SETI would like to use GPUs but everyone is using them for bloody Bitcoins

Bizarre.

Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) wants to expand operations at two observatories. However, it has found that key computer chips are in short supply. "We'd like to use the latest GPUs [graphics processing units]... and we can't get 'em. That's limiting our search for extra-terrestrials, to try to answer the question, 'Are we alone? Is there anybody out there?" said Dan Werthimer.

Demand for GPUs has soared recently thanks to crypto-currency mining. Mining a currency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum involves connecting computers to a global network and using them to solve complex mathematical puzzles. This forms part of the process of validating transactions made by people who use the currency. As a reward for this work, the miners receive a small crypto-currency payment, making it potentially profitable.

Other radio-astronomers have been affected. Prof Parsons' radio telescope, the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array (Hera), is an American, British and South African project located in South Africa's western plains. It has been designed to listen to low frequency radio waves emitted by the reionising hydrogen gas that permeated the universe before the first stars and galaxies formed.GPUs are needed in order to bring together data from Hera's many small radio telescopes - this synthesises a much larger array, offering an especially wide field of view peering out into the universe.

"We'll be able to weather it but it is coming out of our contingency budget." added Prof Parsons. "We're buying a lot of these things, it's going to end up costing about $32,000 extra." He also said he was concerned that future work could even be stopped in its tracks, should the GPU shortage worsen.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43056744