Hello everyone,
I’ve been working on a small project to build affordable VDI test bench for homelab and any fun stuff that I can do.
I was able to achieve this goal by modifying Tesla K10 into Grid K2 and it was successful.
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/hacking-nvidia-cards-into-their-professional-counterparts/)
After having some fun with GRID, I started to look for more functions.
Despite GRID works well initially, the worst limitation is that Im stuck with ESXi or XenServer.
I want vGPU with KVM but nVidia is greedy company who charges insane amount of price ‘per’ VM which is totally out of my control.
So I started to look for alternative option; MxGPU
I realize that AMD provides vGPU solution with utilizing industry standard(SR-IOV) not like nVidia.
Also, MxGPU can be used in KVM as well!
The particular model that has supports KVM is FirePro S7150
(https://github.com/GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs/MxGPU-Virtualization)
I also found that promising report of utilizing S7150 with Proxmox as well
(https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/MxGPU_with_AMD_S7150_under_Proxmox_VE_5.x)
Ok, lets check ebay and how much it is… damn its too expensive ($500+@)
But oh wait, the card shape looks familiar, it is identicle to W7100!
So I got W7100 with much cheaper price and was hoping if I could convert this card into S7150 since they are identicle.
While I was waiting the shipment, I did some research.
W7100 comes with 1Mb flash and S7150 comes with 4Mb flash.
I also confirmed this by extracting BIOS from vender updates (HPE, CISCO)
W7100 bios is 122kb and S7150 bios is 371kb
I assumed that S7150 BIOS is much bigger due to vGPU support.
Soldering 1Mb chip to 4Mb chip is easy so I also ordered some M25P40
So I finally got W7100 from ebay but the seller sent some weird card.
What I got is Barco MXRT-7600 which is OEM version of W7100
I didnt really care about it but the lucky part is that it came with 4Mb flash.
I didnt have to do any soldering and was able to flash S7150
Before Flash
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 693b
adapter bn dn dID asic flash romsize test bios p/n
======= == == ==== =============== ============== ======= ==== ================
0 03 00 693B Tonga M25P40/c 80000 pass 113-C7670800-103
so I just flashed CISCO S7150 bios
After Flash
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Tonga PRO GL [FirePro W7100]
adapter bn dn dID asic flash romsize test bios p/n
======= == == ==== =============== ============== ======= ==== ================
0 03 00 692B Tonga M25P40/c 80000 pass 113-C7630600-100
One thing that gets cray is that the Device ID changes to W7100 but not S7150
Device ID for MXRT-7600 is 0x693B
Device ID for W7100 is 0x692B
Device ID for S7150 is 0x6929
atiflash clearly tells me that its writing 0x6929 but when I reboot the system, the system reports 0x692B
Now, I am having wild guess that there might be some small difference in PCB just like how nVidia was setting their device ID.
This is high res picture from W7100 near BIOS chip.
It has some missing resistor spots that actually connets to BIOS chip
But, its just wild guess that I cannot confirm that it acts like nVidia.
I dont have S7150 nor money to get S7150 to compare the PCB.
So, I am desperately looking for someone who can take a high resolution picture of S7150 PCB.
OR, who knows why device ID is changing but not to 0x6929.
I am planning to share the result of modding it but I am blocked.
I attached Cisco s7150 BIOS if anyone interested to see whats in it.
I have experience with x86 reversing but dont know what to do with BIOS reversing at all
h369471_C7630600_100_signed(s7150).zip (181.1 KB)
Thanks for reading it and I hope to bring affordable MxGPU to community.