Blockchain and Networking

Wed Jan 10 23:24:48 UTC 2018

On 11 January 2018 at 00:54, Filip Hruska <fhr at fhrnet.eu> wrote:

> You can't just run normal software on ASICs. It's not a computer. They're
> literally hard-wired to do one thing - and do it well.
> Switch ASICs, for example, are good for switching network packets around.
> Though (I would assume) they
> can't do any kind of hashing, much less Bitcoin-specific stuff.

You're probably right that Switch ASICs would not be able to do any
BTC stuff. But most of them do use hashes, MACs are in hash tables
often, balancing requires hashes. There is also somewhat hazy
definition what is ASIC and what is NPU, NPU boxes are large
collection of same chips, and chips are executing same software to
completion, they can do anything, just matter of how long it takes and
how effective they are doing it, they certainly wouldn't be practical
BTC miners..

-- 
  ++ytti