Would be interesting to know what it cost some of the original makers of miners in the 2011-12 time-frame vs today.
According to this source, Butterfly Labs sold pre-orders for 60k units at first. I vaguely remember that the average price of the 50 Gh model was $500 or so. That comes out to $30m of funding in total. However, many of these funds went to Butterfly's own warehouse in Missouri. They later failed to pay the power company, then folded in 2013 or so for whatever reason. 
Topic: Bitcoin mining (Read 163 times)
....Designing a new ASIC chip, let alone an ASIC miner, will take a team of electrical/electronic/computer/software engineers. I'm thinking at least 5 people in total. It will cost you hundreds of thousands at the lowest.
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From the discussions about the new intel miner & chips it was in the 8+ figure USD range. So at least $10 million from conception to prototype.
And that is from a company that HAD the staff and knowledge on how to do it.
Would be interesting to know what it cost some of the original makers of miners in the 2011-12 time-frame vs today.
-Dave
Designing a new ASIC chip, let alone an ASIC miner, will take a team of electrical/electronic/computer/software engineers. I'm thinking at least 5 people in total. It will cost you hundreds of thousands at the lowest.
If you want to build something new for mining, why not write GPU mining software for a new coin or for a CPU coin? Or a stratum profit-switching proxy? There are so many ideas that you can bring quicker to market by yourself, as long as you know programming.
If you want to build something new for mining, why not write GPU mining software for a new coin or for a CPU coin? Or a stratum profit-switching proxy? There are so many ideas that you can bring quicker to market by yourself, as long as you know programming.
My goal is to make an ASIC...
Is you goal to manufacture an ASIC or just design one? Either way, if you have only a rudimentary understanding of everything, then this is not something that you can accomplish in your spare time over the summer.
I'm not sure anyone here has experience in designing and making chips it's dominated by only a few companies. My answers below are my best guesses based on what I think will be a useful starting point.
I don't think you'll get a good profitibility out of chips if you're just doing this hobbyistically - there's quite a bit of competition in this space imo and they probably have to compete quite well with each other already (some have stopped producing entirely too).
Kinda but you might want to ask it on more forums too or in communities where chips are designed.
The sha256 algorithm is the main function asic chips implement as weel as (probably) a comparison to check if the header is below the target - operations are normally done in parallel as much as possible afaik to increase the speed a block is found (this might be less necessary though as series processing over the same amount of time will produce a similar number of outputs for ~10 minute intervals).
Pools send jobs to computer workers that mine the blocks based on the information the pools give them.
These "workers" are pieces of software on a "normal" machine (ie one running Windows or Linux with the asics connected as peripherals) that deligate tasks to asics.
I think the APIs for these are quite well implemented though so you'd just have to look at integrating the asic chips with preexisting software to start with.
This might be easier to work out by buying a cheap USB miner (or making one yourself out of a cheap device).
You could also look at software like cpuminer or check other crypto mining software that's open source.
You'll likely want to start off with the basis of a chip that can do sha256 algorithms and then work from there to add things.
I don't think you'll get a good profitibility out of chips if you're just doing this hobbyistically - there's quite a bit of competition in this space imo and they probably have to compete quite well with each other already (some have stopped producing entirely too).
1) Is this even right place to ask such questions?
Kinda but you might want to ask it on more forums too or in communities where chips are designed.
3.2) Complicated functions of processors
3.3) How sha256 works indepths
3.3) How sha256 works indepths
The sha256 algorithm is the main function asic chips implement as weel as (probably) a comparison to check if the header is below the target - operations are normally done in parallel as much as possible afaik to increase the speed a block is found (this might be less necessary though as series processing over the same amount of time will produce a similar number of outputs for ~10 minute intervals).
3.4) How ASIC receives jobs
3.5) How mining pools work
3.5) How mining pools work
Pools send jobs to computer workers that mine the blocks based on the information the pools give them.
These "workers" are pieces of software on a "normal" machine (ie one running Windows or Linux with the asics connected as peripherals) that deligate tasks to asics.
I think the APIs for these are quite well implemented though so you'd just have to look at integrating the asic chips with preexisting software to start with.
3.6) How USB miners work
This might be easier to work out by buying a cheap USB miner (or making one yourself out of a cheap device).
You could also look at software like cpuminer or check other crypto mining software that's open source.
3.8.) How to design an ASIC chip
You'll likely want to start off with the basis of a chip that can do sha256 algorithms and then work from there to add things.
Hello, first time searching for this type of info, so i'm sorry if it's offtopic (I just don't know any other place to go). My goal is to make an ASIC, i got as far as understanding how basic computers work (adding binery numbers, boolean algebra, how RAM works), also have a basic understanding of process of hashing (we take a float value -> turn it into random stuff), i also know how to make chips (photolithography). But i need to go deeper and unfortunatelly i am lost for now, so that's why i seek for help:
The easy ones:
1) Is this even right place to ask such questions?
2) Where is the right place to ask such questions?
Harder:
3) Any literature regarding
3.1) Bitcoin asics in generl (history, modern technology)
3.2) Complicated functions of processors
3.3) How sha256 works indepths
3.4) How ASIC receives jobs
3.5) How mining pools work
3.6) How USB miners work
3.7) Infrostructure of ASIC chips
3.8.) How to design an ASIC chip
Thanks for all replies and sorry for my english.
The easy ones:
1) Is this even right place to ask such questions?
2) Where is the right place to ask such questions?
Harder:
3) Any literature regarding
3.1) Bitcoin asics in generl (history, modern technology)
3.2) Complicated functions of processors
3.3) How sha256 works indepths
3.4) How ASIC receives jobs
3.5) How mining pools work
3.6) How USB miners work
3.7) Infrostructure of ASIC chips
3.8.) How to design an ASIC chip
Thanks for all replies and sorry for my english.
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