CPU→GPU→ASIC professional mining machine
First, CPU mining
Speaking of CPU mining, who is the first one? As mentioned above, it is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin (there is no clear evidence, which should be logically correct).
CPU mining is the first generation of mining. On June 38, 2009+10/October 3, the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, dug up the first batch of bitcoins with a computer CPU, and dug up the first cornerstone, which contained 50 bitcoins.
Later, some geeks, programmers and game gold diggers joined in CPU mining, but CPU mining at that time was just an attempt and fun, and it has not been commercialized yet.
Second, GPU mining.
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) mining is the second generation of mining.
The reason why we switched from CPU to GPU for mining is that the central processing unit of CPU is a general computing unit, in which many analysis and processing requirements of the computer are designed, and the comprehensive ability is strong but the single item ability is weak, while the SHA256 hash operation of Bitcoin is a very single brainless repetitive calculation, and the parallel computing ability of CPU is not strong. Later, it was found that GPU has high throughput and strong parallel processing ability. Its operation efficiency is 10 times higher than that of CPU, and GPU can overclock to improve performance, which is suitable for large-scale concurrent operations, such as password cracking, so people turn to GPU for mining.
Everyone must have heard the story of Bitcoin pizza, the most expensive food in the history of Bitcoin. Yes, this person's name is Laszlo Hanyecz and he is a programmer. 20 10 on may 22nd, he bought two pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins. At that time, these two pizzas were less than $50, but these 10,000 bitcoins are now worth hundreds of millions.
Everyone is saying that Laszlo Hanyecz must regret it, but not necessarily, because Laszlo Hanyecz was the first person to dig bitcoins with GPU, and he dug a lot of bitcoins. At that time, 654.38+100000 yuan was about nine Niu Yi hairs.
The picture comes from the internet.
However, GPU also has defects, that is, it is originally used for image processing, and the built-in hardware is very good, and heat dissipation is also a problem.
Third, ASIC professional mining machine mining
ASIC professional mining machine belongs to the third generation mining machine.
ASIC is the abbreviation of application specific integrated circuit, which is an electronic circuit (chip) specially designed for a specific purpose. The mining chip is the ASIC chip of the mining machine. Because it is designed to execute only the specific algorithm required by a mine, the design of ASIC chip can be much simpler and the cost is much lower. But most importantly, ASIC can be tens of thousands of times or more higher than contemporary CPU and GPU in mining computing power.
With the emergence of ASIC mining machine, with more and more people involved in mining, the computing power is rising, and the computing power of GPU has reached its limit. In order to break through this limitation, some people began to develop special mining machines.
Who invented the world's first mining machine with ASIC chip? Yes, it is Geng's Avalon mining machine, known as "Pumpkin Zhang".
Mining machine chips need strong R&D technical strength, for example, in the field of communication. The strongest chip R&D companies are Qualcomm and Huawei HiSilicon, so the chip R&D of mining machine is a high-tech competition. The earliest mining machine manufacturers are Dragon Mining Machine, Lightning Mining Machine and Swedish KNCMINER, and now they have all disappeared from the market. At present, the largest mining machine manufacturers in the market include Bitcoin Mainland (Ant Mining Machine) and Jian 'an Yun Zhi (Avalon Mine).
At present, the most popular mining machine is the ant series of Bitland, and how to buy mining machines will be introduced in detail later.
This paper simply ends the technical development of bitcoin mining machine from CPU, GPU to ASIC. At present, ASIC mining machines, especially those in Bitcoin mainland, occupy more than 70% of the computing power and market share, and are questioned as "computing power hegemony" and violation of "decentralization", as well as potential "5 1%" attacks and unfairness. Now the mining machine is a complete industrial chain, no matter how it develops, it is also based on the market and the pursuit of interests. Continue the analysis later.