Compass Mining Alerts Bitcoin Miners of Changes in Bitmain’s ASIC Design

Mining
Compass Mining, a bitcoin mining agency, revealed a weblog put up stating that Bitmain, the corporate behind the application-specific built-in circuit (ASIC) mining rig, has made modifications to its design. The put up suggested miners to concentrate on the modifications as Compass Mining recognized “three points” with two totally different Antminer S19 collection mining units.
Bitcoin Miner Compass Mining Identifies 3 Points with Antminer S19 Sequence
Compass Mining, a bitcoin mining firm, posted a weblog put up titled “Bitmain Modified Its ASIC Design. Miners Have to Be Prepared,” highlighting modifications in Bitmain’s ASIC design. Compass believes bitcoin mining facility operators ought to concentrate on the modifications, which may trigger points. For instance, the agency recognized three issues with the Antminer S19, producing 90 terahash per second (TH/s), and the S19 XP, providing 140 TH/s.
William Foxley of Compass Mining explains that the brand new machines lack a peripheral interface controller (PIC) on the ASICs, making it tougher to manage particular person hashboards in comparison with these with a PIC. The units use aluminum plating on the facet of the mining rig, which Foxley believes could contribute to overheating points. Moreover, there’s a “consolidation of all parts onto one facet of the board, inflicting an elevated likelihood of hashboard errors.”

An Antminer S19 XP with out the peripheral interface controller. Photograph credit score: Compass Mining.
Foxley explains that with no PIC, items can not underhash on “one or two boards,” and hashboards made with aluminum plates could fail extra incessantly in scorching climates like Texas than these made with printed circuit boards (PCBs). Moreover, Compass Mining believes non-Bitmain restore retailers could face issue changing broken chips. The operations workforce found these points throughout the final six months, and so they “considerably have an effect on a unit’s efficiency.”
In conclusion, Foxley notes within the weblog put up that third-party firmware may handle the PIC concern and allow a miner to run on one or two boards. Third-party firmware may also decrease particular variables to maintain the ASIC mining rig cooler. The put up suggests choosing the right environmental situations as one other answer. Nonetheless, relating to the aluminum plating, Compass Mining views it as a web destructive.
“We view the design resolution to swap to aluminum-plating on hashboards as a web destructive–one that can improve ASIC failure and underhashing whereas growing service and upkeep prices,” Compass’s weblog put up concludes. “Paired with the dearth of a PIC and elevated issue of swapping out dangerous chips, we encourage miners to double down on their restore sport as they onboard subsequent technology items into their fleets.”
What do you consider Bitmain’s resolution to vary its ASIC design? Share your ideas within the feedback part under.