CoinTerra announces its first ASIC - Hash-Rate greater than 500 GH/s

[Biffa]

Terraminers at $3799 now!

https://cointerra.com/product/terraminer-iv-1-6-ths-bitcoin-miner/

STIN, Texas – 04/28/2014

CoinTerra, the market leader in ASIC Bitcoin mining solutions today announced that it has adopted a variable pricing model for retail sales of their TerraMiner IV Bitcoin mining hardware.

Having delivered the April and May/June batches significantly ahead of schedule, CoinTerra has decided to move to a model of daily pricing for its from-stock sales in order to reflect the ever-changing variables which go to make up the Bitcoin ecosystem.

“As the leading high-performance Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer shipping from stock, we can now offer a pricing model that allows Bitcoin miners to make purchasing decisions based on current factors. This makes CoinTerra’s spot pricing exceptionally attractive to members of the Bitcoin mining community wishing to buy mining hardware for immediate delivery and deployment.” said Ravi Iyengar, CEO – CoinTerra, Inc.

Every 24 hours market analysts at CoinTerra will determine the following day’s spot price, and the first price point offered on Monday April 28th is $3,799 per TerraMiner IV with a volume discount of $200 per unit when purchasing 10 or more. Depending on the market, pricing may increase or decrease, or remain unchanged.

Additionally, CoinTerra has announced that it has begun to offer the TerraMiner’s GoldStrike I ASIC for sale to third-parties to integrate into their own system designs, with a minimum order of 500 ASICs.

To order a TerraMiner IV from stock for immediate shipping visit: https://cointerra.com/shop

still expensive. espescially at ~1.4w/GH.    Try pricing it around $3000 if you want to compete with the 1TH/1kW antminer at $2600   or the 180GH/360W antminer at 0.55BTC

Don't shoot the messenger I wouldn't buy one just thought that ppl would be interested. And all these price cuts drive the price down for other miners.

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[ProfMac]

I dropped these numbers into the profitability calculator that I use.

[Biffa]

I dropped these numbers into the profitability calculator that I use.

I'd change the difficulty jumps to 15% and you need to increase the power to 2100W

[ProfMac]

I dropped these numbers into the profitability calculator that I use.

I'd change the difficulty jumps to 15% and you need to increase the power to 2100W

Thanks, Eagle Eye.

I edited the link in my original post, and the quote in this post.

[DustyRah]

What action did you guys take when one of the 4 cores stopped working? As though its not already bad with 20% less hashrate now one of the cores has stopped working reducing the hash rate to 1.2 Th/s.

Just restart cgminer from the config tab.

No luck restarting cgminer. I also restarted the machine both using Restart System option and hard booting it. The 2nd core of CTA0 appears to be hosed. I have left a voicemail and sent an email. Hope to have this resolved ASAP with Cointerra's asistance.

I had to ship it back to Cointerra(they paid shipping both ways) to have the pump fixed. I still don't know what exactly got fixed but I got it back today and after 2 weeks of downtime its hashing away again.

[miahallen]

It's getting warm around here these days and my ASICs are throttling to prevent overheating (which is good).  One of my chips has always run hotter than the rest.

HAS ANYONE OPENED UP THEIR SYSTEM AND RESEATED THE COOLERS?  Did it help?  I'm thinking I might need to do so with mine, they are regularly peaking over 100C and averaging in the 90s and then throttling.

Also, has anyone put alternative cooling on their boxes?  I've been thinking of running a big water-cooling system to my two systems to combat the heat.  Thoughts?

[samsonn25]

I thought a1 chip was good, apparantly not.  runs too hot, maybe need the increase speed to make the gh

[DustyRah]

It's getting warm around here these days and my ASICs are throttling to prevent overheating (which is good).  One of my chips has always run hotter than the rest.

HAS ANYONE OPENED UP THEIR SYSTEM AND RESEATED THE COOLERS?  Did it help?  I'm thinking I might need to do so with mine, they are regularly peaking over 100C and averaging in the 90s and then throttling.

Also, has anyone put alternative cooling on their boxes?  I've been thinking of running a big water-cooling system to my two systems to combat the heat.  Thoughts?

If you live in dry environment, you could possibly use a evaporative cooling such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honeywell-Portable-Indoor-Evaporative-Air-Cooler-White-/291127495248?pt=Air_Conditioner&hash=item43c88d0a50

[klondike_bar]

Terraminers at $3799 now!

https://cointerra.com/product/terraminer-iv-1-6-ths-bitcoin-miner/

STIN, Texas – 04/28/2014

CoinTerra, the market leader in ASIC Bitcoin mining solutions today announced that it has adopted a variable pricing model for retail sales of their TerraMiner IV Bitcoin mining hardware.

Having delivered the April and May/June batches significantly ahead of schedule, CoinTerra has decided to move to a model of daily pricing for its from-stock sales in order to reflect the ever-changing variables which go to make up the Bitcoin ecosystem.

“As the leading high-performance Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer shipping from stock, we can now offer a pricing model that allows Bitcoin miners to make purchasing decisions based on current factors. This makes CoinTerra’s spot pricing exceptionally attractive to members of the Bitcoin mining community wishing to buy mining hardware for immediate delivery and deployment.” said Ravi Iyengar, CEO – CoinTerra, Inc.

Every 24 hours market analysts at CoinTerra will determine the following day’s spot price, and the first price point offered on Monday April 28th is $3,799 per TerraMiner IV with a volume discount of $200 per unit when purchasing 10 or more. Depending on the market, pricing may increase or decrease, or remain unchanged.

Additionally, CoinTerra has announced that it has begun to offer the TerraMiner’s GoldStrike I ASIC for sale to third-parties to integrate into their own system designs, with a minimum order of 500 ASICs.

To order a TerraMiner IV from stock for immediate shipping visit: https://cointerra.com/shop

2 days later and no price change...

[aerobatic]

Well, let's estimate what the marginal cost of a completed TerraMiner IV is, not counting NRE costs.

1) According to this study, a wafer from a fab costs between $2000 and $4000:
https://server1.tepper.cmu.edu/seminars/docs/BKM_semicon.pdf

2) According to this picture(http://cointerra.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/photo5.jpg), Cointerra gets about

(# of chips, length-wise)^2 * (Ratio of square area to circular area)
 = 28 * 28 * (0.78)
 = 611 chips per wafer

Therefore, the marginal cost per chip
= (Cost of wafer) / (# of chips per wafer)
= $4000 / 611
= $6 per chip

3) That means the marginal cost of *just the chips* in a TerraMiner IV is:

(#chips per TM IV) * (cost per chip)
= (4*4) * ($6)
= $96

4) Approximate the cost of all the components of the chip, plus the marginal cost of the circuit board creation:

VRMs:
Digikey has something quite like what they're probably using for $8:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/IR3551MTRPBF/IR3551MTRPBFTR-ND/3770518
Therefore, the cost is:
(8*4) * ($8)
 = $256

Two power supplies @~$300 each:
https://www.verical.com/#searchCriterion=mpnIDs&searchName=&landingPage=catalogItemView&searchTerm=295479&_i_=2
2*$300
= $600

Cooling components:
4 * (water blocks) + radiator + fans
4 * ($50) + $50 radiator + $20 fans
 = $270

Circuit board marginal cost:
$100 * 2 (I don't have a good idea of this)
= $200

Miscellaneous capacitors, resistors, and other components:
$100?

The beaglebone black:
$100

The case
$50?

Total:
265 + 600 + 270 + 200 + 100 + 100 + 50
 = $1585

5) Therefore a pretty rough guess on the cost of a unit below which Cointerra is actually losing money is $1600. Even if the cost estimate of the chips is an order of magnitude off, the price can still drop $1000 (i.e. go to $2600) and maintain a slim profit. Remember, these are *just* the material costs. The cost of doing business is *way* high than these costs - salaries, software, rent, etc. are huge for this kind of operation. The prices they've been charging have been recouping these costs in theory.

i think you're light on some of the costs.  the ones that stick out, I'm pretty sure wafers (in 28nm) cost more than the $4000 you suggested 'to buy' (maybe 'to make' they're cheaper as clearly the fabs aren't doing it for charity).. so you can assume the asics cost more than you're assuming.  also, you've only costed raw wafers, and haven't included what it costs to turn dies into asics (bumping, dicing, mounting on substrates etc), nor have you accounted for 'yield' (the number of working dies on a wafer is never 100% as there are always defects in wafer production and some dies won't work and all need to be tested to find the working ones.

you also didn't seem to include anything to manufacture the box.  a factory needs to assemble the parts.. solder the chips, put in in a chassis.. connect the wires.  i.e., its not sold as a kit for the customer to build.. a bunch of factory workers actually make it, and charge to do it.

also, you deliberately ignored the two biggest costs (which are up-front rather than production costs).   1, the design of the system (engineers get paid salaries) both the asic itself and the board and the rest of the system and programming the controllers etc- probably in the $2m-$3m range.    And the Silicon nre (which is millions - probably $5-6m - for back end layout, and mask production etc).. and if you only build thousands of systems, its a very large factor in the unit cost of each one that must be taken as contribution or amortisation etc.  since cointerra has announced they've sold 5,000 systems to date, and the nre and design costs are probably >$7m, you should add at least $1200 to contribute to the cost of each system produced (at least so far).  obviously the more they make, the less that contribution per box becomes, but it can't be ignored as its a cost of doing business.

[JoseSan]

i think you're light on some of the costs. 

You're right, I ballparked it. I estimated $6 per chip. It's probably more like $20. I'd guess that their yield is close enough to 100%, since they'd probably try to use the DRAM technique of laser-burning off defective bits (e.g. individual SHA256 pipelines).

also, you deliberately ignored the two biggest costs (which are up-front rather than production costs). 

Well, let's estimate what the marginal cost of a completed TerraMiner IV is, not counting NRE costs.

You're right, the masks are not a trivial cost. I wanted to get an idea of how low the price could possibly go (the asymptotic limit), and the answer is not *that* much more. I want to be clear that this isn't the least bit accurate, it's a low-ball estimate under which Cointerra will definitely lose money. It's sort of like asking what the barebones cost of a PC is for Dell, with a twist.

I definitely can't speculate on the business ambitions of a fabless semiconductor company like Cointerra, so I'll leave the truly interesting bits of what they paid employees, in what ways, to someone else. This is just a spot of fun guessing at prices.

[topminingcontracts]

Anyone knows if they still have units in stock?

[aerobatic]

Anyone knows if they still have units in stock?

their web shop says they have this model in stock with immed shipping

https://cointerra.com/product/terraminer-iv-1-6-ths-bitcoin-miner/

[samsonn25]

I think manufacture costs can be under $1100 before power supply.

But then you have r and d. Rent employees etc.

[DustyRah]

If BTC was $1000 a piece, EVERYONE would be having a good time right now.

[Puppet]

Well, let's estimate what the marginal cost of a completed TerraMiner IV is, not counting NRE costs.

1) According to this study, a wafer from a fab costs between $2000 and $4000:
https://server1.tepper.cmu.edu/seminars/docs/BKM_semicon.pdf

2) According to this picture(http://cointerra.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/photo5.jpg), Cointerra gets about

(# of chips, length-wise)^2 * (Ratio of square area to circular area)
 = 28 * 28 * (0.78)
 = 611 chips per wafer

Therefore, the marginal cost per chip
= (Cost of wafer) / (# of chips per wafer)
= $4000 / 611
= $6 per chip

3) That means the marginal cost of *just the chips* in a TerraMiner IV is:

(#chips per TM IV) * (cost per chip)
= (4*4) * ($6)
= $96

4) Approximate the cost of all the components of the chip, plus the marginal cost of the circuit board creation:

VRMs:
Digikey has something quite like what they're probably using for $8:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/IR3551MTRPBF/IR3551MTRPBFTR-ND/3770518
Therefore, the cost is:
(8*4) * ($8)
 = $256

Two power supplies @~$300 each:
https://www.verical.com/#searchCriterion=mpnIDs&searchName=&landingPage=catalogItemView&searchTerm=295479&_i_=2
2*$300
= $600

Cooling components:
4 * (water blocks) + radiator + fans
4 * ($50) + $50 radiator + $20 fans
 = $270

Circuit board marginal cost:
$100 * 2 (I don't have a good idea of this)
= $200

Miscellaneous capacitors, resistors, and other components:
$100?

The beaglebone black:
$100

The case
$50?

Total:
265 + 600 + 270 + 200 + 100 + 100 + 50
 = $1585

5) Therefore a pretty rough guess on the cost of a unit below which Cointerra is actually losing money is $1600. Even if the cost estimate of the chips is an order of magnitude off, the price can still drop $1000 (i.e. go to $2600) and maintain a slim profit. Remember, these are *just* the material costs. The cost of doing business is *way* high than these costs - salaries, software, rent, etc. are huge for this kind of operation. The prices they've been charging have been recouping these costs in theory.

i think you're light on some of the costs.  the ones that stick out, I'm pretty sure wafers (in 28nm) cost more than the $4000 you suggested 'to buy' (maybe 'to make' they're cheaper as clearly the fabs aren't doing it for charity).. so you can assume the asics cost more than you're assuming.

Actually, volume production of 300mm 28nm wafers is lower than estimated above. Down to sub $3000 range for high volume. Of course, bitcoin manufacturers are not yet touching the volumes of AMD/nVidia/Qualcomm etc, but there is also the fact that AMD/nVidia typically require more than a dozen metal layers, whereas Im guessing a bitcoin miner would need no more than 3. That also impacts processing time and cost considerably. If anything, $4000 per wafer sounds high to me if you are calculating the "end game".

Many of the other estimates are also clearly too high. A naked PCB for a bitcoin rig isnt going to cost $100 to produce (you can buy far more complex fully populated ATX motherboards with many more layers, connectors and components for only a fraction of that in retail) and a beaglebone black retails for $49 on adafruit, so no way CT is paying $100. VRMS do cost a bit, but caps and resisters and all that, we all know basically cost nothing in volume, no where near $100 per board

ALl in all, IMO the above BOM estimates are way, way high.

[ImI]

quick question: whats again the warranty for the terraminers? 3 months??

i think i will have to open mine cause it looks very dirty inside and its overheating.

[aerobatic]

quick question: whats again the warranty for the terraminers? 3 months??

i think i will have to open mine cause it looks very dirty inside and its overheating.

a vacuum cleaner placed up close to the fans should do the trick.  if you've got a good one that has a hose attachment so you can point it directly at the fans (like a dyson...) that should work.

-- jez

[ImI]

will give it a try

nevertheless whats the warranty frame? 3 months?

[Mattster28]

quick question: whats again the warranty for the terraminers? 3 months??

i think i will have to open mine cause it looks very dirty inside and its overheating.

a vacuum cleaner placed up close to the fans should do the trick.  if you've got a good one that has a hose attachment so you can point it directly at the fans (like a dyson...) that should work.

-- jez

Well if there is any lint in there a vacuum will do you no good cause of the screen on the fans. And if it has any lint in it and you hit the back side of the unit with compressed air to clean the radiators its going to cause the lint to swirl around in the unit and stick together then you will have patches of lint on the radiators when you start it back up. Been there done that!

Edit: As for the warranty it was 90 days but now I think its 30. So I guess it would depend on when you got it.