Quote from: -ck on April 22, 2015, 10:15:58 AM

Quote from: HasherHub on April 22, 2015, 09:12:07 AM

Isn't the fact that they only return the nonce a matter of the software not the hardware? The hardware itself would be specific in the fact that it is chip tuned to perform Double SHA256 hashing extremely effectively. The chip itself can't return anything out of it other than a completed full hash.

If you could recode the software/firmware to spit out a full hash from the software side, you would have a valid SHA256 hash, so long as your input is specifically 80 Bytes. I mean is it not the firmware/software that has the logic coded in it to determine what is and is not below the target?

No that's not how ASIC hardware works. It does indeed only return nonces since it doesn't even fully complete the double sha256.

So then what the hell is it doing, if it's not completing a double SHA256? You've completely lost me on this. Again I have to ask... if it's not completing a double SHA how does it know that it's got any valid hash below the target?