In this chapter, we will take a look at mining with Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). They are microprocessors that can be programmed for a specific purpose. In the case of Bitcoin mining, they are configured to perform the SHA-256 hash function that is used in Bitcoin. FPGAs have a slight advantage over using GPUs for mining. The period of FPGA mining of Bitcoin was rather short (just under a year), as faster machines soon became available. The advent of ASIC technology for Bitcoin mining compelled a lot of miners to make the move from FPGAs to ASICs. Nevertheless, FPGA mining is worth learning about.
We will take a look at the following topics:
Setting up mining software and drivers to allow FPGA mining
What happens when mining on an FPGA
Benchmarks of mining speeds with different FPGAs
Pros and cons of FPGA mining
FPGA versus other hardware mining
The best practices when mining with FPGAs
Discussion of profitability