Mining
Bitcoin mining firm Compass Mining claims to have discovered “three points” within the ASIC design of the 2 new Antminer S19 miners, models which might be primarily used to mine Bitcoin (BTC).
These points might consequence within the machines overheating and in some circumstances, fully breaking down.
The agency’s mining operations crew warned in its Mar. 6 publish that “Miners have to be prepared,” notably those that bought the S19 90T and S19 XP Antminers manufactured from 2022 onwards.
Bitmain modified its ASIC design. Miners have to be readyhttps://t.co/cs8z96lR1L pic.twitter.com/2NN4O3sEfP
— Will Foxley (@wsfoxley) March 7, 2023
Whereas the agency said that “different variations might be affected as nicely,” the three flaws the agency recognized stemmed from a scarcity of a peripheral interface controller (PIC) on models, the implementation of aluminum plating as a substitute of laminate materials, and the bunching up parts onto only one facet of the board.
In response to Compass Mining, peripheral interface controllers, or PICs, are used to regulate and monitor a variety of units and techniques throughout all types of electronics. In ASICs, they’re used to interface with hashboards individually, somewhat than addressing them as one unit.
This, nonetheless, has been eliminated in the newest design, stated the agency.
“In ASICs, a PIC sits on the high of a hashboard and permits every hashboard to be spoken to individually. With out it, you need to tackle the unit as one unit, as a substitute of three hashboards.”
Compass Mining defined that this lack of PIC implies that ought to one hashboard fail, your entire unit “fails fully.”
“As a substitute, 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 purple dot within the heart represents the PIC, which was current on older fashions S19 Antminers. Supply: Compass Mining.
The mining firm additionally stated that by implementing aluminum plating on the hashboard, it could overheat and due to this fact result in the next “failure charge” than these constructed on printed circuit boards (PCBs) — which is what the previous S19s have been constructed on.
This could result in “greater servicing wants,” the corporate stated.
In the meantime, the corporate has additionally raised considerations in regards to the mining unit’s transition to aluminum, referring to it as “web detrimental.”
“We view the design choice to swap to aluminum-plating on hashboards as a web detrimental–one that may improve 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 tougher to switch malfunctioning chips:
“The dearth 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 your entire 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 problem, 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 could be very warmth emissive, the metallic 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 could be to extend the mass air stream sufficiently to dissipate the warmth saved inside the miner – a distinct design or stronger followers.”
Different potential options proposed by the agency embrace discovering third-party firmware that permits the frequency and voltage of the machine to keep up cheap temperature and humidity ranges in an effort to get extra longevity out of the mining machines.
A few of the newest S19s don’t have a PIC on every hashboard of the ASIC. Supply: Compass Mining.
The agency did nonetheless 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 similar to BTC, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Litecoin (LTC).
