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Mining Hardware

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Bitcoin Mining Hardware. Mining rig. 23-year-old releases new chips that 'mine' Bitcoins 50 times faster. There's an entire industry of Bitcoin miners out there, people that set up specialized computer rigs to run 24 hours a day to mine the digital currency.

23-year-old releases new chips that 'mine' Bitcoins 50 times faster

Thanks to a 23-year-old kid from Brooklyn, this cottage industry is about to change. Yifu Guo, a digital media student on hiatus from NYU-Poly, has released the first batch of ASICs, which are chips custom-built to do one thing: mine Bitcoins. These ASICs are capable of mining Bitcoins at a far higher rate than is possible with common computer equipment — Guo's design, called the Avalon V1, can mine Bitcoins about 50 times faster than a high-end rig, and offers a much more attractive price-to-performance ratio. ASICs also consume much less power than GPU-based machines, but they don't give miners the option to play the most demanding PC games. The initial round of pre-orders is being delivered throughout the month, and Guo hopes to have the next round available to ship shortly after March 5th. Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU. Some Bitcoin users might wonder why there is a huge disparity between the mining output of a CPU versus a GPU.

Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU

First, just to clarify, the CPU, or central processing unit, is the part of the computer that performs the will of the software loaded on the computer. It's the main executive for the entire machine. It is the master that tells all the parts of the computer what to do - in accordance with the program code of the software, and, hopefully, the will of the user. Most computers have multi-core CPUs nowadays (which is almost the same thing as having multiple CPU's in a single physical package)., and some computers even have multiple CPUs. The CPU is usually a removable component that plugs into the computer's main circuit board, or motherboard and sits underneath a large, metallic heat sink which usually has a fan, a few are cooled by water. The GPU, or graphics processing unit, is a part of the video rendering system of a computer.

Short Answer A CPU is an executive. Avalon ASIC. Mining hardware comparison. See also: Non-specialized hardware comparison Below are statistics about the Bitcoin Mining performance of ASIC hardware and only includes specialized equipment that has been shipped. GPUs, CPUs and other hardware not specifically designed for Bitcoin mining can be found in the Non-specialized_hardware_comparison. Notes: Mhash/s = millions hashes per second (double sha256 raw speed performance; may not be very energy efficient with some models) Mhash/J = millions hashes per joule (energy efficiency; 1 joule of energy is 1 watt during 1 second: 1 J = 1 W*s) W = watt (maximum power consumption, i.e. energy per unit of time: 1 W = 1 J/s) Be sure to research any of these vendors and machines intensely before spending any money. ↑ Fpgaminer (May 19, 2011).

Bitcoin Mining Hardware - ASIC Bitcoin Miner - Butterfly Labs.