At first, there was only CPU, then GPU, for Bitcoin mining. Then came the powerful Asic in 2013, and with it, the “shoe box” factor that has become emblematic of the Bitcoin mining industry.
What comes next? Will the shoe design persist as a standard for Bitcoin Mining Asics? Or another way will factorize more than more closely resemble traditional data centers?
ASIC manufacturers are increasingly betting on the latter, or at least, than a hydrolas -cooled server shelf design will become a substantial portion of Bitcoin mining fleets. In addition, they are inclined in “direct chip” cooling to obtain greater efficiency gains.
Last September, Bitmain announced its U3S21Exph model (a little bite, huh?) Developed in an association with HUT 8. Its U3 design means that a unit occupies three spaces on a traditional server shelf. Microbt soon continued with his Hydro M63 series, as did Bitdeer’s Sealminer A2 hydroelectric unit.
Following its example, Auradine launched its server shelf model, the AH3880, this March. Its U2 design, which occupies two server slots, is a little smaller, but includes more hashrate per unit of space at 600 th/s (or 300 th/s per slot) versus 860 t/s of bitmain (286.66 th/s per slot).
Shoes box
So what happens to the traditional shoe box switch? For Auradine, it is customer demand.
“[Our new model is] Based on many comments we receive from our mining clients … We have been working with the miners even throughout the design process, “said Auradine CSO Sanjay Gupta on the most recent mining capsule.” They told us that they were looking for a quality hydro -based miner. “
In his association with Bitmain for the U3S21Exph, “Hut 8 was instrumental in the personalized design for infrastructure, particularly the factor of or that is compatible with the HPC -style architecture”, hut 8 head of relations with investors Sue Ennis said Last September. (More about the high performance computer angle later).
The benefit of an ASIC server shelf is in standardization. Bitcoin miners increasingly march to the intention of the traditional data centers industry, and that industry could see 40% of direct liquid cooling to Chip by 2026, according to Data Center developer Cyrus One.
If the miners adopt this design, then, in theory, they can optimize their supply chains converging in server designs that are becoming the best practice in the large data centers sector.
This could facilitate the construction and repair of Bitcoin mines. And it could also make mining companies more agile if they wish to flex from Bitcoin mining and other forms of computing.
Enter ai and HPC
As with so many mining news today, of course, the AI spectrum is coming in the background.
If the miners build their data centers with traditional server rack designs, there is a pain point less if they wish to modernize these sites for AI and HPC loads. Of course, they would still need to increase tendons, muscles and veins of their operations with a more robust network and electrical infrastructure, but server racks would provide a backbone for AI/HPC services that require less restructuring than Bitcoin’s inherited mines. As Ennis said, “the u -form factor is compatible with HPC style architecture.”
Doing this, Gupta said in our Pod Mining interview that “[The U form factor has] It has been used for the AI data center. It is easy to adjust. It has a stop [power] Density for him … [it] It is also extremely relevant to AI data centers, and we are seeing a joint strategy between AI for HPC and Bitcoin Mining. Then the form of or works well with that. “
Who is buying it?
Perhaps it is not necessary to say that the form factor of the server shelf for Bitcoin mining is still in your childhood, and although there is a promise that such design could win, there is no guarantee.
To begin with, Bitcoin miners will not only need to rework the bowels of their mines, but also completely wire their electrical infrastructure (which is unlikely to occur in existing mines).
Brad Cuddy de Cholla, which operates the Asic Miners refrigerated by Hidro [server rack] Form of form. “But he said that the U3S21Exph voltage range is incompatible with some electrical infrastructure that miners use with other bitmain models.
“The restricted range from 380 to 415 volts reduces its compatibility for modernization. I would have liked to see that the voltage range reaches up to 480 volts to allow greater interoperability with current infrastructure implementations,” he said.
As such, we are likely to see the miners integrate these units into new places. Hut 8 is adopting this approach with plans to house 15 eh/s of U3S21Exph units for Bitmain (with an option to buy) on its Vega site, Texas, which will begin operating in the second quarter.
Until now, Hut 8 is the only public buyer of the U3S21Exph in Bitmain. Gupta did not reveal which miners are under contract for her AH3880, but said that several public and private industrial scale miners include. It would not be surprising to see Mara, one of Auradine’s key partners who has also invested more than $ 50 million in the company, adopt the model.
In the event that the Vega de Hut 8 site works without problems in the bitmain model, and if we assume that Mara will implement that of Auradine, public miners can lead where others will follow, and we could see a new factor in a slowly filtered form in the modern design of the mine.
