Compass Mining, a Bitcoin mining company, published a blog article entitled ‘Bitmain Has Changed Its ASIC Design. The blog post ‘Miners Need to be Ready’ highlights changes in Bitmain’s ASIC design.
Compass believes that bitcoin mining facility operators need to be aware of changes which could lead to problems. Compass identified three issues with the Antminer S19 (producing 90 terahash per seconds (TH/s) and the S19XP (offering 140 TH/s).
Compass Mining’s William Foxley explains that the new machines do not have a peripheral interface controller (PIC), which makes it more difficult to control individual hashboards than those with a PCI.
Foxley fears that the aluminum plating used in the devices may lead to heat problems. Foxley also believes that the devices have a tendency to ‘consolidate all components onto one board, increasing the chance of hashboard error’
Foxley explained that units without a PIC cannot underhash on “one or two boards” and that hashboards made from aluminum plates might fail more often in hot climates such as Texas than those made using printed circuit boards (PCBs).
Compass Mining also believes that chip replacement may be difficult for non-Bitmain repair shops. These issues were discovered by the operations team within six months and could’significantly impact a unit’s performance’.
Foxley concludes by pointing out in his blog post that third party firmware could fix the PIC problem and allow miners to run on just one or two boards.
Third-party firmware is also available to lower certain variables in order to keep the ASIC mining machine cooler. As another option, the post recommends selecting the most favorable environmental conditions. Compass Mining sees the aluminum plating as a net disadvantage.
Compass concludes its blog post by stating that the switch to aluminum-plating for hashboards is a net negative. It will increase ASIC failures and underhashing, and raise service costs.
“Paired with the difficulty of swapping out chips and the absence of a PIC, we encourage miners not to stop improving their repair skills as they add next-generation units to their fleets.