Reprogram a bitcoin asic miner for something useful?

[teqmo]

I have a bunch of these 330mhs asic miners wanted to know if I could reflash it to do something?

[senso]

If they are asic's the algorithm is set in silicone, you can only reuse them if they are FPGA based.

[AndyC_772]

The clue is in the name: Application specific integrated circuit.

[nuno]

If they are asic's the algorithm is set in silicone, you can only reuse them if they are FPGA based.

I guess you meant silicon 

[rolycat]

If they are asic's the algorithm is set in silicone, you can only reuse them if they are FPGA based.

I reckon setting algorithms in silicone is a great idea.
Fuzzy logic is kind of old-hat now; this could be a whole new field - bouncy logic 

[amyk]

Depends on how "specific" that ASIC is.... at best, it would probably be usable as a SHA256 accelerator, but not much more than that.

[Dago]

Depends on how "specific" that ASIC is.... at best, it would probably be usable as a SHA256 accelerator, but not much more than that.

I *think* Bitcoins use double SHA256 so AFAIK ASIC miners would only be useful for applications requiring two rounds of SHA256.

[rob77]

you can use them as heating elements controlled by the clock - the faster the clock the more heat they will produce

sorry but there is no other usage for those devices.. the fpga is an fpga - you can burn in whatever you want... but asic is hardcoded silicon.

[miguelvp]

If they are asic's the algorithm is set in silicone, you can only reuse them if they are FPGA based.

I guess you meant silicon 

I don't know I like my asic's voluptuous.

[amyk]

Depends on how "specific" that ASIC is.... at best, it would probably be usable as a SHA256 accelerator, but not much more than that.

I *think* Bitcoins use double SHA256 so AFAIK ASIC miners would only be useful for applications requiring two rounds of SHA256.

Like I said it depends on how specific they are - if I remember correctly, the early ones could do single rounds too.