Build multi process ASIC

[MarcusR]

Hello

According you, it is possible to build fully customizable machine to change when we want the chipsets to mine sometime Ether, other time mining dash, etc...
I would like know if it's technically possible to create that sort of machine and not a machine dedicated for just X11 or SH256... but something to "switch" by moment.
Thanks

[HagssFIN]

Don't you think that Bitmain for example would have already come up with one if it is possible? X11 and SHA-256 algos are way too different for it to be possible.

This is not possible and further discussion is useless.

edit: see my later post below

[MarcusR]

I know algos are different... that is the reason the hardware inside the machine can by launched or not according the coin to mine.

[sidehack]

If you wanted to do it with an ASIC, it'd be a matter of building both cores into the same chip and then integrating a controller that could switch between the two. It's possible, but nobody's done it.

Then there's the FPGA option, where you could program the chip with one type of core and after a while reprogram it with a different core. But then you'd have to build into your miner whatever hardware was required for rewriting the FPGA, and FPGAs are probably going to be more expensive and less efficient.

It's technically possible, but if the major manufacturers can get more money from doing less work (selling simple special-purpose machines rather than more complex general-purpose machines, you buy two miners instead of one) there's no real incentive.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Actually 2-chips in 1 package *has* been done ref SFARAD from early 2015. Was supposed to mine X11 scrypt and BTC.
The company failed miserably and now their datasheet has been stolen/plagiarized by scammers and is being used to peddle Wonder-of-the-Ages Vapor Miners.

[sidehack]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that guy. I believe it was scrypt, not X11. Yeah that and gridseeds were dual-algorithm chips. Good call.

Honestly, I didn't really like that chip anyways. Big CPU-style BGA really makes a lot of unnecessary headache for integrators. Spondoolies was really the only group to do it well, exactly one time, and then went back to array of small chips for the SP50.

But that's a whole different argument.

[HagssFIN]

Ok, I said it wrong, it might be technically possible but most likely it is not economically feasible idea.

[QuintLeo]

Actually 2-chips in 1 package *has* been done ref SFARAD from early 2015. Was supposed to mine X11 scrypt and BTC.
The company failed miserably and now their datasheet has been stolen/plagiarized by scammers and is being used to peddle Wonder-of-the-Ages Vapor Miners.

 SFards was a merger between GridSeed (which made the original "dual miner" chip, Scypt and SHA256 with their GC3355) and WiiBox (which I believe made some of the controllers for the "bigger" Gridseed miners).
 The only reason the GC3355 survived for a significant period of time is that it was quite efficient on the Scrypt side - it's SHA256 side got passed VERY quickly - and that Scrypt wasn't attracting nearly as much competition in ASIC chips as SHA256 was.

 For perspective - the GC3355 was PROFITABLE by the time Litecoin hit $8 (and possibly a bit before that) in the current surge, and if you had 3c/KWH electric it was close to break-even even during the long Litecoin run in the $4-$5 range - because it's competition was NOT all that much more efficient. Even the L3+ is only about 10 times as efficient, despite being a few "nodes" newer tech and at least 2 full generations of miner newer.

 They failed because their chip was MARGINAL on SHA256 efficiency even when they announced it, took forever to get the miner to market, and the miner turned out to be VERY badly designed at the board level (an issue the Gridseed miners ALSO had) and unreliable, and the SHA256 efficiency BY THE TIME THEY BROUGHT IT TO MARKET was inferior to the competiton, but the price was so high the machine could NOT compete on the Scrypt side (despite being marginally more efficient than most existing Scrypt miners).

 The problem with doing a "dual algo" chip like that is you have to split the chip between the two - you CAN'T resuse much of it if you are doing multiple algos (exception for X11/X13/X15 which incorporate multiple different algos in series, so you CAN resuse most of the chip even if you're running one of the "lesser" algos like X11).

 FPGA isn't efficient enough to compete with ASIC where ASIC exists - FPGA is about flexability.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Quint, you should get a kick out of what the scammers have made up about the Sfarads chip... SCAM Foxminers
The first 2 points in my post say it all but also saddens one to think of even 1 person being taken by them..