This project did not achieve the quality we expect, and it's not under development any more. Please don't use this as reference implementation of FPGA miner.

Installing ModelSim

Go to the intelFpga website.

Download ModelSim-Intel FPGA Edition (includes Starter Edition).

Install it.

Creating project and running simulation

Start ModelSim and run the following commands:

do C:/Alephium/Git/fpga-miner/create_project.do
project compileall
vsim work.HashGenTB
do C:/Alephium/Git/fpga-miner/wave.do
run -all

Register map

Address Space Offset	Register Name	Access Type	Defaul Value	Description
0x0000	GROUP_DIRECTIONS	R/W	0x0
0x0004	GROUPS	R/W	0x0
0x0008	CHUNK_LENGTH	R/W	0x0	Number of bytes in a chunk.
0x000C	TARGET_0	R/W	0x0	Target difficulty
0x0010	TARGET_1	R/W	0x0
0x0014	TARGET_2	R/W	0x0
0x0018	TARGET_3	R/W	0x0
0x001C	TARGET_4	R/W	0x0
0x0020	TARGET_5	R/W	0x0
0x0024	TARGET_6	R/W	0x0
0x0028	TARGET_7	R/W	0x0
0x002C	NONCE_0	R/W	0x0	Nonce of the chunk
0x0030	NONCE_1	R/W	0x0
0x0034	NONCE_2	R/W	0x0
0x0038	NONCE_3	R/W	0x0
0x003C	NONCE_4	R/W	0x0
0x0040	NONCE_5	R/W	0x0

UPDATE_TRIGGER register

[31:1]	[0]
Reserved	Update

Bits	Name	Core Access	Reset Value	Description
31-1	Reserved	N/A	0	Reserved. Set to zeros on a read.
0	Update	R/W	0	Writing 1 triggers a new mining process, toggle.

GROUP_DIRECTIONS register

[31:24]	[23:16]	[15:8]	[7:0]
Reserved	From Group	Reserved	To Group

Bits	Name	Core Access	Reset Value	Description
31-24	Reserved	N/A	0	Reserved. Set to zeros on a read.
23-16	From Group	R/W	0
15-8	Reserved	N/A	0	Reserved. Set to zeros on a read.
7-0	To Group	R/W	0

GROUPS register

[31:24]	[23:16]	[15:8]	[7:0]
Reserved	Groups	Chain Number	Groups Shifter

Bits	Name	Core Access	Reset Value	Description
31-24	Reserved	N/A	0	Reserved. Set to zeros on a read.
23-16	Groups	R/W	0
15-8	Chain Number	R/W	0	Groups*Groups
7-0	Groups Shifter	R/W	0	Division by the powers of two.

CHUNK_LENGTH register

[31:11]	[10:0]
Reserved	Chunk Length

Bits	Name	Core Access	Reset Value	Description
31-11	Reserved	N/A	0	Reserved. Set to zeros on a read.
10-0	Chunk Length	R/W	0	Number of bytes in a chunk. Nonce + Headerblob

TARGET registers

The 8 Target registers contain the target difficulty of the mining. The valid hash needs to be less than or equal to the Target. The Target difficulty is 32 bytes, 256 bits.

• TARGET_0 -> Target[31:0]
• TARGET_1 -> Target[63:32]
• TARGET_2 -> Target[95:64]
• TARGET_3 -> Target[127:96]
• TARGET_4 -> Target[159:128]
• TARGET_5 -> Target[191:160]
• TARGET_6 -> Target[223:192]
• TARGET_7 -> Target[251:224]

NONCE registers

The 6 Nonce registers contain the starting nonce value, which is added to the beginning of the headerblob & they are getting hashed together. The miner increments the value of the nonce & hashes the chunk until the conditions get satisfied. The starting nonce is 24 bytes, 192 bits.

• NONCE_0 -> Nonce[31:0]
• NONCE_1 -> Nonce[63:32]
• NONCE_2 -> Nonce[95:64]
• NONCE_3 -> Nonce[127:96]
• NONCE_4 -> Nonce[159:128]
• NONCE_5 -> Nonce[191:160]