Initially, there were only CPUs, then GPUs, for bitcoin mining. Then the powerful ASIC arrived in 2013, and with it, the “Shoebox” form factor that became the symbol of the bitcoin mining industry.
What’s next? Will the shoebox design continue as a standard for Bitcoin mining ASICs? Or another form factor that resembles the traditional Datacenter’s traditional servers?
ASIC manufacturers are increasingly up-to-date-or at least, with a rack-cooled server design will be a big part of bitcoin mining fleets. Moreover, they lean on “direct-to-chip” cooling for further derived efficiency.
In September, Bitmain announced its model U3S21EXPH . Micront soon followed along with the M63 Hydro series, such as Bitdeer’s Sealminer A2 Hydro unit.
Following the suit, Auradine released its server rack model, AH3880, this March. Its U2 design, which covers two server spaces, is relatively small, but it packs more hashrates per unit of space at 600 th/s (or 300 th/s per slot) compared to 860 th/s (286.66 th/s per slot).
Shoebox out
So, what’s the switch up from the traditional shoe box? For Auradine, it’s all about customer demand.
“(Our new model is) based on the many comments we got from our miner customers … We work with miners even throughout the design process,” Auradine CSO Sanjay Gupta said In the latest pod of mining. “They indicated to us that they were looking for a quality hydro -based miners.”
In its cooperation with Bitmain for U3S21EXPH, “HUT 8 has helped custom design for infrastructure, especially the U form factor compatible with HPC Style Architecture,” Hut 8 Head of Investor Relations Sue Ennis told Blockspace in September. (More than the high performance computation angle later).
The benefit of a server rack asic lies in standardization. Bitcoin miners are increasingly marching the step along with the traditional DataCenter industry, and the industry can see a 40% adoption of the liquid-to-chip direct cooling by 2026, According to to Data Center Developer Cyrus One.
If the miners have adopted this design, then theoretical, they can optimize their supply chains by converting server designs that are becoming the best skill in the big-boy data center sector.
This can make it easier to build and organize bitcoin mines. And it can also make mining companies more agile if they want to bend with bitcoin mining and other forms of compute.
Enter AI and HPC
As with so many mining news today, of course AI ghost is emerging in the background.
If miners build their data centers with traditional server rack designs, there is a less point of pain if they want to reinstate these sites for AI and HPC loads. Of course, they still need to increase the sinews, muscles and roots of their operations with more stable networking and electrical infrastructure, but server racks will provide the spine for AI/HPC services that require less repair than bitcoin mines. As Ennis put in, “the U form factor … is compatible with the architecture of the HPC style.”
Echoing it, Gupta said in our mining interview that “(the U) factor is used for the AI data center. It’s easy to fix. It gets a high (power) density here … (it) is quite relevant for AI data centers, and we look at a joint approach between AI for HPC and Bitcoin mining. well.
Who buys it?
Probably needless to say, the server rack form factor for bitcoin mining is still in childhood, and while there is a promise that such a design can win, there is no guarantee.
To begin with, Bitcoin miners will not only need to re -create the interior of their mines but also fully rewire their de -electric infrastructure (which is not likely to occur in existing mines).
Cholla’s Brad Cuddy, who runs hydro-cooled miners, told Blockspace in September that “he was excited to see the move from the shoebox design to (server rack) form factor.” But he said that the U3S21ExPH voltage range is not compatible with some of the electrical infrastructure that miners use in other Bitmain models.
“The restrained range of 380 to 415 volts reduces its compatibility for repair. I want to see the voltage range that goes up to 480 volts to allow greater interoperability to current infrastructure expansion,” he said.
As such, we are likely to see miners incorporate these units into new sites. Hut 8 is Getting This procedure with plans to dost 15 eh/s of U3S21Exph unit for Bitmain (with an option to buy) at the site of Vega, Texas, which is due to the start of operating in Q2.
So far, Hut 8 is the only public buyer of Bitmain’s U3S21EXPH. Gupta did not announce which miners were under the contract for AH3880, but he said they have included some industrial private and public miners. No wonder Mara, one of Auradine’s major partners who also invested in the upcoming $ 50 million in the company, adopted the model.
Should the Hut 8 Vega site run properly on the Bitmain model, and if we assume that Mara will place Auradine’s, public miners can lead to where others will follow, and we will see a new factor of form slowly leaking into modern mine design.
