Bitmain SoC Support Coming To Linux 5.1 - Sophon ARMv8 + RISC-V Chip For Deep Learning

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Bitmain SoC Support Coming To Linux 5.1 - Sophon ARMv8 + RISC-V Chip For Deep Learning

Queued for mainlining with the upcoming Linux 5.1 kernel cycle is initial support for Bitmain SoCs. Bitmain is the Chinese company that started out designing ASICs for Bitcoin mining with the Antminer and other products. The company has also been venturing into designs for artificial intelligence and deep learning...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Bitmain-SoC-Coming-Linux-5.1

[Dopefish]

Hopefully this will be more useful for non-pyramid scheme-y stuff like Bitcoin, but I won't hold my breath.

[tildearrow]

Neural Network Stich,

Is it really called "Stich"?

[Dark-Show]

I'm probably completely wrong, but I did some research on these when I had a reason to generate not bitcoin related large amounts of hashes. The main difference between these and some sha1 crypto funtion is that the hardware runs the data through the hashing algo twice. so as far as I understand an example would be

if(sha1($hash) == sha1(sha1($guess))){ do_something(); }

[rhysk]

As mentioned in the article, of the patches I've located on the mailing list (https://www.spinics.net/lists/arm-kernel/msg702531.html) this is only ARM platform bringup.

There are no new ioctls or userspace interfaces to operate the hardware accelerators for inference or training purposes yet.

[cynic]

Hopefully this will be more useful for non-pyramid scheme-y stuff like Bitcoin, but I won't hold my breath.

you actually have no clue about what bitcoin (or a pyramid-scheme) is.

[Dopefish]

you actually have no clue about what bitcoin (or a pyramid-scheme) is.

Hmm... is that all you have to say?

Asking people to HODL some magical token while people (specifically frauds like Roger Ver and the Winklevoss twins) cash out with actual dollars off the backs of the peanut gallery sure does sound like a pyramid to me. To further clarify, the exchanges are what's mainly responsible for what I consider to be the pyramid scheme style activity. Lots of painting the tape with alt coins to create fake volume, ICOs that never delivered, etc.

Finally, why the hell would I want to give cryptocurrency any kind of support when, in nearly all cases, it's used in illegal activities (like drugs, ransoms, etc) and absolutely sucks as a method of transferring money when pre-existing systems already do the job better for "cheaper", either through less or no fees (miner fees on the Bitcoin network can be quite high if there are a lot of transactions competing to be resolved, like back at the tip of the 2017 bubble).

Quite frankly, the dodge of "that's not a pyramid scheme" is the ancap equivalent of "that's not real communism".

Please cut the crap. This experiment has gotten off the rails and the exchanges need to be regulated out of existence.

[cynic]

Hmm... is that all you have to say?

Asking people to HODL some magical token while people (specifically frauds like Roger Ver and the Winklevoss twins) cash out with actual dollars off the backs of the peanut gallery sure does sound like a pyramid to me. To further clarify, the exchanges are what's mainly responsible for what I consider to be the pyramid scheme style activity. Lots of painting the tape with alt coins to create fake volume, ICOs that never delivered, etc.

Finally, why the hell would I want to give cryptocurrency any kind of support when, in nearly all cases, it's used in illegal activities (like drugs, ransoms, etc) and absolutely sucks as a method of transferring money when pre-existing systems already do the job better for "cheaper", either through less or no fees (miner fees on the Bitcoin network can be quite high if there are a lot of transactions competing to be resolved, like back at the tip of the 2017 bubble).

Quite frankly, the dodge of "that's not a pyramid scheme" is the ancap equivalent of "that's not real communism".

Please cut the crap. This experiment has gotten off the rails and the exchanges need to be regulated out of existence.

what a load of common places! BTW, you forgot to mention the tulip bubble.

[Dopefish]

what a load of common places! BTW, you forgot to mention the tulip bubble.

Common places eh? Heh.

At any rate, may have to agree to disagree on this one. If it were up to me, I'd like to see cryptocurrencies pushed back to pre-2013 levels before the mass speculation era, back when they generally were more stable and useful.

Even then, existing payment services and the almighty US Dollar are doing just fine. If those fail us... we have way bigger problems on our hands that even cryptocurrencies can't save us from. I'll be stocking up on toiletries, canned food and go Metro 2033 style using bullets as currency.

[johanb]

Hmm... is that all you have to say?

Asking people to HODL some magical token while people (specifically frauds like Roger Ver and the Winklevoss twins) cash out with actual dollars off the backs of the peanut gallery sure does sound like a pyramid to me. To further clarify, the exchanges are what's mainly responsible for what I consider to be the pyramid scheme style activity. Lots of painting the tape with alt coins to create fake volume, ICOs that never delivered, etc.

Finally, why the hell would I want to give cryptocurrency any kind of support when, in nearly all cases, it's used in illegal activities (like drugs, ransoms, etc) and absolutely sucks as a method of transferring money when pre-existing systems already do the job better for "cheaper", either through less or no fees (miner fees on the Bitcoin network can be quite high if there are a lot of transactions competing to be resolved, like back at the tip of the 2017 bubble).

Quite frankly, the dodge of "that's not a pyramid scheme" is the ancap equivalent of "that's not real communism".

Please cut the crap. This experiment has gotten off the rails and the exchanges need to be regulated out of existence.

People always think things are black and white. Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme yes, but that did not occur because of the bitcoin technology itself. It was a small unorganized market until some investors suddenly saw it as a investment opportunity and pumped it like crazy, then they realized "Oh we can apparently control this unregilated market and do lots of pumps and dumps to gain money without any repercussion, we love money and don't give a crap about screwing over stupid people so let's do that!".

Cryptocurrencies have a market value, but the current price is way too high and unstable because of investors who have enough money to control the market.
Cryptocurrencies have many good use-cases, but people who think that they will take over the world in 10 years are naive.

Also, the number one currency for illegal goods by a far shot is the USD and will continue to be that for a long time. While it's easier to send cryptocurrencies over the internet than USD, most cryptocurrencies are traceable while normal cash is not.