To start with, there have been solely CPUs, then GPUs, for bitcoin mining. Then got here the mighty ASIC in 2013, and with it, the “shoebox” kind issue that has develop into emblematic of the bitcoin mining business.
What comes subsequent? Will the shoebox design persist as customary for bitcoin mining ASICs? Or will one other kind issue that extra resembles conventional datacenter servers win out?
ASIC producers are more and more betting on the latter – or at the least, {that a} hydro-cooled server rack design will develop into a considerable portion of bitcoin mining fleets. Furthermore, they’re leaning into the “direct-to-chip” cooling for additional effectivity positive aspects.
Auradine’s new AH3880, launched March 2025.
Final September, Bitmain introduced its mannequin U3S21EXPH (a little bit of a mouthful, eh?) developed in a partnership with Hut 8. Its U3 design signifies that one unit takes up three areas in a conventional server rack. MicroBT quickly adopted with its M63 Hydro collection, as did Bitdeer’s Sealminer A2 Hydro unit.
Following swimsuit, Auradine launched its server rack mannequin, the AH3880, this March. Its U2 design, which occupies two server slots, is a bit smaller, nevertheless it packs extra hashrate per unit of area at 600 TH/s (or 300 TH/s per slot) versus Bitmain’s 860 TH/s (286.66 TH/s per slot).
Shoebox out
So, what’s with the change up from the normal shoe field? For Auradine, it’s all about buyer demand.
“[Our new model is] primarily based upon plenty of suggestions that we received from our miner prospects … we have been working with the miners even all through the design course of,” Auradine CSO Sanjay Gupta stated on the newest Mining Pod. “They indicated to us that they have been in search of a top quality hydro primarily based miner.”
In its partnership with Bitmain for the U3S21EXPH, “Hut 8 was instrumental within the customized design for the infrastructure, significantly the U kind issue which is suitable with HPC fashion structure,” Hut 8 Head of Investor Relations Sue Ennis advised Blockspacelast September. (Extra on the excessive efficiency computing angle later).
The advantage of a server rack ASIC lies in standardization. Bitcoin miners are more and more marching in line with the normal datacenter business, and that business may see 40% adoption of direct liquid-to-chip cooling by 2026, in accordance with information heart developer Cyrus One.
If miners undertake this design, then theoretically, they will optimize their provide chains by converging on server designs which are turning into greatest apply within the big-boy information heart sector.
This might make constructing and repairing bitcoin mines simpler. And it may additionally make mining corporations extra nimble in the event that they need to flex out of bitcoin mining and into different types of compute.
Enter AI and HPC
As with a lot mining information right this moment, after all the spectre of AI is looming within the background.
If miners assemble their information facilities with conventional server rack designs, there may be one much less ache level in the event that they need to retrofit these websites for AI and HPC hundreds. In fact, they’d nonetheless want to enhance the sinews, muscular tissues and veins of their operations with extra strong networking and electrical infrastructure, however server racks would offer a spine for AI/HPC providers that requires much less restructuring than legacy bitcoin mines. As Ennis put it, “the U kind issue … is suitable with HPC fashion structure.”
Echoing this, Gupta stated in our Mining Pod interview that “[The U form factor has] been used for the AI information heart. It’s straightforward to regulate. It’s received a excessive [power] density to it … [it] is extraordinarily related for AI information facilities as properly, and we’re taking a look at a joint technique between AI for HPC and Bitcoin mining. So the U kind issue works properly with that.”
Who’s shopping for it?
Maybe for sure, the server rack kind issue for bitcoin mining continues to be in its infancy, and whereas there may be promise that such a design may win out, there’s no assure.
To start out, bitcoin miners won’t solely want to remodel the innards of their mines but additionally fully rewire their electrical infrastructure (which is unlikely to occur at current mines).
Cholla’s Brad Cuddy, which operates hydro-cooled ASIC miners, advised Blockspace final September that “he’s excited to see the shift from the shoebox design to the [server rack] kind issue.” However he stated the U3S21EXPH’s voltage vary is incompatible with sure electrical infrastructure that miners use with different Bitmain fashions.
“The restricted vary of 380 to 415 volts reduces its compatibility for retrofitting. I’d have favored to see the voltage vary go all the way in which as much as 480 volts to permit for extra interoperability with present infrastructure deployments,” he stated.
As such, it’s seemingly that we’ll see miners combine these models at new websites. Hut 8 is taking this method with plans to host 15 EH/s of U3S21EXPH models for Bitmain (with an choice to buy) at its Vega, Texas website, which is because of begin working in Q2.
Up to now, Hut 8 is the one public purchaser of Bitmain’s U3S21EXPH. Gupta didn’t reveal which miners are below contract for its AH3880, however he did say they embrace a number of industrial scale personal and public miners. It wouldn’t be shocking to see MARA, one in every of Auradine’s key companions which has additionally invested upwards of $50 million within the firm, undertake the mannequin.
Ought to Hut 8’s Vega website run easily on Bitmain’s mannequin, and if we assume that MARA will deploy Auradine’s, public miners might lead the place others will comply with, and we may see a brand new kind issue slowly seep into trendy mine design.
