Hello all.
I will try and answer as many questions as I can in this one post as I am still restricted on how fast I can post.
Q: Exciting. When will you finalize the tech descriptions, price, etc?
A: We are working our supply chain now to get a better understanding of what our pricing will be. The larger order we can put together the better the volume discounts and more leverage we have with our parts suppliers. I hate to give a price point but if we can’t get things down close to $2,000USD I doubt there will even be a market.
Q: Did you license the SPT software as well or will you have your own gui?
A: We are indeed building off of the same path as Spondoolies. CGminer/MinePeon. So, Yes. User friendly GUI. We will also be adding some larger scale management features.
Q: I am confused? So is this a new manufacteurer who is building ASICs but instead of developing their own chips they get it sourced from SP?
A: We are a systems integrator. Our team comes from the enterprise server development world. We are manufacturing our own architecture built around Spondoolies Rocker Box ASIC
Q: Water?!? WHAT? Where? How?
A: This is an open loop watercooled system. This is designed for larger scale datacenters in mind. (Individual customers may purchase, but will have to provide their own pump and radiator)(which means you can make this as quiet as you like!)
Our heatsink touches off on ALL parts of the “hashing module” that produce heat. (ASICs, Voltage regulator, and even the board itself. All heat the board produces exits the water channel.
Q: Power supplies? Noise? Water?
A: Power supplies are air cooled. However they get near ambient temp air as the hashing modules are cooled by the water. Running the system at 4Ths the power supplies are silent. Over 5Ths they are barely audible. 6THs they are noticeable. They are still the only fans in the system so they are not really all that bad compared to the competition. Ill take SPL readings and post an audio recording in the future.
Q: Can you outline where/how the radiators fit into the setup? I imagine they are external.
A: Yes Datacenter level. We are launching our architecture around:
http://drycoolers.com/sites/default/files/avr-brochure-v2_0.pdfAs other have stated functional waste heat usage was one of our main goals, next to an easily upgradable design.
With an open loop design some may not have radiators at all, instead choosing to redirect a river for free cooling.
Our architecture also opens up the rest of the world to Bitcoin mining. We can easily handle over 40C ambient air temperatures.
Q: RJ45!!!!!!!!! HOW MANY?
A: Each Module needs 1 RJ45 connection to the management card. Each management card will handle 24 hashing modules. The 2nd port was for development reasons.
2 management cards will reside in a 1U chassis supporting a total 12 full miners.
Cat5 cabling is low cost and having a separate management card make for ease of upgrading modules.
Q: Its likely those PCBs still need some airflow as well, although we can't be certain without more pics. Maybe the blocks cover the DC/DC area as well, maybe they just cover the chips.
A: Airflow is not needed for the hashing modules. The PSU will need air however and will pull some air over the hashing modules. Our heatsink makes contact with all heat producing components of the board.
Q: .51 watts per gh does not cut it. the next jump is over 10% .
A: We are not an ASIC design company. We can only control efficiency so much. We are using Spondoolies Rocker Box ASIC so our efficiency should be on par with theirs. We are pretty close on efficiency. We have a few more tweaks to make. It is also unknown if we happen to have an earlier batch of ASICs that may not perform as well. Even different SP20’s will have different efficiency numbers.
Final Note:
Our marketing and technical documentation is being finished soon.
Our goals with this architecture were as follows:
Replaceable hashing Modules. Upgrade modules (not including ASIC cost as we can not control that) could potentially cost ½ the total price of a new miner.
Easy, rapid, end user replaceable hash modules.
Rack dense.
Useable waste heat.
Interface with standard industrial plumbing.
Provide all the benefits of immersion cooling without the cost.
We believe we have accomplished these goals with this system.
Hope to see you tomorrow at the Texas Bitcoin Conference.
-Nathan
