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Posts Tagged ‘KnCMiner’
GenTarkin’s Custom KNC Titan Scrypt ASIC Firmware
17, Mar 2016
We were not among the ones to preorder the last ASIC mining hardware that KnCMiner has sold to users, the Titan, but recently we have obtained some KNC Titan Scrypt ASICs to play with. The first thing you will notice is that even the latest official firmware of the devices version 2.0 is still pretty basic and the hardware is buggy, especially the earlier batch 1 devices. So we started looking for an improved version of the original firmware that would allow us to get the best out of the KNC Titan Scrypt ASIC and we have ended up discovering GenTarkin’s Custom KNC Titan firmware.
This modified firmware provides users with an improved and more functional interface and more importantly a safer to use and capable of providing you with the optimal performance and power usage that your Titan cubes can provide you with. This of course comes at a price, you need to purchase a full license for the modified firmware that is currently sold at $75 USD for the controller and if you have an additional devices you can purchase extra licenses for $35 USD each for each controller (key for activation only), not for each cube. There are also additional discounts available for volume licensing for purchases of 10 or more licenses for large miners with more devices available.
We have just started using the latest version 1.0.2 of GenTarkin’s Custom KNC Titan Scrypt ASIC firmware on the hardware we have obtained and as you can see on the screenshot both cubes we have attached to the controller have some issues with some of the chip dies and DCDC power units. You can see the difference in how the advanced settings page looks like for both the stock and the custom firmware. The power usage for example on the custom firmware reports more accurate power usage numbers and when you take into account the power efficiency of the PSU you can get pretty accurate power consumption numbers for the actual power used at the wall. There are number of additional protection mechanisms built in as well as optimizations to help run your mining hardware stable and with less issues on the long run. The Energy Saver is also something new and very interesting feature that supposedly can help you find the optimal settings for each die and thus help you get lower power usage while retaining optimum performance.
We have just started using GenTarkin’s Custom KNC Titan firmware and so far we like the improvements and extra features we see from the latest stock firmware from KNC, in a few days we are going to be sharing more from our experience as well as doing a more detailed review. Meanwhile if you have some KNC Titan Scrypt ASIC miners and you are using the stock firmware you might be interested in checking out this custom firmware, especially if you are having some issues with your devices or have more than one miners.
– Visit the official website for GenTarkin’s Custom KNC Titan Firmware for more info…
- Published in: General Info
- Related tags: custom firmware, custom KNC Titan firmware, GenTarkin, KnC, KnC Titan, KNC Titan firmware, KNC Titan Scrypt ASIC, KnCMiner, modified KNC Titan
Blockchain, along with other big names in the Bitcoin industry have just released a public letter in support the implementation of BIP101 and larger Bitcoin blocks. Other companies that have signed the document include BitPay, Circle, Kncminer, Bitnet, Xapo and Bitgo and other companies are encouraged to join. Below is the document quoted and you can also find a link to the contents and signatures of the presidents and CEOs of the companies that have signed it:
Our community stands at a crossroads. The debate about which path to take has, by and large, been a healthy one, and we have not interposed our own positions or interfered in the discourse. Until today, our involvement has consisted of listening, researching and testing. We believe that work is complete, and it is time to communicate our view in a clear and transparent manner.
After lengthy conversations with core developers, miners, our own technical teams, and other industry participants, we believe it is imperative that we plan for success by raising the maximum block size.
We support the implementation of BIP101. We have found Gavin’s arguments on both the need for larger blocks and the feasibility of their implementation – while safeguarding Bitcoin’s decentralization – to be convincing. BIP101 and 8MB blocks are already supported by a majority of the miners and we feel it is time for the industry to unite behind this proposal.
Our companies will be ready for larger blocks by December 2015 and we will run code that supports this.
As our community grows, it is essential – now more than ever that we seek strong consensus to ensure network reliability. We pledge to support BIP101 in our software and systems by December 2015, and we encourage others to join us.
Note that the companies that have signed the letter are pledging that they will be ready for larger blocks by December 2015. Some of the large Bitcoin mining pools have already implemented support for larger Bitcoin blocks, but there is still no consensus among all players in the Bitcoin ecosystem about the matter. We too believe that Bitcoin needs to start using larger blocks in the future in order to be able to scale up with the increased usage, but as to how this should be implement is a different story however.
– To see the signed copy of the letter in support of bigger blocks and BIP101 in PDF format…
- Published in: Crypto News
- Related tags: 8MB Bitcon blocks, bigger Bitcoin blocks, BIP101, Bitcoin XT, Bitgo, Bitnet, BitPay, Blockchain, Circle, KnCMiner, larger Bitcoin blocks, Xapo
Peter af Geijerstam, a developer who specializes in computer security, has released what he calls a pimped UI for the KnCMiner Titan ASIC, called KnCMinion, as an alternative to the standard old-fashioned user-interface of the device. His more up to date interface does not replace the original Titan UI, just adds a more modern and beautiful UI with the more important information available in a graphical form, not just plain text.
The KnCMinion interface is located in a subdirectory (/kncminion) and is designed to provide a bit more information in a graphical form to the user. It creates client-side graphs of historical values as long as the page is open – it will start empty each time, as no data is stored on the Titan miner. KncMinion is built using CoffeeScript, AngularJS, D3.js, Bootstrap and jQuery and should adapt easily to different resolutions and devices such as a smaller resolution mobile phone. The top graph is the total hashrate in MHS for the miner, the smaller graphs below represent the hash-rate of each individual die for every cube on the Titan (4 dies per cube) with each graph displaying the min/max and current value for the selected duration.
What is interesting is the way that the KnCMinion interface is being installed on the miner, Peter has found out that he can easily package it as an firmware update and send it to the device. The KnCMinion does not modify any of the existing files, it only adds new files to the web-server that are needed for the proper functionality of the UI, however he expresses his concerns that this can pose a security problem. Someone may package a malicious code and trick people to install it as software update and gain access to their mining device.
– For more information and to download the KnCMinion UI for the Titan Scrypt ASIC…
- Published in: General Info
- Related tags: alternative user interface, KnC Minion, KnCMiner, KnCMiner Titan, KnCMiner Titan UI, KnCMinion, Peter af Geijerstam, Titan ASIC UI