Cointerra trip report

[aerobatic]

Hey guys,

i'm on my way to the Inside Bitcoins conference... in Las Vegas and i took the opportunity to swing by Austin last night and make a visit to cointerra.  my second such visit, and there's been lots of changes... a big increase in staff and a lot of progress.   along with a friend (Jimmy Furland, an early bitcoin investor) from London, we've placed a large order with them for their january batch.  we were eager to see how our order was coming along and to see what progress has been made.

today Jimmy and I visited cointerra's new offices (upstairs to their old offices on Jollyville Road, which despite sounding like something from Mary Poppins, is the real name of the street!).  we've been introduced to all the staff, taken some pictures, and also visited one of their contractors (Ascendant) - who's designing the board.  Unlike the last visit we read about on the forums, I think pretty much everyone was in the office today.. so i met with Ravi, Pete, Jim, John etc... even their crypto guy Timo was in town for a meeting today so thats good timing!

if you have any questions you want me to ask them...  or take any photos of the prototype hardware, the team or anything then ask away and i will try and oblige.

ive taken quite a few photos of the work in progress... and will upload here shortly... (once i figure out the best way).  ravi has said the photos i've taken are safe to post... ie containing no special sauce or secrets.

this is not cointerra sponsored.  sure, they allowed me to visit, and take photos... but they are not behind my visit. i am here for purely selfish reasons in that i have a big order and am relying on them to deliver in Jan for it to be worthwhile.   i should stress that i also have orders with other asic companies (including knc, hashfast, bitfury, bfl etc) so i will do my best to be balanced and unbiased.

-- Jez



This is Jimmy and I holding a prototype of the TerraMiner box (yes, just the box!).  Its quite light as its made from Aluminium.. and it doesnt contain anything in it yet... though from later pictures you will see some other stuff.

[aerobatic]

not quite as glamorous as an unboxing... (wish it WAS an unboxing but we'll have to wait a month for that!)

Here's some photos of the front and back of the (prototype) box



two big fan holes visible on the front for the air intakes



a fan intake on the side for the power supplies



You can see the three big fan holes at the back, the two square holes for the power supplies, and two usb and two network holes for connections.

by the way... im not digging the mustard yellow walls, nor the brown-red carpet... but i guess im just not used to Texas office interior decor ;-)

[glendall]

Right on man thanks for taking the time to do this.

[minternj]

So, whens the price drop for april orders that will become may orders? Serious question. i'll buy a couple if the price is right.

[aerobatic]

So, whens the price drop for april orders that will become may orders? Serious question. i'll buy a couple if the price is right.

im just a punter.  ive no idea about their pricing... but i suspect the price of bitcoin is going up is the main thing keeping the asic companies from dropping their prices.  they probably think they dont need to!

[aerobatic]

This is Jim.. the VP of Engineering.  Looks like cool stuff on his white board.   i think he's already working on next-gen stuff as the rtl code was finished months ago for the current chip



And John... in customer service (and tech support).  If you call he's the guy with the 'radio dj voice'.  i suspect he'll be doing voiceovers and commercials whenever they get around to advertising



This is Peter (VP Sales) and Wanda

[aerobatic]

Dianna (Office Admin)



Stephen, Daniel (Customer Service)

[Carlton Banks]

Will all the units be rackmount cases? I didn't see any option for that in the order form. Rackmount cases would definitely be my preference.

Would it be possible to get "de-badged" cases? Just thinking of those people who have to think about the scruples of those who they're employing to do moving jobs that include these units. With "Terra Miner" and "Coin-terra" written all over the cases, I don't think there's any real way of keeping the purpose of the devices at all discreet. Some bright spark will inevitably start talking about this in their leisure time, or worse, decide themselves to plan a heist on a datacenter or home residence.

[aerobatic]

Michael - customer support



Johnny Bitcoin (apparently) - customer service

[aerobatic]

The visit to Ascendant...  Cointerra's board designer...







This is Jon, the ceo of Ascendant...

 

[aerobatic]

This is a prototype board.   The big wires there are to put high loads on the system to test out the circuits and dc/dc converters (the asic is absent which hopefully arrives in late december)

[aerobatic]

this was the original cointerra fpga prototype and is now consigned to Ascendant's museum

[aerobatic]

This is the obligatory 'Box Full of Fans' !   (only this time, with no fans)




This is showing the prototype liquid cooling system including the custom radiator (a massive hunk of metal)

You can see two head units (cold plates, with thermal paste, and built-in pumps) for the asics connected by tubes into the radiator (in parallel, not series).   Cold liquid comes out the bottom of the radiator, pumps around the asic, then returns to the top of the radiator (where fans Cool It).  hey, Cool IT.. a coincidence!?



You can also see the paper 'pcb mockup'.   This Paper Circuit Board (pcb, for short) is very lightweight and literally is paper thin.   Of course, its hashing power is no match for the real pcb, that apparently, arrives tomorrow.  i might be able to get a picture of the new pcb.

[aerobatic]

This is Jon at Ascendant, looking very excited that the power supply prototypes have arrived !

an 'unboxing'...!




the Power One power supply is 1100 watts, and is very small.  there's two of them in the box...

[aerobatic]

Two power supplies mounted into the case...







Shows the power supplies mounted in the box

[aerobatic]

And the final photo for the day... showing the box from the front, with the cooling system mounted in it.  Look carefully and you can see the thermal paste underneath the 'cold plate' that mounts onto the asic.

[madsusies]

STOP being so cool   

[aerobatic]

Will all the units be rackmount cases? I didn't see any option for that in the order form. Rackmount cases would definitely be my preference.

Would it be possible to get "de-badged" cases? Just thinking of those people who have to think about the scruples of those who they're employing to do moving jobs that include these units. With "Terra Miner" and "Coin-terra" written all over the cases, I don't think there's any real way of keeping the purpose of the devices at all discreet. Some bright spark will inevitably start talking about this in their leisure time, or worse, decide themselves to plan a heist on a datacenter or home residence.

i will ask if you can buy the cases without markings but i suspect not.  you can always buy a sharpie and black it out as it seems to be just white graphic on a black background

[Threader]

This comment is only for those mining from their homes.

I hope those power supplies are quieter than my 350W 1U power supplies. I had 8 1U racks in my basement at one time and it was quite a racket.

[Korbman]

Excellent pics, and thank you for taking the time to visit them and post your experiences. It's nice to see things moving along, though hopefully the upcoming pics will be of the PCBs and ASICs