Atmel ATSHA204 chip for mining?

[Reclaim3r]

Just an intriguing idea I was thinking about. Atmel has a chip known as the ATSHA204 that appears to be used for simple password encryption and hardware security purposes.
It DOES however, posses the ability to perform SHA256 hashes and I was wondering if it could be put to use in the world of SHA256 mining.

Datasheet is here: http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-8885-CryptoAuth-ATSHA204A-Datasheet.pdf
Along with a cute picture  ( it comes in two formats, single wire and I²C )[/sup]

( Single Wire )


( I²C)

[dogie]

super tldr, no.

[Swimmer63]

super tldr, no.

Yes.  How much does it cost?

[dropt]

super tldr, no.

Yes.  How much does it cost?

$1.32/ea in low Qty.  Buy >1000 and it drops to $0.57/unit.

[RoadStress]

super tldr, no.

Yes.  How much does it cost?

$1.32/ea in low Qty.  Buy >1000 and it drops to $0.57/unit.

What's the hashrate that it could achieve? I'm asking just to see if this chip could've smashed the FPGAs.

[Reclaim3r]

super tldr, no.

Super tldr? I'm sorry, I'm still somewhat of a newbie 

[RoadStress]

super tldr, no.

Super tldr? I'm sorry, I'm still somewhat of a newbie 

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TLDR

[Reclaim3r]

super tldr, no.

Super tldr? I'm sorry, I'm still somewhat of a newbie 

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TLDR

Thanks for clearing that up. Guess their isn't a definitive reply to this yet

[-ck]

The response was definitive enough. Take it from the cgminer maintainer if it wasn't definitive enough...

It DOES however, posses the ability to perform SHA256 hashes and I was wondering if it could be put to use in the world of SHA256 mining.

Not remotely in any useful amount.

[Reclaim3r]

The response was definitive enough. Take it from the cgminer maintainer if it wasn't definitive enough...

It DOES however, posses the ability to perform SHA256 hashes and I was wondering if it could be put to use in the world of SHA256 mining.

Not remotely in any useful amount.

could we at least get a hashrate? Pretty please? 

[dropt]

What's the hashrate that it could achieve? I'm asking just to see if this chip could've smashed the FPGAs.

Just by a quick skim of the datasheet, low as in the order of less than 40 Hashes per second.

So to answer your question: Not a chance.

[MrTeal]

super tldr, no.

Yes.  How much does it cost?

$1.32/ea in low Qty.  Buy >1000 and it drops to $0.57/unit.

What's the hashrate that it could achieve? I'm asking just to see if this chip could've smashed the FPGAs.

According to the datasheet, without any communications overhead it takes typically 11ms to do one hash of SHA256 (max 22ms), so for the BTC double SHA-256 you'd be looking at about 45 hashes per second, again not taking into account the overhead of loading the data into the chip. I'd guess more like 40 H/s or so.

[Reclaim3r]

What's the hashrate that it could achieve? I'm asking just to see if this chip could've smashed the FPGAs.

Just by a quick skim of the datasheet, low as in the order of less than 40 Hashes per second.

So to answer your question: Not a chance.

Would it be worth the cost and power?

[-ck]

Wow that's persistence for you. Current ASICs are about $1 per billion hashes per second with all their attached hardware and systems. You work it out now for your chip.

[dropt]

What's the hashrate that it could achieve? I'm asking just to see if this chip could've smashed the FPGAs.

Just by a quick skim of the datasheet, low as in the order of less than 40 Hashes per second.

So to answer your question: Not a chance.

Would it be worth the cost and power?

Assuming MrTeal and I are reasonably accurate with our rough estimation of ~40H/S...

A Gen1 AM Asic did ~333MH/S, which is 333000000H/S.  So you'd need 16,650,000 of them to do the work of one (1) Gen1 AM ASIC.  That'd set you back like 9 Million dollars, require ~8,325A at 5.5V, or ~45.8kW.

Soooo.. No.

Edit:  That assumes you use two chips for the double SHA256 round.

[Reclaim3r]

What's the hashrate that it could achieve? I'm asking just to see if this chip could've smashed the FPGAs.

Just by a quick skim of the datasheet, low as in the order of less than 40 Hashes per second.

So to answer your question: Not a chance.

Would it be worth the cost and power?

Assuming MrTeal and I are reasonably accurate with our rough estimation of ~40H/S...

A Gen1 AM Asic did ~333MH/S, which is 333000000H/S.  So you'd need 16,650,000 of them to do the work of one (1) Gen1 AM ASIC.  That'd set you back like 9 Million dollars, require ~8,325A at 5.5V, or ~45.8kW.

Soooo.. No.

Edit:  That assumes you use two chips for the double SHA256 round.

Feels...okay. I was hoping I could waste my summer time buy buying in bulk and soldering them to a massive PCB. Maybe I'll find another SHA256 non-mining ASIC 

[Reclaim3r]

Wow that's persistence for you. Current ASICs are about $1 per billion hashes per second with all their attached hardware and systems. You work it out now for your chip.

Ayup  I get especially persistent with Bitcoin or cryptocurrency related info and what not. Got my answer though :-D

[Lorenzo]

Interesting find OP.

Isn't this chip technically speaking, an ASIC? I don't think it's an FPGA and it's definitely not a CPU or GPU.

And if is an ASIC, then why can it only reach 40 hashes per second? I thought ASICs were supposed to be much faster than this?

Also I found another thread about this chip where someone came up with a figure of 710 hashes per second (still very low however):

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177561.0

[MrTeal]

Interesting find OP.

Isn't this chip technically speaking, an ASIC? I don't think it's an FPGA and it's definitely not a CPU or GPU.

And if is an ASIC, then why can it only reach 40 hashes per second? I thought ASICs were supposed to be much faster than this?

Also I found another thread about this chip where someone came up with a figure of 710 hashes per second (still very low however):

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177561.0

That guy was just looking at how long it takes to load the data into the chip. He was ignoring how long it actually takes to compute the hash.

And yes, the chip is an ASIC. It's not a bitcoin ASIC however, it's a very small, very slow ASIC designed to store keys and hash values. Completely different purpose, so it's not useful for Bitcoin mining.