Are ASIC's the endgame? - page 2. | Bitcointalksearch.org

Bogart

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Quote from: abeaulieu on November 05, 2012, 09:40:21 AM

For all intensive purposes ASICs are as good as it gets.

Mah purposes be mo' intensive den yours.

I agree that the move to ASICs will likely be the last big leap before quantum processing. That said, within the limits of today's ASIC technology, I think there's still room for a few more doublings of efficiency yet.

Regardless of the technology, there's always the possibility of algorithmic improvements -- "mathematical shortcuts". Things like this:
http://www.nature.com/news/proof-claimed-for-deep-connection-between-primes-1.11378

dserrano5

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Quote from: dooferorg on November 05, 2012, 09:41:13 AM

By the time ASICs as a technology is obsoleted, all the bitcoin blocks will have been mined anyway Grin

But that doesn't imply an end to mining.

Meatball

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Ah, I hadn't thought about Quantum, but as someone mentioned above, I don't really see them really being a factor for some time. Hopefully I'm wrong, as it'd be awesome to have them, but it's just so far removed at this point that I think you can discount them for a while.

I agree that people will be able to tweak and prod ASIC's just like GPU's improved over time, but I was really wondering if there were any future contenders for bitcoin mining and it looks like ASIC's are it for a while.

bobitza

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Quote from: dooferorg on November 05, 2012, 09:41:13 AM

ASICs might be the 'endgame' in terms of a type of technology, but the realization of that technology has stepping stones and can be improved upon. Process/die size is the big one that can change and that will enable more work to be done per clock or Watt leading to more efficient solutions.

Do you know what type of improvements are we looking at? Double Gh/W from the best (future) existing ratio?

dooferorg

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ASICs might be the 'endgame' in terms of a type of technology, but the realization of that technology has stepping stones and can be improved upon. Process/die size is the big one that can change and that will enable more work to be done per clock or Watt leading to more efficient solutions.

By the time ASICs as a technology is obsoleted, all the bitcoin blocks will have been mined anyway Grin

Edit: Ninja'd by abeaulieu

abeaulieu

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Quote from: Meatball on November 05, 2012, 07:56:34 AM

Let's not turn this into a troll/fanboi thread on ASIC's. My question is, is there any technology out there that could push ASIC mining out the window the way ASIC's will do to GPU and GPU's did to CPU, or is ASIC mining 'as good as it gets' and will be the endgame for bitcoin mining?

For all intensive purposes ASICs are as good as it gets. Of course there are different manufacturing processes of ASICs and they are progressively getting smaller. So this is certainly room for improvement within the ASIC domain.

If quantum computing turns into something real that may be the next step, but it's not exactly a feasible step because there have not been many practical implementations of it. These technology have to widely accepted for scientific computation or PC industry before someone would port the technology and make it cheap enough for bitcoin mining.

el_rlee

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Quote from: pieppiep on November 05, 2012, 08:03:16 AM

If someone finds someway to reduce the work by for example 20 bits it would be a million times faster.
But keep in mind, the trick would be something many cryptographers haven't found yet. So personally I would bet on quantum computers.

many people wouldn't believe that for many crypto technologies so far... from md5 to SHA-1...

ElectricMucus

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Marketing manager - GO MP

There are those who think that ASICs are the endgame for pretty much everything. Meaning that to keep up with Moores Law it will be necessary for eventually every person on earth to work in the microelectronics industry.

Obviously this won't be the case but we are already at a point where it takes an ridiculous amount of manpower to design and construct the things, and it isn't getting better. So according to this theory moores law will be cut short because a lack of human resources.

pieppiep

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If someone finds someway to reduce the work by for example 20 bits it would be a million times faster.
That trick could work for all current technologies, cpu/gpa/fpga/asic.
But keep in mind, the trick would be something many cryptographers haven't found yet. So personally I would bet on quantum computers.

ice_chill

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Yes and No.

Right now ASIC is the final say amongst silicon based chips.

In the future, quantum computing might push it out.

Meatball

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Let's not turn this into a troll/fanboi thread on ASIC's. My question is, is there any technology out there that could push ASIC mining out the window the way ASIC's will do to GPU and GPU's did to CPU, or is ASIC mining 'as good as it gets' and will be the endgame for bitcoin mining?

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