seti@home run on CPU then GPU.
but it is able to run it on hardware build for mining virtual money like bitcoin ?

i see little hardware cheaper on asian webmarchand like aliexpress and alibaba which are obsolete for bitcoin mining but could be very good for seti.
for exemple a stuff like this http://fr.aliexpress.com/item/2015-BTC-miner-new-arrival-ANTMINER-USB-miner-ASIC-Bitcoin-mining-machine-63GH-S-USB-Bitcoin/32288759462.html
the perform are really better than a GPU

someone has already heard a thing about that ?

someone has already heard a thing about that ?

There's another step between there and complete ASIC mining, being FPGAs. Having worked with these, I feel these may come first for these applications (because the applications change), then one day ASICs as the process is proven. Who knows, maybe by then you can print some descendant of FPGA and ASIC technology on your 3d printer :D

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

The issue with those specialised chips is that they are hard wired to do ONE function. They aren't "multi purpose" like a CPU or GPU, that can be programmed to do pretty much any function.

Now it would be possible to build a chip that did the common maths functions needed for SETI in a very efficient way, but that would be all the chip is good for. It's not a cheap item to get built, and of course software has to be developed to run it.

Now for Bitcoin, there is actual money to be made. So people will front up the cash to buy the chips. But for SETI, can you find 500 people that will front up $1,000 each, for a co-pro board that ONLY does SETI?

Then the project could come along and decide, "that search method isn't working". Here's the new data and analysis algorithm. The custom chips are now useless. But with a multi-purpose device like a GPU, a new app can be written.

ok guys,thanks for the answers.

In theory it would be good to make FFT "miner".
Fourier Transform is the core of S@H algorithm and widely used in a lot of other applications. Almost everything related to multimedia or analog signal processing have FT inside. However, performance of CudaFFT is enough for all practical needs for now.
Of course, there are hardware video/audio decoders in smartphones for example. But they are highly specialized.