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[stevebrrr] 08/11/2021 00:09

5th Nov 2021 07:00

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc - Update on FPGA and ASIC Development
Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc - Update on FPGA and ASIC Development

PR Newswire

London, November 5

5 November 2021

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc

(“QBT” or “the Company”)

Update on FPGA and ASIC Development

The board of Quantum Blockchain Technologies (AIM: QBT) is pleased to announce that its first phase of the FPGA development has now been completed.

HIGHLIGHTS

Disruptive Bitcoin mining technology development is well under way

QBT researching multiple routes to faster Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin algorithm core architecture for an FPGA chip has been selected and modification completed

To keep costs low, initial testing performed on an FPGA chip

Architecture design work for ASIC prototype to commence before year end

Testing will commence on the final design of the more expensive / faster ASIC prototype chip by end of Q1 2022

Ultimate goal is to produce an enhanced 7 nanometers (nm) ASIC chip

Early internal calculations show a final chip that could perform 24% quicker than current best available ASIC

OVERVIEW

The goal of the Company is to develop disruptive Bitcoin mining technology, to mine both faster and with less overall energy consumption than current practices. A number of advanced technologies are being used by QBT to achieve this goal; namely, quantum computing, AI Neural Networks - Deep Learning, Algebraic-Boolean reductions, Very Big Data, Cryptography and custom chip programming and design - using GPU, FPGA and ASIC chips.

The current technique used by producers of Bitcoin mining technology on dedicated computers to achieve the fastest performance, is by manufacturing single purpose, customised ASIC chips, which can perform only one wired function, i.e, the computation of the double hashing; the SHA26 cryptographic algorithm used to extract Bitcoins. The simple reality is that the faster the algorithms are computed and the more ASIC chips deployed, the more chances a miner has to extract Bitcoins.

Before manufacturing an ASIC chip, which is an expensive operation, there are usually two initial steps; firstly, to develop the logic gates architecture which will be used by the final ASIC chip – this is performed on a cheaper but slower chip, called an FPGA, which already contains some pre-defined functions - and secondly, by customising the design to take advantage of the greater freedom offered by ASIC technology, initially by manufacturing a prototype in a small batch, to keep costs low. The final stage, manufacturing the completed ASIC chip, is an expensive process, but the end result is a very small scale (currently up to 5nm) processing chip, which is significantly quicker, leading to greater results when mining Bitcoin.

QBT has now completed the FPGA development phase and is moving to develop its ASIC protype.

Initial estimates derived from the FPGA performance obtained from our internal testing, would indicate that when the final industrial ASIC prototype design is completed it could outperform the fastest ASIC chip, currently being used to mine Bitcoin by at least 24%.

Moreover, early experimental evidence, using AI techniques to multiply by several factors the speed of an FGPA for computing the Bitcoin mining algorithm, would make even an FPGA a competitive Bitcoin mining tool. This same principal would apply to ASIC and other existing commercial mining tools. Tests on this innovative approach, will continue over the next three months.

DETAILED VIEW

Following testing of a variety of design options, an unrolled SHA-256 architecture has now been implemented, with a number of existing optimisations coded, for QBT’s FPGA chip prototype.

The Company’s patented ASIC ULTRA Boost improvements (patent under application) will be added in the next few weeks, as a result of the close cooperation between the in-house cryptography expert and the Company’s FPGA designer.

Current performance of the Bitcoin mining architecture developed by QBT on the FPGA (based on 16nm technology, at 600MHz basic cycle and the average general purpose available coding area) is 2.8 Giga Hash per second (GH/s) with an estimated 50W energy consumption. The ASIC ULTRA Boost optimisation should improve the above performance by 7% as previously reported.

To put things into context, our in-house expert has calculated that, as of today, a top of the range FPGA (using QBT’s architecture of the implementation of the algorithm, to make it run at approximately 15 times faster than the standard FPGA), is still approximately 23.4 times slower than the best-in-class existing 7nm ASIC Bitcoin mining chip and much less energy efficient.

It was never the Company’s intention to compete on speed and energy efficiency against an ASIC chip, using an FPGA chip but, in order to keep testing costs significantly lower, it has been a necessary step for QBT to take in this phase of its development. As a result, the Company is now in a much better position to assess the performance projection of its SHA256 Bitcoin mining architecture, and therefore the team is confident that it can now transfer this solution over to an ASIC chip.

Preliminary approximate calculations indicate that on a 12nm ASIC chip, extrapolated by comparing it to a commercial mid-range 16nm ASIC Bitcoin mining chip (with circa 300 million gates), our ASIC could achieve a double hash rate of 392 GH/s, with the ASIC ULTRA Boost optimisation adding an extra 7% as previously announced, reaching 419 GH/s, which would still be 2.26 times slower than the fastest ASIC commercially available.

However, the Company strongly believes that when compared with the best commercial 7nm ASIC chip for Bitcoin mining available on the market today, an industrial production of QBT’s ASIC at 7nm, would indicate a double hash rate of 1.19TH/s, hence 24% faster.

This performance of QBT’s architecture on the 7nm ASIC, doesn’t yet include the 7% efficiency achieved by the optimisation of the patent application filed in September, which is still to be implemented. The current work on a second patent by the Company’s cryptography expert will hopefully lead to further material optimisations.

Detailed simulations on energy consumption will be run as soon as our ASIC gate design layout is completed.

ASIC programming will start this month, and we estimate that by the end of Q1 2022 we will be able to announce when the first batch of prototype chips will be available for in-house testing. Following the completion of testing, the Company envisages that chip production, for QBT’s own use, will commence by the end of 2022.

Concurrently, QBT’s R&D team is also considering an alternative SHA256 computing approach (which is categorised as the basic Bitcoin mining algorithm), and this will be tested within the next three months. The joint effort by the members of our AI team and the Company’s FPGA expert, could improve the current FPGA hash rate of 2.8GH/s by a highly material multiple factor, making mining by the slower FPGA chip potentially competitive against the best-in-class ASIC chip. Should this route be successful, mining via this method could commence as early as Q2 2022.

These AI techniques, if successful, could also improve the performance of current commercial ASIC Bitcoin miners.

The Company’s new R&D IT infrastructure, which will also allow for Bitcoin mining tests to be carried out, will be operational in five weeks’ time. The wait has been due to the serious worldwide shortage of silicon chips, which is delaying the expected delivery of the hardware. However, the Company has adopted the heavy use of cloud resources in order to avoid any interruption in the R&D activities to the various groups.

The Company remains very confident on the R&D strategy it has adopted which it believes could result in disruptive Bitcoin mining. It is worth noting that the Company’s R&D programme is fully funded until the end of 2022.

Francesco Gardin, CEO and Chairman of QBT, commented, “Our R&D has delivered some very impressive results in a very short time: In only four months since the programme commenced, we have filed a patent application where we believe the ASIC ULTRA Boost has improved the standard mining algorithm, after five years of little or no progress following the publication in 2016 of the ASIC Boost paper.

“We will soon be ready to start the design of our ASIC Bitcoin mining chip which, on paper, already outperforms, in speed, the current best in class ASIC Bitcoin mining commercial solution. This significant improvement is before the implementation of the new optimisation from ASIC ULTRA Boost and we are confident that our second patent application, which is under development by our cryptography expert, will add a further radical improvement to the process, including also a reduction in energy consumption.

“All our other teams are working extremely hard on the other R&D fronts: Quantum computing and AI Neural Networks-Deep Learning and algebraic-Boolean optimisation. Meanwhile an AI accelerator will be tested within the next three months, which we believe could radically improve the performance of existing commercial miners, as well as our GPU, FPGA and, in the near future, our AISC chip. We consider that the R&D activity undertaken by our group of 15 experts is unbelievably exciting and, if successful, could potentially be radically innovative for the industry.”

[pwhite73] 07/11/2021 23:23

Stoxwhizz - "A company is not allowed to knowingly trade insolvent"

The key word is 'trade'. QBT is not trading with anybody. It is not selling goods or services so not in breach of any insolvency regulations.

[knigel] 07/11/2021 22:52

Btw troll the net asset value last accounts was around 0.6p to 0.7p (E6.1 million) and are you suggesting there are tax losses to utilise? It’s late so happy to be corrected

[knigel] 07/11/2021 22:50

I just think some of us think our comments will make a trader paused and suddenly hit the buy/sell button - I don’t buy it except perhaps on a good/bad news RNS. Maybe our egos think this but remember this is suppose to be a discussion thread - not professional advice to buy or sell - if a few inexperience traders do trade based on BB comment - more fool then - that doesn’t mean PWhite you can’t come back on here next spring and say you were right (or indeed wrong). Btw it’s clear who have shares here - but few admit they have a short position - strange that!!

[mally6] 07/11/2021 22:33

Does anyone bother to read rns nowadays what difference are rampers going to make when the rns is stating qbt is about to hit the moon with its techC u at 10p

[atlantic57] 07/11/2021 22:33

Well American culture is very different for sure .
If they do buy in all well and good.

[shanew48] 07/11/2021 22:32

How long after the 6-12 DEC would you expect an update on the results of the testing? Thanks

[spary1] 07/11/2021 22:24

Apart from www have a stinking RNS and media interviews so no it’s not a pump and dump cretin.

Stoxwhizz
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[pwhite73] 07/11/2021 22:23

spary1 - Are they staff members of QBT or staff members and students of universities based in the UK and Italy. Do not conflate the options with the R&D team as FG would have you believe when he states - "the Company is happy to share risk and potential high returns with them.”.

Goodnight.

[stevebrrr] 07/11/2021 22:18

Well then, if you are all off to bed then here is some bedtime reading for you :-
5th Nov 2021 07:00

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc - Update on FPGA and ASIC Development
Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc - Update on FPGA and ASIC Development

PR Newswire

London, November 5

5 November 2021

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc

(“QBT” or “the Company”)

Update on FPGA and ASIC Development

The board of Quantum Blockchain Technologies (AIM: QBT) is pleased to announce that its first phase of the FPGA development has now been completed.

HIGHLIGHTS

Disruptive Bitcoin mining technology development is well under way

QBT researching multiple routes to faster Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin algorithm core architecture for an FPGA chip has been selected and modification completed

To keep costs low, initial testing performed on an FPGA chip

Architecture design work for ASIC prototype to commence before year end

Testing will commence on the final design of the more expensive / faster ASIC prototype chip by end of Q1 2022

Ultimate goal is to produce an enhanced 7 nanometers (nm) ASIC chip

Early internal calculations show a final chip that could perform 24% quicker than current best available ASIC

OVERVIEW

The goal of the Company is to develop disruptive Bitcoin mining technology, to mine both faster and with less overall energy consumption than current practices. A number of advanced technologies are being used by QBT to achieve this goal; namely, quantum computing, AI Neural Networks - Deep Learning, Algebraic-Boolean reductions, Very Big Data, Cryptography and custom chip programming and design - using GPU, FPGA and ASIC chips.

The current technique used by producers of Bitcoin mining technology on dedicated computers to achieve the fastest performance, is by manufacturing single purpose, customised ASIC chips, which can perform only one wired function, i.e, the computation of the double hashing; the SHA26 cryptographic algorithm used to extract Bitcoins. The simple reality is that the faster the algorithms are computed and the more ASIC chips deployed, the more chances a miner has to extract Bitcoins.

Before manufacturing an ASIC chip, which is an expensive operation, there are usually two initial steps; firstly, to develop the logic gates architecture which will be used by the final ASIC chip – this is performed on a cheaper but slower chip, called an FPGA, which already contains some pre-defined functions - and secondly, by customising the design to take advantage of the greater freedom offered by ASIC technology, initially by manufacturing a prototype in a small batch, to keep costs low. The final stage, manufacturing the completed ASIC chip, is an expensive process, but the end result is a very small scale (currently up to 5nm) processing chip, which is significantly quicker, leading to greater results when mining Bitcoin.

QBT has now completed the FPGA development phase and is moving to develop its ASIC protype.

Initial estimates derived from the FPGA performance obtained from our internal testing, would indicate that when the final industrial ASIC prototype design is completed it could outperform the fastest ASIC chip, currently being used to mine Bitcoin by at least 24%.

Moreover, early experimental evidence, using AI techniques to multiply by several factors the speed of an FGPA for computing the Bitcoin mining algorithm, would make even an FPGA a competitive Bitcoin mining tool. This same principal would apply to ASIC and other existing commercial mining tools. Tests on this innovative approach, will continue over the next three months.

DETAILED VIEW

Following testing of a variety of design options, an unrolled SHA-256 architecture has now been implemented, with a number of existing optimisations coded, for QBT’s FPGA chip prototype.

The Company’s patented ASIC ULTRA Boost improvements (patent under application) will be added in the next few weeks, as a result of the close cooperation between the in-house cryptography expert and the Company’s FPGA designer.

Current performance of the Bitcoin mining architecture developed by QBT on the FPGA (based on 16nm technology, at 600MHz basic cycle and the average general purpose available coding area) is 2.8 Giga Hash per second (GH/s) with an estimated 50W energy consumption. The ASIC ULTRA Boost optimisation should improve the above performance by 7% as previously reported.

To put things into context, our in-house expert has calculated that, as of today, a top of the range FPGA (using QBT’s architecture of the implementation of the algorithm, to make it run at approximately 15 times faster than the standard FPGA), is still approximately 23.4 times slower than the best-in-class existing 7nm ASIC Bitcoin mining chip and much less energy efficient.

It was never the Company’s intention to compete on speed and energy efficiency against an ASIC chip, using an FPGA chip but, in order to keep testing costs significantly lower, it has been a necessary step for QBT to take in this phase of its development. As a result, the Company is now in a much better position to assess the performance projection of its SHA256 Bitcoin mining architecture, and therefore the team is confident that it can now transfer this solution over to an ASIC chip.

Preliminary approximate calculations indicate that on a 12nm ASIC chip, extrapolated by comparing it to a commercial mid-range 16nm ASIC Bitcoin mining chip (with circa 300 million gates), our ASIC could achieve a double hash rate of 392 GH/s, with the ASIC ULTRA Boost optimisation adding an extra 7% as previously announced, reaching 419 GH/s, which would still be 2.26 times slower than the fastest ASIC commercially available.

However, the Company strongly believes that when compared with the best commercial 7nm ASIC chip for Bitcoin mining available on the market today, an industrial production of QBT’s ASIC at 7nm, would indicate a double hash rate of 1.19TH/s, hence 24% faster.

This performance of QBT’s architecture on the 7nm ASIC, doesn’t yet include the 7% efficiency achieved by the optimisation of the patent application filed in September, which is still to be implemented. The current work on a second patent by the Company’s cryptography expert will hopefully lead to further material optimisations.

Detailed simulations on energy consumption will be run as soon as our ASIC gate design layout is completed.

ASIC programming will start this month, and we estimate that by the end of Q1 2022 we will be able to announce when the first batch of prototype chips will be available for in-house testing. Following the completion of testing, the Company envisages that chip production, for QBT’s own use, will commence by the end of 2022.

Concurrently, QBT’s R&D team is also considering an alternative SHA256 computing approach (which is categorised as the basic Bitcoin mining algorithm), and this will be tested within the next three months. The joint effort by the members of our AI team and the Company’s FPGA expert, could improve the current FPGA hash rate of 2.8GH/s by a highly material multiple factor, making mining by the slower FPGA chip potentially competitive against the best-in-class ASIC chip. Should this route be successful, mining via this method could commence as early as Q2 2022.

These AI techniques, if successful, could also improve the performance of current commercial ASIC Bitcoin miners.

The Company’s new R&D IT infrastructure, which will also allow for Bitcoin mining tests to be carried out, will be operational in five weeks’ time. The wait has been due to the serious worldwide shortage of silicon chips, which is delaying the expected delivery of the hardware. However, the Company has adopted the heavy use of cloud resources in order to avoid any interruption in the R&D activities to the various groups.

The Company remains very confident on the R&D strategy it has adopted which it believes could result in disruptive Bitcoin mining. It is worth noting that the Company’s R&D programme is fully funded until the end of 2022.

Francesco Gardin, CEO and Chairman of QBT, commented, “Our R&D has delivered some very impressive results in a very short time: In only four months since the programme commenced, we have filed a patent application where we believe the ASIC ULTRA Boost has improved the standard mining algorithm, after five years of little or no progress following the publication in 2016 of the ASIC Boost paper.

“We will soon be ready to start the design of our ASIC Bitcoin mining chip which, on paper, already outperforms, in speed, the current best in class ASIC Bitcoin mining commercial solution. This significant improvement is before the implementation of the new optimisation from ASIC ULTRA Boost and we are confident that our second patent application, which is under development by our cryptography expert, will add a further radical improvement to the process, including also a reduction in energy consumption.

“All our other teams are working extremely hard on the other R&D fronts: Quantum computing and AI Neural Networks-Deep Learning and algebraic-Boolean optimisation. Meanwhile an AI accelerator will be tested within the next three months, which we believe could radically improve the performance of existing commercial miners, as well as our GPU, FPGA and, in the near future, our AISC chip. We consider that the R&D activity undertaken by our group of 15 experts is unbelievably exciting and, if successful, could potentially be radically innovative for the industry.”

[karmapolice] 07/11/2021 22:13

Why don’t you ring the company and ask them if you care?

Tell them why you want those answers as well.

You assume that investors don’t already know.

Mug.

[spary1] 07/11/2021 22:12

Totally agree karma police

The dirty trolls have tried every trick in the book so desperation is clear for all to see.

From trying to link us to other shares which are nothing like us, to lies about placing when the company posted via RNS that we are fully funded on R&D till the end of 2022, to lying about being a lifestyle company yet the bod staff and expert have options at 5p and 10p.

They are some dirty scumbags desperate to get a trolling point across!!

[karmapolice] 07/11/2021 22:11

Who’s ramping? All that’s been discussed here is the RNS from end of last week, the one that coincided with your account being created and posting incessantly here all weekend.

Because that’s not strange at all is it?

[pwhite73] 07/11/2021 22:08

Where is the patent application. Who are these mysterious staff members with options. How comes the R&D department is split between UK and Italy. How comes in the space of seven months they employed 7 current, or former, university professors, 2 PhD and 2 university students, and 4 highly experienced professionals when there has been no RNS.

Tonight I've given you all a lifeboat to sail you out of these treacherous waters - USE IT.

Speak tomorrow.

[karmapolice] 07/11/2021 22:06

Fair play they have shown their hand by their volume of desperate posts.

Less is more ladies.

A BASHER HANDBOOK:
Do not underestimate a Bashers influence on a stock. The Pro's are good at what they do and what they do is profit from your losses. Below is their "hand-book". Learn from it or you will be donating your hard earned money to them!
Rules for Successful Bashing:
1. Be anonymous
2. Use 10% fact. 90% suggestion. The facts will lend credibility to your suggestions.
3. Let others help you learn about the stock. Build rapport and a
support base before initiating your Bashing routine. 4. Enter w/ humor and reply to all who reply to you.
5. Use multiple ISP's, handles and aliases.
6. Use two (2) or more aliases to simulate a discussion. 7. Do not start with an all out slam of the stock. Build softly.
8. Identify your foes (Longs) and the boards "guru" Use them to your advantage. Lead them do not follow their lead.
9. Only Bash until the tide/momentum turns. Let doubt carry it the
rest of the way.
10. Give the appearance of being open minded. 11. Be bold in your statements. People follow strength. 12. Write headlines in caps with catchy statements.
13. Pour it on as your position gains momentum. Not your personality.
14. Don't worry about being labeled a "Basher". Newbies won't know your history.
15. When identified put up a brief fight, then back off. Return in an hour unless your foe is a weak in reasoning powers.
16. Your goal is to limit the momentum of the run. Not to tank the
company or create a plunge in the stock; be subtle and
consistent.
17. Kill the dreams of profits, not the company or the stock.
18. Use questions to create critical thinking. Statements to reinforce facts.
19. DO NOT LIE, NAME CALL or USE PROFANITY.
20. Encourage people to call the company. 99% won't. They'll take your word for claims made. If they do call you can always find something that is inaccurate in how they report their
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21. Discourage people from believing Press Releases. Encourage them to call the company. They won't out of
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22. If the companies history/PR's are negative constantly point to that. Compile a list of this data prior to beginning your efforts.
23. If the price rises blame it on the hype or the PR, temporary mass reaction, the market, etc. Anything but the stock itself.
24. If other posters share your concerns, play on that and share theirs too.
25. Always cite low volume, even when it's not.
26. Three or four aliases can dominate a board and wear down the longs.
27. Bait the Longs into personal debates putting their focus/efforts on you and not the stock or facts. Divert their
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28. Promote other stocks that would-be investors can turn to instead of the one your Bashing.
30. Do not fall for challenges on the "values" of what you are doing, it's a game and you are playing it with your own rules.

[stevebrrr] 07/11/2021 22:03

Enough of your hot air then Stoxwhizz eh,