[u-u] Specialized hardware?

[Iain Calder]

arocker wrote:
>
> Does anyone know how well crypto mining rigs might be suited for
> conversion into AI machines?
>
> My suspicion is that crypto mining wouldn't require the graphics cards
> that AI uses for vector calculations

I imagine that specialized rigs would be useless.

They don't use a graphics card at all.  They use a custom ASIC chip.
Each such ASIC encodes a specific crypto-currency's algorithm.  The chip
isn't merely useless for general purpose tasks.  It's useless even for
other currencies!

It's an extremely competitive market.  Without the latest version of
such a chip, the cost of electricity exceeds the earnings from
processing transactions for a crypto-currency.

Competitive pressure pushed most crypto-mining off graphics cards,
over a decade ago.  A few currencies chose algorithms specifically
designed to not be acceleratable by a custom pipeline.  Rigs for
*those* currencies do use graphics cards.

-ic