circuits to test the performance of their devices before manufacturing them at the factory, reducing the time of entry into the market.

Different FPGAs [ edit ]

Product	Hash rate [Mhash/s]	Efficiency [Mhash/J]	Efficiency [Mhash/s/$]	Power [W]	Price [$]
Avnet Spartan-6 LX150T Development Kit	100	0.10	995
Bitcoin Dominator X5000	100	440
BitForce SHA256 Single	832	10.4	1.38	80	599
Butterflylabs Mini Rig	25,200	20.16	1.64	1,250	15,295
Digilent Nexys 2 500K	5	0.03	149
Icarus	380	19.79	0.66	19.2	569
KnCMiner Mars	6,000	.	2.15	.	2,795
Lancelot	400	26	350
ModMiner Quad	800	20	0.75	40	1,069
Terasic DE2-115	80	0.13	595
X6500 FPGA Miner	400	23.25	0.72	17.2	550
ZTEX USB-FPGA Module 1.15b	90	0.27	325
ZTEX USB-FPGA Module 1.15x	215	0.52	406
ZTEX USB-FPGA Module 1.15y	860	0.65	1,304

Product	Algorithm	Hash rate [Ghash/s]	Power [W]	Price [$]
Xilinx VCU1525	0xToken (SHA3)	18	350W	4000
SQRL BCU1525	0xToken (SHA3)	18	350W	3450
TUL BTU9P	0xToken (SHA3)	18	350W	3599
Hashaltcoin F1 Blackminer	0xToken (SHA3)	21.6	600W	1900
Hashaltcoin F1 Mini Blackminer	0xToken (SHA3)	1.95	50W	179
Hashaltcoin F1+ Blackminer	0xToken (SHA3)	35.20	1020W	3100

FPGA and ASIC [ edit ]

The Application Specific Integrated Circuit is a unique type of IC that is designed with a certain purpose in mind. This type of ICs are very common in most hardware nowadays since building with standard IC components would lead to big and bulky circuits. An FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is also a type of IC, but it does not have the programming built into it during the production. As the name implies, the IC can be programmed by the user as long as he has the right tools and proper knowledge.

An ASIC can no longer be altered after it gets out of the production line. That is why the designers need to be totally sure of their design, especially when making large quantities of the same ASIC. The programmable nature of an FPGA allows the manufacturers to correct mistakes and to even send out patches or updates after the product has been bought. Manufacturers also take advantage of this by creating their prototypes in an FPGA so that it can be thoroughly tested and revised in the real world before actually sending out the design to the IC foundry for ASIC production.

ASICs have a great advantage in terms of recurring costs as very little material is wasted due to the fixed number of transistors in the design. With an FPGA, a certain number of transistor elements are always wasted as these packages are standard. This means that the cost of an FPGA is often higher than that of a comparable ASIC. Although the recurring cost of an ASIC is quite low, its non-recurring cost is relatively high and often reaching into the millions. Since it is non-recurring though, its value per IC decreases with increased volume. If you analyze the cost of production in relation to the volume, you would find that as you go lower in production numbers, using FPGA actually becomes cheaper than using ASICs.

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Bitcoin what is fpga

Open-Source FPGA Bitcoin Miner

To promote the free and open development of an FPGA based Bitcoin mining solution.

Project is fully functional and allows mining of Bitcoins both in a Pool and Solo. It also supports Namecoins.

Current Performance: 109 MHash/s On a Terasic DE2-115 Development Board

Note: The included default configuration file, and source files, are built for 50 MHash/s performance (downclocked). This is meant to prevent damage to your valuable chip if you don’t provide an appropriate cooling solution.

These people have worked hard to enhance and promote the Open-Source FPGA Bitcoin Miner project: Not listed in any particular order

teknohog 1HkL2iLLQe3KJuNCgKPc8ViZs83NJyyQDM

OrphanedGland 1PioyqqFWXbKryxysGqoq5XAu9MTRANCEP

udif

TheSeven 14Jc8vWq1mPv7vWnP5VquZZgpLEtzW2vja

makomk 15XX7BhQcZFUg47S4VKyiLygPTHTs9234J

newMeat1 1LbqTCA1cnpbbdKbXzZZfHYMe7teiczQc2

Both Xilinx and Altera devices are currently supported. A binary configuration file and tools are provided for the Terasic DE2-115 Development Board, so it is easy to get up and running with that board. For other devices, you can modify and compile the correct projects for your specific development board.

Installation Instructions (for Terasic DE2-115)

• DE2-115 Development Kit (this is not a DE2. It has a Cyclone IV EP4CE115.)
• USB Cable
• Windows PC (Linux is also supported, but not documented)
• Altera’s Quartus II (installed on PC)

IMPORTANT: Please remove the clear acrylic cover on your DE2-115 board. This will restrict air flow and may cause the chip to overheat.

Navigate to ‘scripts/mine’ and follow the instructions in ‘config.example.tcl’ (open in Notepad or other text editor)

####Do these each time you want to run the miner:

Connect the DE2-115 Development Kit to your PC through USB, connect its power, and turn it on.

Ensure that the DE2-115’s drivers have been installed successfully on your PC. Consult the DE2-115 User Guide for more information on setting up the DE2-115.

Navigate to ‘scripts/program’ and run ‘program-fpga-board.bat’.

Follow the instructions provided by the program-fpga-board script. Select the correct cable and programming file. Once programming has succeeded, the DE2-115 is now ready to mine!

Note: This script sometimes fails immediately upon execution. Please try running it again.

If working correctly, ‘mine.bat’ will leave a console window open where it reports hashing rate, estimated hashing rate and accepted/rejected share information.

• You need to re-program the DE2-115 every time it is powered off and on again. Repeat steps 1 through 7 for subsequent uses.
• Your PC needs to stay on and connected to the internet. It is acting like a controller for the FPGA, feeding it data and getting back valid hashes.

About

A completely open source implementation of a Bitcoin Miner for Altera and Xilinx FPGAs. This project hopes to promote the free and open development of FPGA based mining solutions and secure the future of the Bitcoin project as a whole. A binary release is currently available for the Terasic DE2-115 Development Board, and there are compile-able p…

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Hackaday

[fpgaminer], [li_gangyi], and [newMeat1] have been working together for the last few months to build an FPGA bitcoin miner that blows GPU mining rigs out of the water in terms of power efficiency. The board requires only 6.8 watts for 100 Mhashes/second, but [li_gangyi]’s blog says the team expects to hit 150-200 Mhashes with some improvements. That’s efficiency GPUs can’t touch.

Bitcoins are a digital currency that are ‘mined’ by calculating hashes that verify bitcoin transactions. While mining operations can be performed on a CPU, graphics cards and FPGAs beat CPUs by several orders of magnitude in terms of how many hashes can be performed per second.

The heart of the board is a Spartan-6 LX150 FPGA – a pricey bit of kit – and the team is selling each board for $440 USD. For that amount of money, you could buy two ATI 6770s at half the price and crunch four times as many hashes a second. At less than 7 watts, though, we wouldn’t worry too much about cooling the rig and the electricity costs will be very low.

62 thoughts on “ FPGA Bitcoin Miner Is Probably The Most Power Efficient. ”

What is a bitcoin exactly?

Error #1064 – You have an error in your comment near ‘exactly’ at line 1; this word is not appropriate in this context.

Bitcoins are an electronic currency, used by many because they’re untraceable. Google it.
(Oops, I forgot about the new reply system. Can somebody delete my post below?)

Bitcoins are traceable. They are not guaranteed to be anonymous. People need to realize this.

They’re main benefit is that they’re decentralized and not dependent on any government or authority.

A pump and dump scam

More of an interesting technological proof-of-concept that got turned into a pump-and-dump scam. Closer to dump than pump at the moment, natch.

scam (n): A fraudulent business scheme;

fraud (n): A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.

Bitcoin is completely transparent – from the docs right down to the source code – hence there’s no deceit, hence no fraud nor scam.

‘Gambling’ is a more appropriate word.

/g/ will love this

So… this is stealing?

@rd3i no, this is the way bitcoins are created. Basically, it’s a resource intensive process to “create” bitcoins so that people won’t create too many and saturate the market. It’s actually a pretty complicated process that I don’t 100% understand, but Google is your friend.

its more that recording the transaction history is a resource intensive process
and they reward (pay) people who donate CPU time by printing 50 bitcoins and giving it to the person who found a hash meeting the goal

This is the equivalent of mining for gold.

It seem to me it’s more similar to letting the printing press roll.

Since when did an expensive commercial product become a hack?

The FPGA is only part of the project. This is a complete board with bitcoin mining software included.

I think they were designed by an engineering student and are being assembled in some guy’s bedroom, with a total of 4 boards in existence right now. Oh, and the software is open source and publicly available, so if you already have a suitable board you can compile and run it on that.

@Andrew bitcoins are an electronic currency, used by many because they’re untraceable. Google it.

Because they’re using it in a way it wasn’t originally intended to be used. Which is to steal stuff.

I don’t get your point. What, exactly, do you think is being stolen?

First of all, what are you talking about? Second, you’re saying that if I use scissors to cut bananas instead of paper, that’s stealing?

No, people are meant to perform this activity. It’s how bitcoins are added to the pool of available currency. And people have long since started to work out faster ways to do it (usually rigs full of gpus). The resources necessary to “mine” a new one increases as more people try, so folks come up with wacky ways like this to try to get ahead of the curve for a little while. Otherwise it’s prohibitively expensive to try to do, as the resource costs alone make it a near zero-sum game.

It’s all a little silly though. Bitcoins aren’t particularly useful as a currency. People that mine are betting that the currency will still have value by the time they offload it.

I can (And have, several times, to the tune of around $500 worth in the last 2-3 months) buy Amazon and Newegg giftcards with bitcoins… How much more ‘useful’ do they need to be as a currency?

Whole bloody thing’s gonna implode eventually, but as long as I can use my idle GPUs to make what amounts to free money in the meantime, I’m happy.

You misunderstand the meaning of “idle GPU”, thinking it means “for free”. If your GPU does nothing for you (like rendering games or movie, etc), it does not consume extra electricity, which is a paid service. And when it’s mining, you pay a lot of extra money for KWatts 🙂

There’s an upside to this over using the pair of ATIs, insomuch as (with the power consumption) it would be more feasible to have a large cluster of these without actually having net losses. Most mining operations end up losing money rather than gaining any, except for cycle-donation pools. That said, automatic speculation on the bitcoin markets is both more profitable at the moment and less computationally intensive. However, if a pool of these was combined with a cycle-donation pool and an automatic trader it probably would pay for itself eventually (which is not true of a single unit).

mining bitcoins is legitimate, its a way to grow its economy. if everyone mined bitcoins, it would be much less profitable to do so since only a finite amount are available to be mined at any time. its controlled via a difficulty quotant of some sort or other, controlling inflation.

its a shame this board is so expensive. anyone care to do the maths and find out when this becomes more profitable than two ATI cards?

As I said above, I don’t 100% understand the system, but I thought that it didn’t matter how many people were mining, because they could just make it “harder” to mine, meaning more calculations must be done to create them.

That is correct. The difficulty to solve a block is periodically adjusted such that, on average, 6 blocks will be generated per hour regardless of the hashing power online.

steal stuff?? WAT (what a troll!)

some sort of virtual coin that can be use to trade online. it can be exchange for real money. or to buy stuff like in Paypal. this economic system is closed so coins must be inserted into the system in order to allow trading of goods.

each virtual coin is based on encrypted digital signature that can be manufactured out of thine air with enough CPU power and time. think of it as a blacksmith that manufacture coins from metal, then selling them to the bank or other people.

the work that been put to the process might be more or less expansive then that coin value, depending on how much coins are there, economic forces and inflation. this manufacturing work is more rewarding as fewer coins available today.

This is NOT stealing. Bitcoins were designed to be mined like this.

Bitcoins an unsupported currency. as in not backed by a tangible asset (gold, silver, real-estate). those who start with the process in the early stages get more Bitcoins for far less effort than those who come into the process later. Seems to me to be very much like a pyramid sceam. If this operation is legal I think I will start my own and get in on the profit side. Maybe with Buybitcoins.

cash is ALSO a currency not backed by a tangible asset (just the government of your choices promise) it supported by your government, and bitcoin is supported by the bitcoin community. so they are both supported and they are both worth only what someone is willing to pay/accept. thats economics 101. bitcoins are good if and only if people use it, just like cash, or gold, or beads, or shiny rocks if you can give it to someone else and get something from it, it has value. early adopters are rewarded because there is a need to get people using the currency as more people use it more people still will use it (the bandwagon effect…again economics 101)

as in not backed by a tangible asset (gold, silver, real-estate).
Other currencies not backed by tangible assets:
* Dollar
* Euro
* British Pound
* Yen

those who start with the process in the early stages get more Bitcoins for far less effort than those who come into the process later.
Those who bought Apple shares in the ’90s would make much more money selling them today than someone who just bought them last year.

Early investors always make more money if the investment succeeds. By itself that a scam does not make.

To be a scam there must be deceit. There’s no deceit here – nobody promises you anything, and they’re quite clear about it (read the FAQ).

If this operation is legal I think I will start my own and get in on the profit side.
Don’t forget declaring them to the taxman. Bitcoins aren’t illegal (yet?), but tax evasion certainly is.

strictly speaking bitcoin’s are not anonymous…but they CAN be. if you cycle wallets after any purchase that involves personal information for instance (though THAT purchase is obviously not anonymous…it can’t be by necessity…) then someone cannot trace your purchases back to a source with personal information and therefore not back to you (though if you dont use a proxy even purchases without personal information can give away more information than you are comfortable with.

not that this matters to most people mind you, but for the average person it give at least as much anonymity as cash.

Bitcoins are a libertarian social experiment founded on the labor theory of value. The idea is that bitcoins taking work to “mine” makes them valuable. In actuality the only thing that makes them valuable is that people think they’re valuable, but this is beside the point.

The bitcoin market is so small that individual investors can corner substantial portions of the market. When one of these big investors decide to cash out, the bitcoins plummet in value. Several times bitcoins’ value has halved without warning over the course of an hour.

Also, the fact that the whole point is to be untraceable has caused some amusing problems. For example, if someone hacks your network and steals the “wallet file” or your hard drive fails you’d have no recourse whatsoever even if there was a regulatory body.

So basically bitcoins are a return to the micro-currencies of early America (we all know how well those worked for everyone!) engineered by people who either were too convinced of their own brilliance to read up on history or economics, or who are cynically trying to manipulate and profit from people’s ignorance. Either way, the whole thing is a bizarre microcosm of the history of currency drastically sped up.

if someone steals the cash in your wallet there is no recourse. the key is to protect your computer like you protect your wallet. keep your wallet in a truecrypt partition, they can be dicks and delete it most likely, but they cant steal it.
if you keep it on a flash drive all the better.

its nice to see someone get their money stolen and go “ha see bitcoin is a scam because someone can hack your computer and steal all your money” but if someone broke into your house and stole your money you wouldnt blame the dollar (or currency of your country)

actually, i blamed stupid paper money because i lost a $100 bill once. then i discovered bitcoin, and it seems perfect.

It’s a very dumb libertarian-leaning idea that is basically being bought and sold by a tiny amount of people, basically for the sake of.

I think those guys have the right idea because it looks like the best way to make money from bitcoins is to be the one selling the mining hardware.

+1 insightful AND funny!

PS: bitcoins have been hacked MONTHS ago.
the news told me so. some guy lost like 10000$? because he actually PAID CASH for his bitcoins…

pyrymid ? no
deciet ? no
stealing ? no
morally wrong ? same as PAPER-money
(depends on…)

EDIT: about the paper-money thing:
dont repeat what i just typed in here kids,
(about the papermoney), if i was to explain
why i think it is morally wrong, i’d be
commiting a federal crime.

Bitcoins weren’t “hacked”. Some computers (including a large clearing house) were broken into and wallets were stolen. But the system is solid.

As long as you keep your wallet safe (encrypted in a thumb drive, for example), there’s no way to steal your BTCs.

Bitcoin: because online drug dealers don’t take credit card.

I do like the idea of bitcoin though. It’s always bothered me that you can’t send money over the internet without being subject to the policies of a bank or credit card company. Remember the credit card companies cutting off donations to wikileaks?

Transferring money through banks is subject to the spying of several governments, fees, and taxes. Transporting physical cash is also highly regulated. Bitcoin can be used to escape this control. Bitcoin is freedom.

IMO, Bitcoin’s final blow was when EFF stopped accepting it.

IMO, EFF’s final blow was when they stopped accepting Bitcoin.

There is a MASSIVE, MASSIVE global banking system that will not gain from this… And will therefore do _everything_it_possibly_can_ to paint it as fraud.

If I want to exchange my cash, gold, pebbles or shells for information, even digital information, I will do so; I earned it. There’s nothing illegal about that. None the less, expect the propaganda to flow from the Rothschilds down.

interesting, i will have to look into this.

if the banks would do anything to stop this, the best way would be for the banks to produce massive amounts of it themselves and make it worthless.

They can’t – the number of bitcoins produced per day is fixed, regardless of how many people are mining them.

But they can make the majority and set the price….

The best thing is that these boards don’t require shitty proprietary ATI drivers. No need to mess around with closed blobs.

Nothing can beat a nice botnet.

If I had found a way to dent SHA256, I think mining Bitcoins would be pretty far down the list of things I would do first.

In fact call me a cynic, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the whole Bitcoin scheme hasn’t been cooked up by some shady government agency types to test if anyone (else?) has devised a method to weaken SHA significantly.

Couldn’t the system be abused by inserting arbitrary transactions with the purpose of getting the hash cracked? I haven’t read the protocol myself, but it seems like this may be possible.

Interesting idea. However I think Bitcoin uses a hash of a hash, which seems a bit of an arbitrary choice. It just occurred to me looking at it that attempting to factor that would be an interesting academic challenge but with little or no application outside of Bitcoins.

One million dollars to the first person who can prove it’s not a micro-worker network for bruting leaser data..

asking someone to prove a negative.
yep that million dollars is pretty safe.

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