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[subseaguru]

i just went through www.cybtc.com/thread-5203-1-1.html (use google page translator) as was referenced earlier and lots of info about it. it seems the Chinese are working and improving it. they sold some for 400 yuan ($66) and they are testing them and making recommendations for improvement.

[miaviator]

- A device in a tiny package that needs to dissipate 600W of heat.  The heat sink of an Avalon Blade has to dissipate 600W and it's 6" high and 18" long at least.

It has been written that one device dissipates 60 W, a set of 10 devices dissipates 600 W. Looking at pictures it seems to be possible.

It should also be pointed out the heatsinks in the picture have a lot better surface area and direct airflow than the absolute garbage avalon blades come with.

[incognitoworker]

very interesting!
Want minimum 1 big one!

 

[rezilient]

Does anyone know why they'd be able to release a BTC+LTC asic a lot easier than an exclusive LTC asic? There is a huge arms race right now in the LTC world for the first ASIC so I don't understand why these guys wouldn't go "all in" on a LTC asic.  They would be the first, and reap huge rewards for that.

[elchorizo]

Does anyone know why they'd be able to release a BTC+LTC asic a lot easier than an exclusive LTC asic? There is a huge arms race right now in the LTC world for the first ASIC so I don't understand why these guys wouldn't go "all in" on a LTC asic.  They would be the first, and reap huge rewards for that.

Good question, not sure why they would do this either... my guess is they are hedging their bets. Remember, when they started making this chip doing anything "scrypt" was a big risk compared to doing something for Bitcoin. Bitcoin is established, and while we all here (most likely) believe in Litecoin, etc.. its one thing to believe in it like that and another to design a chip for it which is a huge investment.

Things have calmed down now and I think scrypt has proven there is demand for it but we will see if a company does a chip for it.

Think about it, the scrypt portion is pretty slow... almost an afterthought really. I guess they figured, if we can throw it in there, why not.

[stacksmasher]

Its legit. The jig is up for those of us with huge mining rig farms. Be careful, the chip manufacturer said there are 3 or 4 scammers who got samples and are taking orders for thousands but they only have a few samples in the wild.



quote author=rammy2k2 link=topic=424987.msg4682910#msg4682910 date=1390474578]

So...a fabled LTC/BTC mining device sent from China 'at the weekend'? 

- A device that no-one has heard of before, and is probably impossible because ASICs don't work that way. 
- A device that can't have any power circuitry in that tiny package, especially anything that uses 600W. 
- A device in a tiny package that needs to dissipate 600W of heat.  The heat sink of an Avalon Blade has to dissipate 600W and it's 6" high and 18" long at least. 
- China is basically closed down for holidays from today, so there'll be nothing shipping 'at the weekend'.  

Terrible scam, photoshop pics and didn't even do any research.

FAIL.

a device that no one heard before ? dude .. before posting crap, try to do a lookup, they are very popular in china, and yes, they are real
[/quote]

[Wipeout2097]

Does anyone know why they'd be able to release a BTC+LTC asic a lot easier than an exclusive LTC asic? There is a huge arms race right now in the LTC world for the first ASIC so I don't understand why these guys wouldn't go "all in" on a LTC asic.  They would be the first, and reap huge rewards for that.

Because scrypt requires SHA2 circuitry anyway. SHA2 related transistors would be in the chip, idling 90% of the time. Why not use that part of the chip to mine BTC during those idle cycles?

What they can fine tune is how many SHA2 units they choose to put in a chip, to control die area and costs. That has to do with it's size vs the rest of the required logic. If they are small, why not?

[Cheshyr]

Does anyone know why they'd be able to release a BTC+LTC asic a lot easier than an exclusive LTC asic? There is a huge arms race right now in the LTC world for the first ASIC so I don't understand why these guys wouldn't go "all in" on a LTC asic.  They would be the first, and reap huge rewards for that.

Because scrypt requires SHA2 circuitry anyway. SHA2 related transistors would be in the chip, idling 90% of the time. Why not use that part of the chip to mine BTC during those idle cycles?

What they can fine tune is how many SHA2 units they choose to put in a chip, to control die area and costs. That has to do with it's size vs the rest of the required logic. If they are small, why not?

+1

Glad someone around here is knowledgeable.

Last I heard, there were 40 batches of 10 being passed out, along with anything developed from the chips and reference designs made available at a trade show in early December.  Plenty of time for a few variants to pop up, especially with the throughput and work ethic in China.

[kramble]

Does anyone know why they'd be able to release a BTC+LTC asic a lot easier than an exclusive LTC asic? There is a huge arms race right now in the LTC world for the first ASIC so I don't understand why these guys wouldn't go "all in" on a LTC asic.  They would be the first, and reap huge rewards for that.

Because scrypt requires SHA2 circuitry anyway. SHA2 related transistors would be in the chip, idling 90% of the time. Why not use that part of the chip to mine BTC during those idle cycles?

What they can fine tune is how many SHA2 units they choose to put in a chip, to control die area and costs. That has to do with it's size vs the rest of the required logic. If they are small, why not?

I'm doubtful that any of the SHA256-dual hashers are shared between the BTC and LTC cores. The spec shows 160 BTC units and 4 LTC units. Each of the LTC units will contain perhaps one or two SHA256-single non-midstate hashers and these need not be fully unrolled pipelines either as the time required to compute the PBKDF2 hash is very short compared to the salsa hash. It would be just too much trouble to share the SHA256 hashers between the BTC and LTC cores (time is money in ASIC design, it would not be cost effective to do it this way).

I agree that the LTC cores are prototypes. My guess is that GridSeed had a foundry slot available for the BTC ASIC, so decided to add a prototype LTC hash design to the die. This would have been quite expensive in area as the embedded RAM would take up significant space, but its a sensible decision as it gives them a huge advantage in being first to market. I'll be interested to see what their next-generation pure LTC ASIC will do (I think we can assume one is in the pipeline).

[oddwh]

Tell me if I'm right, is it 50 watts per unit ?

because 500 watts seems too much for just one cooling system shown here

[Gamer67]

Tell me if I'm right, is it 50 watts per unit ?

because 500 watts seems too much for just one cooling system shown here

I believe it is 60w per

[studio1one]

4-5W per chip, 5 chips per unit.

[cryptomining]

UPDATE

[/b]

UPDATE

[/b]

No new stock till after the Chinese New Year, hopefully samples will be delivered soon.  This tech is going be a game changer.  Stay Tuned for vids, pics, break down of units.

[firejuan]

So you already sold out? Or you only got a few pieces?

[Don007]

Please post vids and pics soon .  And tell us more about the product; are we able to buy 1/2 or 3 instead of 10? And, how to controll it if you don't buy 10 and receive a controller with it?

I think such Scrypt miner is great to connect it on my desktop so I will mine more than with just 600 KB/s with my 7950 .

[cryptomining]

Please post vids and pics soon .  And tell us more about the product; are we able to buy 1/2 or 3 instead of 10? And, how to controll it if you don't buy 10 and receive a controller with it?

Looking forward to tearing into this new tech myself. When these guys get back up after Chinese New Year and the stock starts to flow, we should singles and startup kits are my goal.

So you already sold out? Or you only got a few pieces?

None available to after Chinese New Year.

[subseaguru]

I found them here http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Bitcoin-Litecoin-combo-ASIC-Mining-machine_156151732.html
seems to be a few different variants if you do a search.

[firejuan]

I am really beginning to question the availability of these units.  There were only a few hundred beta units released.  I believe there were only 400 beta units initially released.  Mr. Jack Liao (aka asiabtc) is selling these units on the forum as well and is now listing them on alibaba.  He states that he can provide 1000 pieces per month.  I don't see how this is possible when the company that manufactures this miner Gridchip has publicly stated other than Diginforce it has no other authorized retailers.

I will be ecstatic if cryptomining got his hands on some and is able to share the wealth with some of the forum members, but I will definitely be waiting for proof in the form of dated pics with forum handle and videos of a hashing miner.

[cryptomining]

I will be ecstatic if cryptomining got his hands on some and is able to share the wealth with some of the forum members, but I will definitely be waiting for proof in the form of dated pics with forum handle and videos of a hashing miner.

You and me both.  

I don't see how this is possible when the company that manufactures this miner Gridchip has publicly stated other than Diginforce it has no other authorized retailers.

Someone with the raw chips has been in contact, others must have some access.

[Chronikka]

I am really beginning to question the availability of these units.  There were only a few hundred beta units released.  I believe there were only 400 beta units initially released.  Mr. Jack Liao (aka asiabtc) is selling these units on the forum as well and is now listing them on alibaba.  He states that he can provide 1000 pieces per month.  I don't see how this is possible when the company that manufactures this miner Gridchip has publicly stated other than Diginforce it has no other authorized retailers.

I will be ecstatic if cryptomining got his hands on some and is able to share the wealth with some of the forum members, but I will definitely be waiting for proof in the form of dated pics with forum handle and videos of a hashing miner.

As I understand it, sample units were passed out at the end of November or early December. Its possible for knock off units to have been produced by now. All they need is the GridSeed chip:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=355268.0