| commit | 8d07aee37149e5c610dfeab42c967e8ba06ffd6a | [log] [tgz] |
|---|---|---|
| author | Jean M. Cyr <jean.m.cyr@gmail.com> | Mon Dec 21 02:53:02 2020 -0500 |
| committer | Jean M. Cyr <jean.m.cyr@gmail.com> | Mon Dec 21 02:53:02 2020 -0500 |
| tree | 2892fc7064892e09cf8d2b9aa93f13b1b3eb40c4 | |
| parent | 5bf245d6d5562e654168b7cb3600ec0fa106d93b [diff] |
Update README
In mining a proof-of-work (POW) is used to verify the authenticity of a blockchain entry. What is a POW? A POW is a mathematical puzzle which is difficul to solve but easy to verify.
For this example a SHA3 mining core is defined for a hypothetical blockchain that uses the SHA3-256 hash. Finding a hash that meets certain conditions is difficult, verifying it does is simple.
The core is implemented on Skywater's SKY130 process curtesy of the Open MPW Shuttle Program sponsored by Google.
We are given:
The problem we need to solve is to find any value of N, such that the SHA3-256 hash of the nonce concatenated to the header, is less than or equal to the difficulty:
D >= SHA3({H, N})
NOTE: This will not mine a real blockchain. It intended as an exaple of hashing algorithm optimized for mining using a multi-stage permutation pipeline.
This ASIC is generated using end-to-end open source EDA tools. A 12 stage pipeline design is used in two phases since a fully unrolled 24 stage pipeline exceeds the capacity of this ASIC.
The component is an Wishbone bus device with a 23 word memory mapped register file for control and status. All user project Verilog source is contained in the verilog/rtl/sha3_256_miner* files/
| Signal | Width | Description |
|---|---|---|
| wb_clk_i | 1 | 50MHz Wishbone bus clock (1-bit input) |
| wb_rst_i | 1 | Asynchronous reset (1-bit input) |
| wbs_stb_i | 1 | Select |
| wbs_cyc_i | 1 | Active bus cycle |
| wbs_we_i | 1 | Write enable |
| wbs_sel_i | 4 | Byte lane select |
| wbs_dat_i | 32 | Input data |
| wbs_adr_i | 32 | Address |
| wbs_ack_o | 1 | Bus ccycle acknowledge |
| wbs_dat_o | 32 | Output data |
| io_in | MPRJ_IO_PADS | IO pin bus input |
| io_out | MPRJ_IO_PADS | IO pin bus output |
| io_oeb | MPRJ_IO_PADS | IO pin bus output enable |
| user_clock2 | 1 | 300 MHz miner core clock |
| irq_o | 1 | Ative high when solution found (1-bit output) |
| Reg. # | Name | Read/Write | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-1 | SOLN_REG | RO | 64-bit Solution |
| 2 | STATUS_REG | RO | Status (see below) |
| 3 | SHA3_REG | RO | Fingerprint “SHA3” |
| 4-11 | HDR_REG | RW | 256-bit Header |
| 12-19 | DIFF_REG | RW | 256-bit difficulty |
| 20-21 | START_REG | RW | 64-bit start nonce |
| 22 | CTL_REG | RW | Control (see below) |
| Bit # | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | FOUND | Solution found. Solution is stored and IRQ is set. IRQ cleared with next ctl. reg. read. |
| 1 | RUNNING | The run ctl bit is set and the solution nonce is auto-incrementing |
| 2 | TESTING | The test ctl bit is set and compare diff equal |
| Bit # | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | RUN | 0 - clear, 1 - auto increment the solution nonce and check hashes |
| 1 | TEST | 0 - normal mode, 1 - test mode, look for exact match with diff |
| 2 | HALT | 0 - normal mode, 1 - halt mining and raise interrupt |
| 23-16 | PAD_LAST | last pad byte, 0x80 for KECCACK-256 and SHA3-256 |
| 31-24 | PAD_FIRST | first pad byte, 0x01 for KECCACK-256, and 0x06 for SHA3-256 |
Top module: \user_proj_example Used module: \sha3_256_miner_core_12 Used module: \sha3_256_miner_round Used module: \permutation Used module: \sha3_256_miner_regs
From the command line:
git clone https://github.com/miscellaneousbits/caravel_sha3_256_crypto_miner.git cd caravel_sha3_256_miner/openlane make user_proj_example make user_project_wrapper cd .. make ship
This will create the artifacts for sending to the fab.
NOTE: This project is borderline routable at this point. Since the autorouter starts off with a random seed, it will occasionally not converge on 0 violations.
Currently this 12 stage pipeline design is fully autorouted and uses over 300,000 cells and is the most that can be crammed into the available die space. The layout is very sparse in order to get successful routing. It may be possible to optimize and harden smaller repeating blocks the place then manually to achieve a fully unrolled 24 stage pipeline. This would achieve twice the performance of the current version.
TBD
Special thanks to Mohamed Kassem, Tim Edwards, Amr Gouhar, Sylvain Munaut, Philipp Gühring, and the MPW teams at efabless, Skywater, and Google without whose help this project would not have been possible.
Long live open-everything.