In Adam Taylor’s December 13, 2013 experiment, the ZedBoard’s CPU produced about 0.93 kH/s running cpuminer, compared with about 0.32 kH/s from a Raspberry Pi. That was a faster result for the ZedBoard in this particular CPU-only test—not evidence that either board is practical Litecoin mining hardware today.
What Taylor compared—and what he measured
Taylor ran the same program, cpuminer, from the command line on both systems. The ZedBoard ran Xillinux from an SD card; the Raspberry Pi already had a Linux distribution installed. His published figures were observations from that experiment, not current benchmarks or independently verified measurements.
| System | Mining compute used | Software and operating system | Reported hashrate | Run information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZedBoard | CPU; no programmable-logic acceleration reported | cpuminer; Xillinux on an SD card | About 0.46 kH/s per processor, about 0.93 kH/s total | No run duration stated for this result |
| Raspberry Pi | CPU | cpuminer; an already-installed Linux distribution | About 0.32 kH/s | More than 24 hours without an accepted block when Taylor wrote |
Source for both rows: Adam Taylor’s December 13, 2013 article. The Pi’s lack of an accepted block in that one run does not show that a Pi could never find one, nor does it establish how long a block should take. A hashrate is a measure of attempted work, not a promise of a block, payout, or profit.
The ZedBoard’s FPGA was not part of the mining result
The ZedBoard combines a processor with programmable FPGA fabric, but Taylor’s reported benchmark used the CPU. He described using the fabric to offload calculations as a possible future experiment, not as an implemented feature of the result. The comparison therefore answers a narrower question: how the two CPU setups performed with cpuminer in that 2013 test.
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A separate open-source project documents Scrypt Litecoin mining implementations for other FPGA boards; it does not establish FPGA performance on Taylor’s ZedBoard. Litecoin.watch’s FPGA-related material is not evidence that this benchmark used FPGA acceleration.
Why this is historical context, not a mining recommendation
Litecoin’s proof of work uses Scrypt with parameters N=1024, r=1, and p=1, according to the Litecoin Learning Center’s proof-of-work guidance. A miner must perform the relevant Scrypt work; a board’s general-purpose computing capability alone does not make it competitive mining equipment.
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Litecoin’s official mining guide identifies specialized Scrypt ASIC devices as the most efficient means of mining Litecoin. Litecoinpool.org likewise says CPU or GPU mining is not profitable in its assessment and that ASIC hardware is required for practical mining. That is the pool operator’s guidance, not a guarantee about any specific miner’s returns. The boards in Taylor’s experiment are best understood as educational hardware for a historical demonstration, not as a current route to mining income.
What to know before trying a modern mining setup
Choose hardware that supports Scrypt
For practical Litecoin mining, current guidance points to a Scrypt ASIC rather than a CPU board. As a dated example only, a Litecoin.watch guide published January 21, 2026 and edited September 18, 2026 reports one BITMAIN Antminer L9 configuration at 16 GH/s, 3,360 W, and 210 J/GH, with 220–277 V input and 75 dBA under manufacturer-stated conditions. These specifications are not a current price or profitability quote; confirm the exact model, configuration, seller, and electrical requirements before making a purchase. See the Litecoin.watch guide.
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Check pool terms and connectivity
Litecoin’s guide recommends Ethernet for a stable connection between an ASIC and router. When comparing pools, it advises checking payout minimums, fees, pool location, identity requirements, pool hashrate, and whether merged Dogecoin mining is supported. Merged mining allows compatible chains to be mined at the same time; Litecoinpool.org says its service handles this without special miner configuration. Pool policies can change, so check the pool’s current terms before connecting hardware. Litecoin mining guide and Litecoinpool.org pool information.
Do not infer a return from the 2013 hashrates
Taylor’s comparison did not measure electricity use, power efficiency, hardware cost, or profitability. A financial estimate needs current hardware cost and efficiency, electricity rates, network difficulty, coin prices, uptime, and pool terms. The Litecoin guide’s ASIC price and probability figures are tied to July/August 2024 conditions, so they should not be treated as current quotes or forecasts. No block or profit is guaranteed.
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Recreating the experiment today
The original article provides the historical software and operating-system context: cpuminer on both systems, Xillinux on the ZedBoard, and a Linux distribution on the Raspberry Pi. Recreating it may require compatibility work because the software and system images are legacy; a current Raspberry Pi generation should not be expected to reproduce Taylor’s 2013 result. Treat the exercise as a way to learn about mining software and measured hashrate, not as a practical mining strategy.
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