This blog is for students of TCS 4063: Parallel and Distributed Computing of UniSZA. This is for the implementation of Objective Based Education (OBE), & Blended Learning.
Governments only print more money when they need to. But
in bitcoin, money isn’t printed at all – it is discovered.
WHAT ARE BITCOINS?
üBitcoins are electronic currency
üAlso known as 'cryptocurrency'
üform of digital public money that is created by
cautious mathematical computations, and policed by
millions of computer users called 'miners'.
üBitcins are electricity converted into long
strings of code that have money value.
HOW BITCOINS WORK?
üPractical coins designed to be 'self-contained' for
their value
üperform like physical gold coins they keep value and job
üno need for banks to move and store the
money
üYou can use your bitcoins to buying goods and services online
üyou can gather them away and hope that their value increases
over the years.
üKnown as another “wallet” to person.(A wallet is a small personal
database that you store on your computer drive, on your smartphone, on your
tablet, or somewhere in the cloud.)
üBitcoin
transactions are sent from and to electronic bitcoin wallets, and are digitally
signed for security.
HOW DOES MINING HAPPEN?
üComputers around the world ‘mine’ for coins by
competing with each other.
üPeople
are transfer bitcoins to each other over the bitcoin network everytime,
but if someone saves a record of all these transactions, no-one would be capable
to keep track of who had paid what. The bitcoin network transactions with this
by collecting all of the transactions made during a set period into a list,
called a block.
üIt’s the
miners’ job to confirm those transactions, and write them into a universal ledger.
HOW MUCH ARE BITCOINS VALUE?
ücurrently value around $600 US dollars
üThere are approximately $1.9 billion USD worth
of bitcoins in existence, with approximately $2 billion more to be created.
üBitcoins will stop being created when the total
number reaches 21 billion coins, maybe around the year 2040
10 out of 10 marks were given for any students that posted anything for the first week. HOWEVER, for the 2nd week, originality and quality of posts will be taken into consideration. Marks deduction for any blog posts that is a copy from other places/person.
Followings are the marks for 1st week's blog posts. For students with (???) behind their name, please change your blogger's name so that it is nearer to your real name.
What are parallel computing, grid computing, and
supercomputing?
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is the concurrent use of multiple processors
(CPUs) to do computational work.
In traditional (serial) programming, a single processor executes
program instructions in a step-by-step manner. Some operations,
however, have multiple steps that do not have time dependencies and
therefore can be separated into multiple tasks to be executed
simultaneously. For example, adding a number to all the elements of a
matrix does not require that the result obtained from summing one
element be acquired before summing the next element. Elements in the
matrix can be made available to several processors, and the sums
performed simultaneously, with the results available faster than if
all operations had been performed serially.
Parallel computations can be performed on shared-memory systems
with multiple CPUs, distributed-memory clusters made up of
smaller shared-memory systems, or single-CPU systems. Coordinating the
concurrent work of the multiple processors and synchronizing the
results are handled by program calls to parallel libraries; these
tasks usually require parallel programming expertise.
At Indiana University, the UITSScientific Applications and Performance Tuning (SciAPT)
group can help programmers convert serial codes to parallel code, and
optimize the performance of parallel codes. To arrange a consultation,
email
SciAPT.
Grid computing
The term "grid computing" denotes the connection of distributed
computing, visualization, and storage resources to solve large-scale
computing problems that otherwise could not be solved within the
limited memory, computing power, or I/O capacity of a system or
cluster at a single location. Much as an electrical grid provides
power to distributed sites on demand, a computing grid can supply the
infrastructure needed for applications requiring very large computing
and I/O capacity.
The creation of a functional grid requires a high-speed network and
grid middleware that lets the distributed resources work together in a
relatively transparent manner. For example, whereas sharing resources
on a single large system may require a batch scheduler, scheduling and
dispatching jobs that run concurrently across multiple systems in a
grid requires a metascheduler that interacts with each of the local
schedulers. Additionally, a grid authorization system may be required
to map user identities to different accounts and authenticate users on
the various systems.
Supercomputers
"Supercomputer" is a general term for computing systems capable of
sustaining high-performance computing applications that require a
large number of processors, shared or distributed memory, and multiple
disks.
This example demonstrates calculations on 2-dimensional array elements, with the computation on each array element being independent from other array elements.
The serial program calculates one element at a time in sequential order.
Serial code could be of the form:
do j = 1,n do i = 1,n a(i,j) = fcn(i,j) end do end do
The calculation of elements is independent of one another - leads to an embarrassingly parallel situation.
The problem should be computationally intensive.
Embarrassingly parallel array calculation
Array Processing Parallel Solution 1
Arrays elements are distributed so that each processor owns a portion of an array (subarray).
Independent calculation of array elements ensures there is no need for communication between tasks.
Distribution scheme is chosen by other criteria, e.g. unit stride (stride of 1) through the subarrays. Unit stride maximizes cache/memory usage.
Since it is desirable to have unit stride through the subarrays, the choice of a distribution scheme depends on the programming language. See the Block - Cyclic Distributions Diagram for the options.
After the array is distributed, each task executes the portion of the loop corresponding to the data it owns.
Notice that only the outer loop variables are different from the serial solution.
Embarrassingly parallel array calculation data decomposition
One Possible Solution:
Implement as a Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) model.
Master process initializes array, sends info to worker processes and receives results.
Worker process receives info, performs its share of computation and sends results to master.
Array Processing Parallel Solution 2: Pool of Tasks
The previous array solution demonstrated static load balancing: Each task has a fixed amount of work to do May be significant idle time for faster or more lightly loaded processors - slowest tasks determines overall performance.
Static load balancing is not usually a major concern if all tasks are performing the same amount of work on identical machines.
If you have a load balance problem (some tasks work faster than others), you may benefit by using a "pool of tasks" scheme.
Pool of Tasks Scheme:
Two processes are employed
Master Process: Holds pool of tasks for worker processes to do Sends worker a task when requested Collects results from workers
Worker Process: repeatedly does the following Gets task from master process Performs computation Sends results to master
Worker processes do not know before runtime which portion of array they will handle or how many tasks they will perform.
Dynamic load balancing occurs at run time: the faster tasks will get more work to do.
Do you know 25 fun things to do with a Raspberry Pi??
1. Mod My Pi Mod My Pi do a great range of colourful cases, using state of the art injection moulding techniques, and they're not a bad price either. 2. Make your own Pi case Fancy making your own case? Then this printable PDF will do the trick nicely. It's a template to cut out and glue to together (very Blue Peter), which will form a case for the RPi. 3. Living room PC Now your Pi is in a cool looking case, hook it up to your TV and enjoy a mini-media experience with OpenELEC. Follow the instructions, and you'll be up and running in no time. 4. A mini Web browser Since your Raspberry Pi is already hooked up to your TV, why not enjoy some big screen surfing? You'll need a better browser than Midori for this though, so try Chromium. Just drop into a Terminal and type: 'sudo apt- get install chromium-browser', then hit Enter. 5. ZX Spectrum Pi That lovable rubber keyboarded gem has made a grand entrance once again, this time with Raspberry insides. Getting the hardware to work is one thing, but to emulate this wonderful 8-bit beauty, type the following into the Terminal: 'sudo apt-get install fuse-emulator-common', and press Enter. Type 'y' to confirm the download and install.
Once Fuse has been installed, and you are returned to the prompt, type: 'sudo apt-get install spectrum-roms fuse-emulator-utils', and press Enter. When, once again, you return to the prompt, type in: 'sudo amixer cset numid=3 2', and press Enter. 6. Retro Pi If the Spectrum whetted your appetite, then check out the RetroPie Project. With this you can emulate a wealth of old consoles: SNES, Mega Drive etc. The setup takes its toll on the old RPi and it's not the quickest install ever, but it's certainly worth it in the end. Follow these instructions and get gaming.
It's important to remember that Nintendo takes an extremely dim view of you downloading even very old games that you own. But there are free classic games available legally online, with the permission of their creators, such as these. 7. Arcade Pi In fact, why not go one step further and create a full sized arcade cabinet? You could follow the instructions in this blog post from RPi user, Darren. Or, hunt around on eBay for an old arcade cabinet to tinker with. 8. Windows 3.0on a Pi While we're on the subject of going retro, have a go at running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.0 via QEMU. First, pay a visit to Kirsle and extract the VirtualBox (VDI) image, and using VirtualBox convert the VDI to a raw IMG by typing: 'vboxmanage clonehd "image.vdi" "image.img" --format RAW' (replacing 'image' with the name of your image).
Next install QEMU by typing: 'sudo apt-get install qemu'. Then convert the raw image to a QEMU qcow image by typing: 'qemu- img convert -f raw image.img -O qcow2 image.qcow'. Finally run the image by typing: 'qemu image.qcow'. It's far from perfect, and has a tendency to freeze, but it's still fun. 9. Robotics Robots are generally quite cool -- obviously aside from the ones that wish to except for the ones that try to kill all of humanity. There are plenty of friendly robots out there. Online magazine RPi MagPi has a feature (from page 9 onwards) about how to make a robotic arm work with the RPi.
10. Robotics 2 While we're on the subject of robots, MagPi also has a great project involving Big Track and the RPi. 11. Learn to program The RPi makes for a great programming platform, with a huge choice of languages available. Check some of them out on the eLinux wiki. 12. Scratch the Pi Scratch is a programming language that's easy to get to grips with and easy to use, which makes it good for children to start learning with and for creating rich programming projects. Check out this tutorial, featuring a bonus cat. 13. Spectrum BASIC for RPi Although you can play Spectrum games via the emulator, programming BASIC through the emulator just isn't the same. That being the case, use SpecBAS instead, which is a remake of Sinclair BASIC that's available with full instructions. 14. Pi Hacker Being as small as it is, the RPi would make an excellent hacking tool. Regardless of the ethics involved, try out this security penetration testing project. 15. Firefox OS on Pi Although still in the developmental stages, Oleg Romashin an engineer at Nokia, has managed to get Firefox OS running on the Raspberry Pi. FFOS isn't out officially, but check out what's been achieved so far. (Update: You can find more from another developer here.) 16. RISC OS for Pi If you fancy a blast from the past, then give RISC OS for the RPi a try. Downloads and full instructions are available. 17. Beer can keyboard A keyboard made from beer cans? True enough, the Robofun team hooked up an Arduino board to a Raspberry Pi along with many cans of beer. Have a look at their video below. 18. BitTorrent Server If you frequent the various Torrent sites, then why not create a dedicated lean Torrent machine? Just hook it up to your router and leave it to do its business. Full instructions, scripts and downloads come courtesy of the snapdragon:IT blog. 19. RPi cloud server Fancy building your very own cloud server? By using OwnCloud you can. Follow the instructions, and the customised script from petRockBlog and you'll become your own cloud provider in no time.
20. RPi UAV The concept is brilliant, an RPi UAV (or flying drone to the likes of you and I) -- just think of the possibilities! Be inspired by Maggie -- possibly the first Raspberry Pi-powered quadcopter in the world. 21. RPi Weather Station This DragonTail mapping tutorial would make an excellent science project for school, the Raspberry Pi weather station. Using a Maplin bought USB Wireless Touch Weather Station, the RPi can log all relevant data. 22. 10-inch RPi Touchscreen Using a 10-inch capacitive touchscreen and a HDMI-LVDS converter you can create a touchscreen Raspberry Pi. The full kit can be purchased from Chalkboard Electronics and then constructed using the instructions in the YouTube video below. 23. Home automation There's a new product called PiFace that's perfect for home automation. It hooks up to the RPi and allows it to detect switch states from a door sensor, a pressure pad or any number of other switch types. 24. Minecraft The indescribably popular game Minecraft is available for the Raspberry Pi, allowing you to get all your block-bashing kicks in miniature. Best of all, it's free to download, with full instructions here. 25. Raspberry Pi Cluster Many Pi's make light work. Check out these instructions from the University of Southampton to make a RPi Supercomputer.
If you don’t know already, Bitcoin is a virtual currency set up in 2009. Bitcoin has grown in reputation over the past few years becoming a very popular as a method to pay for services over the internet. The value has rocketed recently thanks to the huge coverage in the media, for both positive and negative reasons.
There are two ways to get Bitcoin:
Buying themfrom an exchange, which is the process of converting local currency to Bitcoin.
Mining them. Mining is the process of verifying transactions in the blockchain.
As the whole of the Bitcoin system is decentralised, every transaction is publically viewable within what is called the blockchain. This blockchain contains every bitcoin exchanged between users so, as there is no central server, it has to be self governed. This is the job of the miners.
Requirements
In order to mine Bitcoin, you will
A pool account
Bitcoin Wallet
Raspberry Pi
Raspbian image SD card
USB Bitcoin miner
Creating an Account
There are two things you need to do:
Download a bitcoin wallet
Create a pool account
Set up payment
Set up workers
Download a Bitcoin Wallet
A wallet is a program that sits on your computer and gives you a wallet address, this is a unique string of numbers and letters that you will use to receive bitcoins. Download the client for your computer from https://bitcoin.org/en/download
After installation, you will have to save a file called wallet.dat, keep this file safe, as this contains your unique wallet address within it, including all bitcoins that you will gain. If you lose this file, you cannot recover any bitcoins it contained.
Create a Pool Account
Once you have a wallet address, create a pool account. A pool is a huge collection of other people working towards gaining bitcoins. Due to the complexity of mining a bitcoin, it has become unrealistic to solo mine–the act of processing millions of numbers to solve the block problem. Working as a group, or pool, lets everyone have a chance of earning some Bitcoin. There are many pools around, in this tutorial I’ll be using one called Slush’s pool:http://mining.bitcoin.cz/
Set Up Payment
Once you have created a pool account, you'll need to enter your unique wallet address into the Bitcoin payout address.
Create Worker Account
Next step is to create a worker login account. Within your pool account you have the ability to create something called a worker for each of your bitcoin miners, so you're able to monitor them all separately just in case one should fail.
Each worker has its own login name and password. Whilst you are on My Accountclick Register New Worker and give it a name, for example; worker, and a password.
Now you're ready to set your Raspberry Pi mining for Bitcoin.
If you plan on running more than one Bitcoin miner at the same time, it is best to use a powered USB hub. Take into account the power rating as mining will need a lot of power, as much as one mp per miner.
With your USB miner attached to your Raspberry Pi, let’s get everything installed.
Installing Required libraries
The miner to be installed comes as source files, which means that the program must be compiled into a binary before it can be run. To make a program, in this case BFGMiner, many dependencies are required.
Dependencies are additional software, or libraries the program needs in order to compile properly, as it has been developed using them to make the software more efficient.
Hopefully you will be seeing the Raspbian desktop, so double click on LXTerminal and type in the following:
Once all the dependencies have been installed, now it is time to download and install BFGMiner, so type the following into LXTerminal. It’s normal for these to take a few minutes to complete so some patience is needed.
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git clone https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer.git
cdbfgminer
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
You will be greeted with a screen that looks similar to the following:
Start Mining Bitcoin
Now you’re ready to start mining. To do this, providing you're using Slush’s pool, you’ll use the following command:
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./bfgminer-o stratum.bitcoin.cz:3333 -O username.worker:password -S all
The username section is composed of two parts, the username that you use to login to the pool, and worker which is the worker name you gave when you registered the worker. Finally, the password that was set when you created the worker.
If everything works, you will see the main screen that will look similar to this:
That’s a lot of numbers, so I’ll make some of them a bit clearer.
Current mining speed, typically calculated in megahashes or gigahashes. The number of hashes a second that can be calculated the better. A hash is an algorithm of converting numbers and letters into an undecryptable set of characters. So a miner is used to process millions of numbers in an effort to match the hash to guess the original number. The more hashes that can be processed the faster it is able to solve the problem.
Number of accepted shares. A share on a pool is to show the miner has successfully worked out a given problem, so the more shares you can process the better your reward from the pool.
Detailed information on accepted shares and pool updates. This is a running log of what is currently happening with the miners and basic pool information, such as messages of updates and when new blocks are found.
Following these steps will leave you with a very energy efficient bitcoin miner, as a Raspberry Pi only uses four watts of power, and a miner is typically 2.5W. Mining used to be done with computers consuming over 700W for the same process so to make a jump in savings helps repay the cost of the hardware we are using.
All there is to do now is to sit back and watch the money slowly build up. Though it is important that you understand that Bitcoin value fluctuates wildly, it is extremely volatile, so invest at your own risk.
For more information there are a number of websites and forums available, such ashttps://bitcointalk.org/,to help get you started.
Credit to : http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-raspberry-pi-bitcoin-miner--cms-20353
