Field-programmable gate array mining
FPGAs are commonly used in a wide spread of electronic components where speed, flexibility and reliability are key. Unlike ASICs, FPGAs can be reprogrammed on the fly thus the name "Field-programmable". Last year cryptocurrency mining on FPGAs gained a lot of attention within the mining community due to more and more FPGA software developers emerging. This has not been the case before and FPGA mining has remained neglected.
BCU-1525
In the world of mining probability and efficiency are equally important therefor I deem the BCU-1525 based on the Xilinx VU9P FPGA and the CVP-13 based on the Xilinx VU13P FPGA the most effective approach to FPGA mining. After a lot of research and comparing I have chosen to focus on the CVP-13 manly because it has 50% more logic space compared to the BCU-1525 and can therefor fit larger algorithms on a single board. If I were to go with the BCU-1525 i would have to purchase multiple boards to fit the same algorithm. The CVP-13 also comes watercooled directly from Bittware. The waterblock covers both the FPGA core and the powersupply resulting in outstanding thermal performance.
My choice of hardware
CVP-13
Bitstreams and software
Once a program has been written for the FPGA called "bit streams" made by FPGA software developers it must be loaded on to the FPGA. This is done by loading the bit stream on to the FPGA through an application called vivado labs, courtesy of Xilinx. The program configures the FPGA to mine on the specific algorithm that it has been instructed to mine and that algorithm ONLY. Therefor every algorithm needs its own bitstream. This was very problematic due to the great variety of algorithms out there and the profitability of those algorithms always changing, also the time it takes to create a bitstream. But now days there are a lot more developers and this issue will hopefully not be a problem in the near future.