README.txt

This file is included in the Windows binary package. Compile instructions
for Linux and Windows can be found in RELEASE_NOTES.

cpuminer is a console program that is executed from a DOS command prompt.
There is no GUI and no mouse support.

Choose the exe that best matches you CPU's features or use trial and
error to find the fastest one that doesn't crash. Pay attention to
the features listed at cpuminer startup to ensure you are mining at
optimum speed using all the available features.

Architecture names and compile options used are only provided for Intel
Core series. Pentium and Celeron often have fewer features.

AMD CPUs older than Piledriver, including Athlon x2 and Phenom II x4, are not
supported by cpuminer-opt due to an incompatible implementation of SSE2 on
these CPUs. Some algos may crash the miner with an invalid instruction.
Users are recommended to use an unoptimized miner such as cpuminer-multi.

Exe name                Compile flags              Arch name

cpuminer-sse2.exe      "-march=core2"              Core2   
cpuminer-sse42.exe     "-march=corei7"             Nehalem
cpuminer-aes-sse42.exe "-maes -msse4.2"            Westmere
cpuminer-avx.exe       "-march=corei7-avx"         Sandybridge, Ivybridge
cpuminer-avx2.exe      "-march=core-avx2"          Haswell...
cpuminer-avx-sha       "-march=corei7-avx -msha"   Ryzen...
cpuminer-4way.exe      "-march=core-avx2 -DFOUR_WAY"       same as avx2
cpuminer-4way-sha.exe  "-march=core-avx2 -msha -DFOUR_WAY" same as avx2-sha

4way requires a CPU with AES and AVX2. It is still under development and
only a few algos are supported. See change log in RELEASE_NOTES in source
package for supported algos.

Ryzen CPus perform better with AVX than AVX2 therefore an avx-sha build
is provided. Four way still uses AVX2.