On 11 January 2018 at 00:54, Filip Hruska <fhr@fhrnet.eu> wrote:
You can't just run normal software on ASICs. It's not a computer. They're literally hard-wired to do one thing - and do it well. Switch ASICs, for example, are good for switching network packets around. Though (I would assume) they can't do any kind of hashing, much less Bitcoin-specific stuff.
You're probably right that Switch ASICs would not be able to do any BTC stuff. But most of them do use hashes, MACs are in hash tables often, balancing requires hashes. There is also somewhat hazy definition what is ASIC and what is NPU, NPU boxes are large collection of same chips, and chips are executing same software to completion, they can do anything, just matter of how long it takes and how effective they are doing it, they certainly wouldn't be practical BTC miners.. -- ++ytti