Discussion on the essence of "FPGA mining" from open source projects

dig ( Hereinafter referred to as WK) Has always been a 2020~2021 A hot topic in the world , To this day , Today we want to talk about FPGA Conduct WK What is the core of , And why it's rarely useful now FPGA For mining ？

WK What are you digging for ？

Everyone is talking WK, So what is this mine ？ In fact, many people know this , It's a virtual number “ The coin ”, The most famous is Bitcoin.

Our topic today is not Bitcoin, Nor is it blockchain , It is WK（ With Bitcoin For example ）.

WK In fact, it is through a series of algorithms , Calculate the hash value that meets the requirements （HASH）, So as to win the right of bookkeeping . This process is actually the process of trial and error , A computer generates random per second HASH The more collisions , First calculate the correct HASH The greater the probability .

This is it. WK The essence of .

About bitcoin WK And HASH

Today's first project is an introduction project , About bitcoin WK And HASH.

https://github.com/ray33ee/BitcoinHash-Verilog

Project about HASH Composition and in WK Application in , The author carefully drew many block diagrams to help us understand , At the same time there are Verilog describe .

About bitcoin task generator

In the use of FPGA Mining in clusters requires CPU Receive tasks , So you need a task to receive FPGA, Now in general use ZYNQ, There used to be soft cores , The following project is about bitcoin task generator .

https://github.com/Canaan-Creative/MM

Miner Manager Is a bitcoin task generator firmware , fit FPGA And a faster miner , It has LM32 CPU, fit XC6SLX16 Equal small FPGA.

About bitcoin miners

One

https://github.com/teknohog/Xilinx-Serial-Miner

https://github.com/teknohog/Open-Source-FPGA-Bitcoin-Miner

This is bitcoin that has been applied and eliminated WK Program , A use Xilinx FPGA Realization , A use Altera Realized .

Two

https://github.com/kmod/bitcoin_mining

A simple bitcoin mining system , be used for Digilent Nexys 3 fpga On board .

https://github.com/fpgaminer/fpgaminer-vanitygen

A functional , Experimental projects , Low performance .

https://github.com/byingyang/mojo-miner

by mojo fpga Bitcoin miners developed by the development board

https://github.com/jackproudfoot/fpga-bitcoin-miner

ECE350 The final project

https://github.com/dawood95/BitcoinMinerFPGA

ECE350 The final project

https://github.com/jkiv/shapool-core

in the light of Lattice iCE40 Bitcoin miners

https://github.com/xtrinch/fpga-bitcoin-miner

in the light of Lattice ECP5

https://github.com/dawood95/BitcoinMinerFPGA

ECE 337 The final project

https://github.com/ivandavid14/Bitcoin

EE454 The final project

https://github.com/jesstherobot/llbitcoin

https://github.com/ailuropoda0/BitcoinMiningAlgorithm

3、 ... and

https://github.com/WebKingdom/bitcoin_asic

This is today's third protagonist ASIC, This is a ASIC Bitcoin miners .

GPU、ASIC and FPGA Computational power comparison

You don't have to pay too much attention to the above projects , Most of them are backward in architecture and computing power （ Otherwise, I dare not introduce ）, The main thing is that you can learn bitcoin SHA256 Algorithm implementation principle , There was a popular website before （https://fpga.guide/） Now it's also sealed ,FPGA Mining is basically in a state of elimination , So let's go back and see why FPGA Was eliminated ？

Through the above projects in Vivado In the XC7A200T The computing power and power consumption on the are as follows ：

The power consumption is about 0.5W, The power consumption ratio is about 200MHash/sW.

and GPU Well ？

stay https://technical.city/en/video/bitcoin-rating It's easy to get the data from the calculation list ：

（ Older data ） The maximum power consumption ratio will not exceed 6MHash/sW.

The last is ASIC, Ant blockchain computing machine DR5 35T Version as an example , Its calculation force is 35THash/s, The power consumption is 1610W, The power consumption ratio is about 21739MHash/sW.

After the above comparison , Degree awarded , Don't explain .

PS:GPU Mining is the easiest way , Plug in the video card , Just download a software .

To sum up ： although ASIC It has been eliminated FPGA, however FPGA Is it really good for nothing ？

By contrast, we find that FPGA In fact, it is better than GPU Of , But why is it so rarely useful now FPGA WK Well ？ This is a myth , Some good currencies must be ASIC To replace the （ The first one uses FPGA The mining machine for mining is made by the Chinese , The creator is Chinese Pumpkin Zhang （ Zhang Nangeng , Founder of Jianan Yunzhi ））. In some minority currencies FPGA There is still a place .

FPGA Several features of the miner ：

1、 Through the above comparison ,FPGA Computing power consumption ratio GPU A lot lower ;

2、FPGA You can upgrade the mining machine to dig different algorithms POW currency ;

3、 Well optimized , Calculation force ratio GPU Much higher ;

4、 When the algorithm memory demand is small 、 When the parallelism is high , Its advantages are GPU Higher ;

5、 Risk ratio ASIC low , Each currency has a different algorithm ,ASIC The update cycle is slow , And once “ Currency tide ” The initial investment is basically gone , For a small company, it may be GG 了 .

（ The above comparison is to compare my advantages with your disadvantages ,XX The law of contrast ！@）

Finally, let's touch on the theme ：“FPGA WK” What is the essence of ？

Through the above Bitcoin Of WK Algorithm , We can see WK In fact, the essence of is to implement the algorithms needed to dig up different currencies in parallel , such as SHA256 perhaps Scrypt etc. . Can't say in WK field FPGA Was eliminated , It was eliminated from the popular currency , It is still popular in small currencies , Because of its “ Reconfigurable ” It is more suitable for switching between different currencies , The hardware cost is also low , Perhaps one day this field will suddenly become popular . Maybe you can make one that can be used first FPGA Conduct WK Currency of , Let the world go crazy for you ~\

disclaimer ： The opinions in this article only represent personal opinions , Please correct me if there is any mistake , At the same time, this article simply introduces some WK principle , Any economic losses arising therefrom , The official account is not responsible. ~