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I have an old AntMiner S1 sitting in my closest, which uses the AntMiner BM1380 mining chip.
I have the data sheet for the chip, found here.
https://bitmaintech.com/files/download/BM1380_Datasheet_v1.0.pdf
there is also this repo, https://github.com/AntMiner/AntGen1, which includes reference designs of the miner, as well as firmware.
However, it is just the firmware images, not the firmware itself.
If I were to want to use a single chip(totally pointless, but I mean in some other configuration then the S1 blades) to make a small miner, how would I go about sending instructions and data to it?
Does anyone have any reference firmware source, or point me towards a document that makes sense of the required inputs?
I see on the data sheet oscillator input, oscillator output, etc. but am not sure what the required input is.
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I am adding to the question: does anyone have an example on how to test the chip to see if it is good ? Connecting an Arduino or something like that ?
The chips don't have any firmware, or any processor at all. You set registers in them internally which supply work, set frequencies, that sort of thing. Usually people communicate with them using a small microcontroller or something larger like a raspberry pi. – Anonymous – 2015-12-17T02:30:36.813
Ah, maybe I worded that strangely. I'm aware the chips themselves dont have any firmware. What I'm asking about is how I actually supply the work to the chip.
If I wanted to write some code on a micro to supply a bit of work to one of these asics, what would I need to do? It's not totally clear(to me) from the data sheet. – dacox – 2015-12-17T16:40:53.757
Other chips like the Bitfury ones have frame by frame examples and documentation, if there's none for the Bitmain one you might be stuck with looking at preexisting drivers.
– Anonymous – 2015-12-17T23:47:03.917Excellent, thanks for the link to the bfgminer source. Do you know if bitfury sells any of their chips to consumers? Not the just announced ones, but any of their current and past lines. – dacox – 2015-12-18T00:20:42.537
They used to sell in packs and reels as bitfurystrikesback, they don't now. Their new chips are intended for consumers and developers by the sounds of things so they should be usable as well. – Anonymous – 2015-12-18T07:27:30.663