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Author Topic: Branching-hard PoW?  (Read 750 times)
monsterer (OP)
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January 25, 2016, 11:57:31 AM
 #1

Branches are notoriously slow on GPU, and cost silicon space on ASIC chips, so if there was a PoW which required a lot of branches and which couldn't be simplified by using memory tables and precomputions, this would seem like a good alternative to memory-hard PoW.

Has there been any research into PoW algorithms which are branching-hard?
2112
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January 25, 2016, 08:22:53 PM
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Branches [...] cost silicon space on ASIC chips [...]
Now that is one of the weirdest claims I read on this site.

You seem to be unaware of the existence of the whole areas of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automata_theory that study things different than the prevailing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture .

Are there any reputable schools granting Computer Science degrees without requiring the student to understand the fundamentals of digital logic design (e.g. a flip-flop)?

Whole message quoted again for posterity:
Branches are notoriously slow on GPU, and cost silicon space on ASIC chips, so if there was a PoW which required a lot of branches and which couldn't be simplified by using memory tables and precomputions, this would seem like a good alternative to memory-hard PoW.

Has there been any research into PoW algorithms which are branching-hard?

Please comment, critique, criticize or ridicule BIP 2112: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54382.0
Long-term mining prognosis: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=91101.0
monsterer (OP)
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January 26, 2016, 08:56:05 AM
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Branches [...] cost silicon space on ASIC chips [...]
Now that is one of the weirdest claims I read on this site.

You seem to be unaware of the existence of the whole areas of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automata_theory that study things different than the prevailing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture .

You're suggesting that branches are cost/space free on an ASIC?
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January 26, 2016, 06:41:18 PM
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You're suggesting that branches are cost/space free on an ASIC?
Yup. This is a trivial result from the classical papers from 1955 and 1956.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealy_machine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_machine

I just had to consult the Wikipedia to verify that John Von Neumann published his paper earlier, in 1945.

Some schools must be really bad if in the 21th century they don't teach the science from the middle of 20th century.
 

Please comment, critique, criticize or ridicule BIP 2112: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54382.0
Long-term mining prognosis: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=91101.0
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