In the beginning, there were only CPUs, then GPUs, for bitcoin mining. Then came the mighty ASIC in 2013, and with it, the “shoebox” form factor that has become emblematic of the bitcoin mining industry.

But what comes next? Will the shoebox design persist as the epitomized design for bitcoin mining ASICs, or will another form factor that more resembles traditional datacenter servers win out?

ASIC manufacturers are increasingly betting on the latter – or at least, that a hydro-cooled server rack design will become a substantial portion of bitcoin mining fleets. Moreover, their leaning into the ‘direct to chip’ cooling for further efficiency gains.

Bitmain announced its model, the U3S21EXPH (a bit of a mouthful, eh?) that it developed in a partnership with Hut 8, in September of last year. Its U3 design means that one unit takes up three spaces in a traditional server rack. MicroBT soon followed with its M63 Hydro series, as did Bitdeer’s Sealminer A2 Hydro unit.

Following suit, Auradine released its server rack model, the AH3880, this week. Its U2 design, which occupies two server slots, is a bit smaller, but it packs more hashrate per unit of space at 600 TH/s (or 300 TH/s per slot) versus Bitmain’s 860 TH/s (286.66 TH/s per slot).

...read more at blockspace.media