To start with, there have been solely CPUs, then GPUs, for bitcoin mining. Then got here the mighty ASIC in 2013, and with it, the “shoebox” type issue that has turn out to be emblematic of the bitcoin mining business.
What comes subsequent? Will the shoebox design persist as customary for bitcoin mining ASICs? Or will one other type issue that extra resembles conventional datacenter servers win out?
ASIC producers are more and more betting on the latter – or not less than, {that a} hydro-cooled server rack design will turn out to be a considerable portion of bitcoin mining fleets. Furthermore, they’re leaning into the “direct-to-chip” cooling for additional effectivity features.
Auradine’s new AH3880, launched March 2025.
Final September, Bitmain introduced its mannequin U3S21EXPH (a little bit of a mouthful, eh?) developed in a partnership with Hut 8. Its U3 design signifies that one unit takes up three areas in a standard server rack. MicroBT quickly adopted with its M63 Hydro collection, as did Bitdeer’s Sealminer A2 Hydro unit.
Following swimsuit, Auradine launched its server rack mannequin, the AH3880, this March. Its U2 design, which occupies two server slots, is a bit smaller, but it surely packs extra hashrate per unit of area at 600 TH/s (or 300 TH/s per slot) versus Bitmain’s 860 TH/s (286.66 TH/s per slot).
Shoebox out
So, what’s with the swap up from the standard shoe field? For Auradine, it’s all about buyer demand.
“[Our new model is] primarily based upon plenty of suggestions that we received from our miner clients … we have been working with the miners even all through the design course of,” Auradine CSO Sanjay Gupta stated on the latest Mining Pod. “They indicated to us that they had been in search of a top quality hydro primarily based miner.”
In its partnership with Bitmain for the U3S21EXPH, “Hut 8 was instrumental within the customized design for the infrastructure, significantly the U type issue which is appropriate with HPC fashion structure,” Hut 8 Head of Investor Relations Sue Ennis advised Blockspacelast September. (Extra on the excessive efficiency computing angle later).
The good thing about a server rack ASIC lies in standardization. Bitcoin miners are more and more marching consistent with the standard datacenter business, and that business may see 40% adoption of direct liquid-to-chip cooling by 2026, in response to information heart developer Cyrus One.
If miners undertake this design, then theoretically, they’ll optimize their provide chains by converging on server designs which can be changing into finest follow within the big-boy information heart sector.
This might make constructing and repairing bitcoin mines simpler. And it may additionally make mining corporations extra nimble in the event that they need to flex out of bitcoin mining and into different types of compute.
Enter AI and HPC
As with a lot mining information in the present day, in fact the spectre of AI is looming within the background.
If miners assemble their information facilities with conventional server rack designs, there’s one much less ache level in the event that they need to retrofit these websites for AI and HPC masses. In fact, they’d nonetheless want to reinforce the sinews, muscle groups and veins of their operations with extra strong networking and electrical infrastructure, however server racks would offer a spine for AI/HPC providers that requires much less restructuring than legacy bitcoin mines. As Ennis put it, “the U type issue … is appropriate with HPC fashion structure.”
Echoing this, Gupta stated in our Mining Pod interview that “[The U form factor has] been used for the AI information heart. It’s simple to regulate. It’s received a excessive [power] density to it … [it] is extraordinarily related for AI information facilities as effectively, and we’re a joint technique between AI for HPC and Bitcoin mining. So the U type issue works effectively with that.”
Who’s shopping for it?
Maybe evidently, the server rack type issue for bitcoin mining remains to be in its infancy, and whereas there’s promise that such a design may win out, there’s no assure.
To begin, bitcoin miners won’t solely want to remodel the innards of their mines but additionally fully rewire their electrical infrastructure (which is unlikely to occur at present mines).
Cholla’s Brad Cuddy, which operates hydro-cooled ASIC miners, advised Blockspace final September that “he’s excited to see the shift from the shoebox design to the [server rack] type issue.” However he stated the U3S21EXPH’s voltage vary is incompatible with sure electrical infrastructure that miners use with different Bitmain fashions.
“The restricted vary of 380 to 415 volts reduces its compatibility for retrofitting. I’d have appreciated to see the voltage vary go all the way in which as much as 480 volts to permit for extra interoperability with present infrastructure deployments,” he stated.
As such, it’s doubtless that we’ll see miners combine these models at new websites. Hut 8 is taking this method with plans to host 15 EH/s of U3S21EXPH models for Bitmain (with an choice to buy) at its Vega, Texas website, which is because of begin working in Q2.
Thus far, Hut 8 is the one public purchaser of Bitmain’s U3S21EXPH. Gupta didn’t reveal which miners are underneath contract for its AH3880, however he did say they embrace a number of industrial scale personal and public miners. It wouldn’t be stunning to see MARA, one in all Auradine’s key companions which has additionally invested upwards of $50 million within the firm, undertake the mannequin.
Ought to Hut 8’s Vega website run easily on Bitmain’s mannequin, and if we assume that MARA will deploy Auradine’s, public miners might lead the place others will observe, and we may see a brand new type issue slowly seep into fashionable mine design.
