Ken Shirriff, a hardwarefanaat, has tried to do with an IBM Model 1401 mainframe, which on punched cards running, bitcoins to mine. That was successful, but patience is needed: a single block of hashes to calculate, more time is needed than the lifetime of the universe.
Shirrif tried the sha256 algorithm that bitcoin mining is used on the 1959 omnibus IBM Model 1401 to be able to run. This algorithm is optimized for systems that can handle 32bit operations, but the IBM 1401 could not even with the bytes to operate: the device works on the basis of 6bit characters. He had to for the necessary translation, therefore, by using the assembly programming language to work with 1 character per bit. The old mainframe is in the eyes of the hardware enthusiast is in fact the worst imaginable system for bitcoins to mine.
That is also reflected in the required computing time: the Model 1401 – coming from a computer museum in California – could, in practice, every 80 seconds, a hash calculation. With that computation speed would be the system 5×1014 years for a block of 1MB to mine. That is approximately 40,000 times the current age of the universe. Also the electricity bill is not tender: the mainframe verstookt 3000W, making the cost approximately 1018 dollar would amount to. The yield would be 25 bitcoins are, approximately 5,400 euro at the time of writing.
