I'm wanting to try fpga mining on an AWS EC2 instance. It seems anyone that has done/is doing that is keeping the 'how to' close to their chest. BFGMiner seems to be the way to go, but where does one get the bitstream (or in the case of AWS the AFI containing the bitstream)?
After seeing posts saying someone fried an AWS F1 board with 300A, and that now there is a 150W limit but it is only a warning, I did a little searching and found that it appears AWS F1 limits your core power (Vccint) to 85W, which would be 100A at 0.85V. They say they may/will shut you down (gate your clocks) if you exceed this, see
https://github.com/aws/aws-fpga/blob/master/hdk/docs/afi_power.mdThat's not what I said at all. Power limitations were not introduced until aws shell v1.3.5 IIRC (maybe as early as 1.3.0? -- I don't remember off hand), sometime around sept/oct 2017. And yes, when I compile firmwares for my 80A 0.85V vccint VCU118, I can ignore the power warning if I wish, continue to compile a firmware, load the bitstream and fry my $7500 board -- If i wanted.
Really? What happens if you try to draw 300 amps on a board that only has a 160A vccint supply? Did you know vivado only tosses an ignorable warning? That you can still compile and complete the firmware? I know people who have fried their own fpga boards by drawing more current than the board has a supply. I have destroyed amazon boards by drawing too much current (unintentionally). This is just one of many ways you can physically destroy a FPGA with a bad firmware / design problem.
The only fud about what I said is that it could possibly happen.