PCB Design for Cointerra

[gigahasher]

As an experienced PCB designer, I would like to get a datasheet from CoinTerra before designing a PCB, preferably with a reference design.  If they release a datasheet, and the project is feasable, I would be happy to make a PCB for it, but the design needs to be there.

[1715197301]

1715197301

[Ytterbium]

They may not have even decided on the pin-outs and packaging yet.

[topminingcontracts]

I think Cointerra chip may not require extraordinary cooling.

Remember heat is wasted energy depending how efficient is his chip is the heat, Until we can see one in action we cant say much I guess.

300W of electrical consumption will always generate 300W of heat, no matter how efficient or inefficient the chip is. This is the law of conservation of energy.

Sorry but I disagree.

is 300W always generate the same heat, we have no problem because the heat generated cant be more than any other "chip" (cpu, video, digital converter) that uses 300W, so if what you say is valid is valid the same cooling capacity to cool any chip that uses 300W is the same... and is not. at same power usage different chips generate different volumes of heat.

I agree energy transform in something else 100% but is not all heat, also I also agree the Cointerra chip per GigaHash looks will use much less energy than Avalon, Bitfury and all the rest.

All the best

TMC

[Ytterbium]

Sorry but I disagree.

is 300W always generate the same heat, we have no problem because the heat generated cant be more than any other "chip" (cpu, video, digital converter) that uses 300W, so if what you say is valid is valid the same cooling capacity to cool any chip that uses 300W is the same... and is not. at same power usage different chips generate different volumes of heat.

I agree energy transform in something else 100% but is not all heat, also I also agree the Cointerra chip per GigaHash looks will use much less energy than Avalon, Bitfury and all the rest.

All the best

TMC

The outputs are going to be heat, voltamps and photons. Almost all will be heat, only a tiny amount will be used to send electrical signals or give of EM radiation unless it's an LED or radio amplifier.

[mrb]

Sorry but I disagree.

is 300W always generate the same heat, we have no problem because the heat generated cant be more than any other "chip" (cpu, video, digital converter) that uses 300W, so if what you say is valid is valid the same cooling capacity to cool any chip that uses 300W is the same... and is not. at same power usage different chips generate different volumes of heat.

I agree energy transform in something else 100% but is not all heat, also I also agree the Cointerra chip per GigaHash looks will use much less energy than Avalon, Bitfury and all the rest.

This is a law of thermodynamics, you can't disagree with it

Here is what confuses you: a CPU advertised with a thermal dissipation of 100W will actually draw anywhere from 0 to 100W depending on the load. It does not constantly draw 100W. You can measure this with a clamp-meter on the 4-pin ATX12V cable. So if average computer usage leads to the CPU drawing 40W, then on average you will only observe 40W of heat coming out of a "100W" CPU.

A Bitcoin mining chip, unlike a typical electronic chip, runs at full load 100% of the time. So a Bitcoin mining chip with a thermal dissipation of 100W will always exhaust 100W of heat.

[aerobatic]

Sorry but I disagree.

is 300W always generate the same heat, we have no problem because the heat generated cant be more than any other "chip" (cpu, video, digital converter) that uses 300W, so if what you say is valid is valid the same cooling capacity to cool any chip that uses 300W is the same... and is not. at same power usage different chips generate different volumes of heat.

I agree energy transform in something else 100% but is not all heat, also I also agree the Cointerra chip per GigaHash looks will use much less energy than Avalon, Bitfury and all the rest.

This is a law of thermodynamics, you can't disagree with it

Here is what confuses you: a CPU advertised with a thermal dissipation of 100W will actually draw anywhere from 0 to 100W depending on the load. It does not constantly draw 100W. You can measure this with a clamp-meter on the 4-pin ATX12V cable. So if average computer usage leads to the CPU drawing 40W, then on average you will only observe 40W of heat coming out of a "100W" CPU.

A Bitcoin mining chip, unlike a typical electronic chip, runs at full load 100% of the time. So a Bitcoin mining chip with a thermal dissipation of 100W will always exhaust 100W of heat.

Agree!  if they say its 1200 watts, then its 1200 watts of heat that needs to be exhausted all the time.  Assuming it has four chips in the box, then thats 300 watts per chip, which would require an excellent cooling system to be able to run 24/7 (but certainly not out of the area of high end pc cpu coolers)

[topminingcontracts]

Ok ok....

Even if all the power will transform into heat, using the Cointerra chip will is by far better than a bunch of avalons or bitfurys.

Over that less 1 chip replaces 100+ of the others probably the assembly cost is much much lower.

I still think Cointerra chip will be the best option of the current ones, and we should have a way to develop our PCB cards to just buy the chips, I think we may save some money and also reduce the time to market.

All the best

TMC

[creativex]

Agree with b 100%. While a single chip .5Th/s solution sounds great, the heat density is an engineering challenge that didn't need to be tackled when time to market is what really counts. While all the 28nm vendors to date are going to have to expend resources working on this issue, a passively cooled bitfury rig at 55nm is now the efficiency king and will likely remain so for at least a few months and if they can shrink that die and decrease power consumption further then they'll really put a hurtin' on the other vendors. I'll take their pedestrian looking "deck of cards rig" with it's impressive specs now over an aesthetically pleasing rig with a necessarily elaborate cooling system next January. Actually I'll take two.