Bitcoin mining firm Compass Mining claims to have discovered “three points” within the ASIC design of the 2 new Antminer S19 miners, models which can be primarily used to mine Bitcoin (BTC).
These points might consequence within the machines overheating and in some instances, fully breaking down.
The agency’s mining operations crew warned in its Mar. 6 publish that “Miners must be prepared,” significantly those that bought the S19 90T and S19 XP Antminers manufactured from 2022 onwards.
Bitmain modified its ASIC design. Miners must be readyhttps://t.co/cs8z96lR1L pic.twitter.com/2NN4O3sEfP
— Will Foxley (@wsfoxley) March 7, 2023
Whereas the agency said that “different variations could possibly be affected as effectively,” the three flaws the agency recognized stemmed from an absence of a peripheral interface controller (PIC) on models, the implementation of aluminum plating as a substitute of laminate materials, and the bunching up elements onto only one aspect of the board.
In response to Compass Mining, peripheral interface controllers, or PICs, are used to regulate and monitor a spread of units and techniques throughout all kinds of electronics. In ASICs, they’re used to interface with hashboards individually, quite than addressing them as one unit.
This, nevertheless, has been eliminated in the newest design, stated the agency.
“In ASICs, a PIC sits on the prime of a hashboard and permits every hashboard to be spoken to individually. With out it, it’s a must to deal with the unit as one unit, as a substitute of three hashboards.”
Compass Mining defined that this lack of PIC signifies that ought to one hashboard fail, the whole unit “fails fully.”
“As an alternative, a miner fails fully. We’ve discovered this to be the case with our S19 XP 141 TH models, which have failed fully when just one board is having points.”
The mining firm additionally stated that by implementing aluminum plating on the hashboard, it might overheat and due to this fact result in a better “failure fee” than these constructed on printed circuit boards (PCBs) — which is what the outdated S19s have been constructed on.
This could result in “greater servicing wants,” the corporate stated.
In the meantime, the corporate has additionally raised issues in regards to the mining unit’s transition to aluminum, referring to it as “web destructive.”
“We view the design resolution to swap to aluminum-plating on hashboards as a web destructive–one that may enhance ASIC failure and underhashing whereas rising service and upkeep prices,” it wrote.
The agency additionally defined that the presence of the aluminum would make it harder to switch malfunctioning chips:
“The shortage of a PIC is compounded by the abrupt change to aluminum-plates on all hashboards. If a board overheats due to the aluminum’s warmth dispersion properties, then the whole unit will go down as a substitute of only one board.”
Compass Mining stated they first realized the drop in efficiency once they deployed the S19 XP at its Texas companion facility — which might have been impacted by humidity and warmth.
As for the third subject, the agency famous that by implementing the aluminium plating with out altering the chassis — the bottom body of the ASIC — would additionally contribute to the upper failure charges.
As a result of aluminium may be very warmth emissive, the steel will trigger “convective heating” contained in the chassis, the agency defined, earlier than proposing some options:
“An answer to this in an air-cooled setting can be to extend the mass air circulate sufficiently to dissipate the warmth saved inside the miner – a special design or stronger followers.”
Associated: Bitcoin ASIC miner costs hovering at lows not seen in years
Different potential options proposed by the agency embody discovering third-party firmware that enables the frequency and voltage of the machine to keep up affordable temperature and humidity ranges in an effort to get extra longevity out of the mining machines.
The agency did nevertheless acknowledge that they could have simply gotten a “unhealthy batch” from Bitmain, noting it’s “widespread information” in Bitcoin mining to not purchase the primary batch of Bitcoin ASICs.
“Unknown errors are sometimes solely revealed over time, so it is best to have others discover them out first,” it stated.
Cointelegraph reached out to Bitmain for remark however didn’t obtain a response by the point of publication.
Bitmain Antminers have been used to mine proof-of-work cryptocurrencies comparable to BTC, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Litecoin (LTC).
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