according to Toshiba 90nm "logic densities up to 400,000 gates/mm2 or more and low-k dielectric"
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/Catalog/Line.do?familyid=1&lineid=7231Helion Fast Hash IP is SHA-512 @ 2400 Mbps using 41500 gates
2400 Mbps / 512 = 4.688 MHashs/s per unit; Bitcoin is 256+256
20mm x 20 mm = 400 mm2 x 400k gates = 160,000k gates / 41.5k gates = 3855 units
3855 units x 4.688 MHashs/s =
18.072 GHashs/s per chip @ 200Mhz
seriously?
but would it work for mining?
cause usually all this are made for archiving etc
Keep in mind that the chip that does the SHA256 hash is only one step in the overall mining algorithm. For each hash, you will have to transmit that data to some operation
outside of the asic (those kinds of speeds may not work readily without engineering around some interelemental interactance issues). Also, it will take 'X' number of clock cycles to compare the output to some target value, and if it doesn't meet your target do some kind of data shift on the digest value, then resend that digest back to the hasher. Something like that. So, expect less than 18GH/chip. Finally, what is the cost fo one chip?
All that said, I'd still like to see what can be made with it.