What is an ASIC device actually?
Specially when it comes to Bitcoin mining you read everywhere about these ASIC devices. What is that actually?
ASIC stands for “Application Specific Integrated Circuit”. ASIC’s are specially designed pieces of hardware for performing dedicated tasks only. Nothing else. But this as efficient as possible. So when it comes to the hashing algorithms necessary to mine a specific digital coin and verify hashed transactions, ASIC’s are designed and manufactured to perform exactly the necessary hashing only and nothing else.
Advantages of an ASIC
- fast; specially at release date
- energy efficient
Disadvantages
- investment costs can be pretty high
What other software do I need to get an ASIC to mine?
Here the usual suspects are to listed again: cgminer and bfgminer are your chosen tools to power your ASICS. I plan to do a little tutorial soon showing you how to get a simple USB ASIC to start mining.