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Topic: Antminer S2 Speculation thread (Read 6685 times)

hero member
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TaaS is a closed-end fund designated to blockchain
March 14, 2014, 11:23:02 AM
#59
Speculation ends, Production Starts, Preorder available https://112bit.com

Juan
hero member
Activity: 857
Merit: 1000
Anger is a gift.
March 14, 2014, 10:12:02 AM
#58
Official announcement from Bitmain:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/antminer-s2-discussion-and-support-thread-515448

How close was this to your guesses?
Spot on, we had pics of the prototype unnamed on our facebook page since the Texas Bitcoin Conference =), well with Bitmain stuff in the background.

That thing is huge!!!
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
March 14, 2014, 10:11:25 AM
#57
Official announcement from Bitmain:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/antminer-s2-discussion-and-support-thread-515448

How close was this to your guesses?
Spot on, we had pics of the prototype unnamed on our facebook page since the Texas Bitcoin Conference =), well with Bitmain stuff in the background.
sr. member
Activity: 388
Merit: 250
March 14, 2014, 10:00:59 AM
#56
Official announcement from Bitmain:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/antminer-s2-discussion-and-support-thread-515448

How close was this to your guesses?
legendary
Activity: 2128
Merit: 1005
ASIC Wannabe
March 14, 2014, 09:38:37 AM
#55
Comparing the gains from U1 to U2 should be reasonable. Considering that according to there website, the only difference is a extra 400 mh/s from U1 to U2 (or 20% increase) with no change to power consumption, and slightly bigger footprint, proabbly to accommodate the different heatsink, I think a reasonable speculation/assumption would be the S2 having the same power consumption (360w Im hearing from forums) and having 20% increase in hash ( or 216 gh/s) with out OC. This may be flawed, but Bitmain is selling the U1 for 18 BTC while u2 is 13.9 BTC per 500 units. This may be the preorder, but if that scales as well, we could expect a 33% discount in price or .77BTC. Just my thoughts.

the u2 is the same design as U1 i think, except that its now hard-coded to run at 2.0GH rather then needing the bmsc-options variable in cgminer
member
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March 13, 2014, 06:34:30 PM
#54
Comparing the gains from U1 to U2 should be reasonable. Considering that according to there website, the only difference is a extra 400 mh/s from U1 to U2 (or 20% increase) with no change to power consumption, and slightly bigger footprint, proabbly to accommodate the different heatsink, I think a reasonable speculation/assumption would be the S2 having the same power consumption (360w Im hearing from forums) and having 20% increase in hash ( or 216 gh/s) with out OC. This may be flawed, but Bitmain is selling the U1 for 18 BTC while u2 is 13.9 BTC per 500 units. This may be the preorder, but if that scales as well, we could expect a 33% discount in price or .77BTC. Just my thoughts.
yxt
legendary
Activity: 3528
Merit: 1116
March 13, 2014, 05:40:13 PM
#53
same chip, modular 19" design
newbie
Activity: 47
Merit: 0
March 13, 2014, 04:32:54 PM
#52
I was checking on any S1 Firmware updates and noticed this little tidbit in README.md regarding future software updates,

https://github.com/AntMiner/AntGen1/tree/master/PCB

"Future: We are designing a type of new control board based on ARM A8. When it is ready, the chain number can be up to 16, and the chip number can be up to 256 per chain."
legendary
Activity: 2128
Merit: 1005
ASIC Wannabe
March 12, 2014, 01:59:10 PM
#51
^if re-designing the board like that, a water block would be particularly good. putting 500GH+ on a single block with a radiator would make cooling a lot easier and reduce the noise and costs of air cooling.
legendary
Activity: 1512
Merit: 1000
March 12, 2014, 11:51:32 AM
#50
Seems to me regardless of what process node they use they will need to use a chip with improved power consumption in the S2.  In the original U1 the chip was always under clocked.  The U2+ just took the same chip added a bigger heat sink and changed the default clock rate.  Since the S1 was already operating at close to the maximum clock rate they will almost certainly have to use an improved chip in the S2.
Why?  Just do the reverse of what they did going from U1 -> U2 and increase the chip count.

Because Bitmain still needs to turn a profit and adding more chips would increase their production costs.
My understanding is that bare chip costs are quite marginal.

chip costs are minimal but the initial R&D can be several million dollars

That's the point.  We're operating on the assumption that S2 still utilizes their 55nm chips, so decreasing Vcc/Clk and increasing the chip count could provide a more efficient miner at greater speeds (overall) with marginal increases in production cost(s).
legendary
Activity: 2128
Merit: 1005
ASIC Wannabe
March 12, 2014, 11:44:51 AM
#49
I can envision having an antminer where a pair of big waterblocks measuring about 10"x10"x2" (about the size of two of the current heatsinks stacked vertically) could have 4 blades bolted to each it and would only require about the same amount of space as 2 antminers

      {[]} {[]}
      {[]} {[]}       {,} represent hashing boards    [] represents waterblock
        |\   /|
      [radiator]

     <-~12"->

Bitmain could probably achieve this via chinese manufactures pretty cheaply, maybe at a 5% premium considering the overall metal mass would be similar to 8 heatsinks and the rad could run with 2 fans instead of 4 fans (save $5-10 per fan).

The only issue is that the board design or orientation may need slight tweaking in order to accomodate the back-side chips near the requlator as well as allowing connections for power and ethernet still. (In theory, a single control board could probably be used, further reducing costs - but might require a slightly faster processor)
legendary
Activity: 2128
Merit: 1005
ASIC Wannabe
March 12, 2014, 11:10:25 AM
#48
Seems to me regardless of what process node they use they will need to use a chip with improved power consumption in the S2.  In the original U1 the chip was always under clocked.  The U2+ just took the same chip added a bigger heat sink and changed the default clock rate.  Since the S1 was already operating at close to the maximum clock rate they will almost certainly have to use an improved chip in the S2.
Why?  Just do the reverse of what they did going from U1 -> U2 and increase the chip count.

Because Bitmain still needs to turn a profit and adding more chips would increase their production costs.
My understanding is that bare chip costs are quite marginal.

chip costs are minimal but the initial R&D can be several million dollars
legendary
Activity: 1512
Merit: 1000
March 12, 2014, 10:47:01 AM
#47
Seems to me regardless of what process node they use they will need to use a chip with improved power consumption in the S2.  In the original U1 the chip was always under clocked.  The U2+ just took the same chip added a bigger heat sink and changed the default clock rate.  Since the S1 was already operating at close to the maximum clock rate they will almost certainly have to use an improved chip in the S2.
Why?  Just do the reverse of what they did going from U1 -> U2 and increase the chip count.

Because Bitmain still needs to turn a profit and adding more chips would increase their production costs.
My understanding is that bare chip costs are quite marginal.
newbie
Activity: 11
Merit: 0
March 12, 2014, 04:43:51 AM
#46
Seems to me regardless of what process node they use they will need to use a chip with improved power consumption in the S2.  In the original U1 the chip was always under clocked.  The U2+ just took the same chip added a bigger heat sink and changed the default clock rate.  Since the S1 was already operating at close to the maximum clock rate they will almost certainly have to use an improved chip in the S2.
Why?  Just do the reverse of what they did going from U1 -> U2 and increase the chip count.

Because Bitmain still needs to turn a profit and adding more chips would increase their production costs.
hero member
Activity: 826
Merit: 1000
°^°
March 11, 2014, 07:31:03 PM
#45
no, no rebranded chinese 1T please!

i never seen a bigger waste of space
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
March 11, 2014, 04:02:17 PM
#44
I hope it wont draw 2k. If not and if it's priced well I will probably buy at least one, hopefully more. If priced at BTC3,5 probably a small farm  Cheesy
newbie
Activity: 27
Merit: 0
March 11, 2014, 02:54:21 PM
#43
When the Bitmain -- Antminer 1Th and 2 Th are avaible we should do a group buyCheesy
legendary
Activity: 1512
Merit: 1000
March 11, 2014, 01:47:44 PM
#42
Seems to me regardless of what process node they use they will need to use a chip with improved power consumption in the S2.  In the original U1 the chip was always under clocked.  The U2+ just took the same chip added a bigger heat sink and changed the default clock rate.  Since the S1 was already operating at close to the maximum clock rate they will almost certainly have to use an improved chip in the S2.

Why?  Just do the reverse of what they did going from U1 -> U2 and increase the chip count.

hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
March 11, 2014, 01:28:10 PM
#41
The Bitfury2 is the most efficient 55nm Bitcoin chip on the planet. http://www.bitfurystrikesback.com/product/bitfury-55nm-rev2-samples/

Technobit just showed 16x of them running today at 61GH (3.8GH per chip).
No official wattage yet but the old ones were about 1.5W/GH and I'm estimating power at 1.24W/GH.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.5640531

If you built an Antminer out of these things it would be around 243GH/301W Cool I'd buy that, it's as good as my 28nm A1 modules!

Next questions how cheap could you make it?

€5 a chip = $7 so it's $448 in 64x chip cost. Double that for other costs/profit and it could be under $900. Again in the 28nm A1 ballpark.

So it is do-able with 55nm.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
March 11, 2014, 01:08:17 PM
#40
Ah, was just going off what I had been told directly by BITMAIN in regards to their product release (and closing) timeline for products. In particular:

"Our company's new product is ANTMINER  S2 , 1000GH/S in april"
"S1 will  stop sell  in may"
"S1 and S2  is  55nm tech .  we will use  28nm in june"

and so on..


top !
newbie
Activity: 11
Merit: 0
March 11, 2014, 10:45:09 AM
#39
Seems to me regardless of what process node they use they will need to use a chip with improved power consumption in the S2.  In the original U1 the chip was always under clocked.  The U2+ just took the same chip added a bigger heat sink and changed the default clock rate.  Since the S1 was already operating at close to the maximum clock rate they will almost certainly have to use an improved chip in the S2.
member
Activity: 98
Merit: 10
March 11, 2014, 08:46:34 AM
#38
So everyone guessing here with the release of S2... If it is 1TH, that number sounds great however if it going to use 55nm, then as mentioned before power consumption will be roughly 2kW... technically they will be putting a machine with 178 chips on the board for S2 (5.55 S1's).

28nm sounds much better as the difficulty is getting hard and harder, lowering the electricity bill will be appreciated.

legendary
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March 10, 2014, 12:15:18 PM
#37
Bitmain may be bluffing us  Grin But I am sure S2 is 1Th/s and also improved cooling system and power I have been told Smiley and yeah start in April.

S3 must be 28nm what they were talking to me about.

All will be reviled soon Smiley

Can we expect like 2 kW of power consumption (cuz they are using same s1 55nm chips, correct)?

member
Activity: 98
Merit: 10
March 10, 2014, 11:29:45 AM
#36
Ah, was just going off what I had been told directly by BITMAIN in regards to their product release (and closing) timeline for products. In particular:

"Our company's new product is ANTMINER  S2 , 1000GH/S in april"
"S1 will  stop sell  in may"
"S1 and S2  is  55nm tech .  we will use  28nm in june"

and so on..

Bitmain may be bluffing us  Grin But I am sure S2 is 1Th/s and also improved cooling system and power I have been told Smiley and yeah start in April.

S3 must be 28nm what they were talking to me about.

All will be reviled soon Smiley
member
Activity: 106
Merit: 10
March 10, 2014, 11:26:02 AM
#35
Ah, was just going off what I had been told directly by BITMAIN in regards to their product release (and closing) timeline for products. In particular:

"Our company's new product is ANTMINER  S2 , 1000GH/S in april"
"S1 will  stop sell  in may"
"S1 and S2  is  55nm tech .  we will use  28nm in june"

and so on..
member
Activity: 98
Merit: 10
March 10, 2014, 11:22:29 AM
#34
The S2 will be 1000 GH/s, will use 55nm tech, and will be released in April.

In June, they will start implementing 28nm tech in their next products.


Hmmmm parts are right but from what I am been speaking to Bitmain they are  not using 55nm in next batch... 28nm I have been told
member
Activity: 106
Merit: 10
March 10, 2014, 11:15:32 AM
#33
The S2 will be 1000 GH/s, will use 55nm tech, and will be released in April.

In June, they will start implementing 28nm tech in their next products.
legendary
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March 10, 2014, 11:03:12 AM
#32

My Company is in talks with Bitmain about S2  Grin So far is sounding very good  Grin

Give it some time Bitmain will release the goon news and sexy design  Tongue

wowowowow
member
Activity: 98
Merit: 10
March 10, 2014, 10:54:30 AM
#31

My Company is in talks with Bitmain about S2  Grin So far is sounding very good  Grin

Give it some time Bitmain will release the good news and sexy design  Tongue
legendary
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legendary
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March 10, 2014, 05:08:51 AM
#29
Speaking to a supplier in China who buys from Bitmain local production facility said it's top secret project but has been hinted that there will be 2 models released 1Th/s and a 2Th/s model.

As always this is speculation but I can imagine this will be the case due to keep up with difficulty and other competitors.

If going by the other results of the U2 Bitmain will release details  a week today and following sales that week for dispatch on the 31st to go in line with the U2



Will be great if they'll be able to keep the power consumption below 1w/ghash
member
Activity: 98
Merit: 10
March 10, 2014, 05:02:22 AM
#28
Speaking to a supplier in China who buys from Bitmain local production facility said it's top secret project but has been hinted that there will be 2 models released 1Th/s and a 2Th/s model.

As always this is speculation but I can imagine this will be the case due to keep up with difficulty and other competitors.

If going by the other results of the U2 Bitmain will release details  a week today and following sales that week for dispatch on the 31st to go in line with the U2

hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1000
March 10, 2014, 03:54:11 AM
#27
 Grin Grin

full member
Activity: 144
Merit: 100
March 10, 2014, 02:22:22 AM
#26
for S2
0.5W/Ghs
750 Ghs
price about 3.5btc/pcs
full member
Activity: 181
Merit: 100
March 09, 2014, 06:16:24 PM
#25
My guess is that sushi will come to your house and configure the S2 so it will actually produce physical bitcoins  Shocked BITMAIN has the POWER

+1
sr. member
Activity: 362
Merit: 250
March 09, 2014, 05:32:41 PM
#24
The S2 will be better than the S1 and I already want one. That's my speculation.
sr. member
Activity: 256
Merit: 250
Because it's sterile...
March 09, 2014, 05:22:41 PM
#23
My guess is that sushi will come to your house and configure the S2 so it will actually produce physical bitcoins  Shocked BITMAIN has the POWER
hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
March 09, 2014, 03:20:59 PM
#22
The difference between the S1 and S2 could be similar to the difference between the U1 and U2.  Same chip but with hardware and software based optimizations to improve performance.

Yeah thats what Im willin to bet on. Same chip, optimized hardware around them and perhaps more chips.... =)

Would be nice if VRM's were beefier and voltage control could be done easily =)
i dont care for  performance i have 3 x 25 A x 240 V free include in rent price.
i want antminer S1/s2 who care 180 gh for 100-300$ pcs Grin
legendary
Activity: 2450
Merit: 1002
March 05, 2014, 01:50:21 AM
#21
The difference between the S1 and S2 could be similar to the difference between the U1 and U2.  Same chip but with hardware and software based optimizations to improve performance.

Yeah thats what Im willin to bet on. Same chip, optimized hardware around them and perhaps more chips.... =)

Would be nice if VRM's were beefier and voltage control could be done easily =)
SVK
sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
sr. member
Activity: 388
Merit: 250
March 04, 2014, 10:03:56 PM
#19
Same chip... But there's 64 of them in a S1 and only 1 in an U1.

Anyone know how much power is lost to components besides the chip?
newbie
Activity: 47
Merit: 0
March 04, 2014, 05:33:51 PM
#18
The difference between the S1 and S2 could be similar to the difference between the U1 and U2.  Same chip but with hardware and software based optimizations to improve performance.
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1067
Christian Antkow
March 04, 2014, 04:01:58 PM
#17
I wish I could buy a 1TH Dragon for $3255 plus shipping right now! I would buy several at that price.

 Ditto.
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 500
einc.io
March 04, 2014, 03:04:55 PM
#16
Anyone who has closely look at their Antminers and did a raw calculation on the production costs plus shipping costs and salaries will come to a conclusion that it will be very tight to sell it under 0.2 BTC at curent BTC price.

holy f**k sounds crazily low at me, 120/150 USD are enough to produce an ant?

Look at Asicminer when they announced they will stop production of their first and second generation blades because it won't be profitable to produce them anymore.
You will be surprised how much profit there was for Asicminer.
Friedcat is really smart in doing business.
hero member
Activity: 742
Merit: 500
March 04, 2014, 02:53:33 PM
#15
I want the Antminer S2 to be a re-branded one of these Bitmine A1 based Dragon Miners!
http://www.lketc.com/goods/show-197.aspx
1TH / 880W = 19999 Yuan = $3255 USD! Shocked

Damn, I wish I could buy a 1TH Dragon for $3255 plus shipping right now! I would buy several at that price.
hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
March 04, 2014, 02:50:40 PM
#14
I want the Antminer S2 to be a re-branded one of these Bitmine A1 based Dragon Miners!
http://www.lketc.com/goods/show-197.aspx
1TH / 880W = 19999 Yuan = $3255 USD! Shocked
I see a lot of people selling clones but they ask too much. Bitmain do us a good deal.
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1067
Christian Antkow
March 04, 2014, 02:45:07 PM
#13
Stands to reason it could be a 360GHs unit ?

Either way, will probably be buying several. I <3 Bitmain !
sr. member
Activity: 388
Merit: 250
March 04, 2014, 02:39:40 PM
#12
Let's take an educated guess based on the 500 GH, 1.2 W/GH figure, and assume that they don't have new chips. Please keep in mind that I'm not even close to an engineer.

Seems like it would be doable in roughly double the footprint of S1's, if they stuff a ton of chips in and under clock them. I can't think of any other way that they'd be able to fit more chips in the same space without limiting the wattage. The math is confusing me, but I really feel like they're going to use existing S1 boards and just putting more of them into a unit. I could easily see a 5-6 board machine with the chips tuned for efficiency. Detune an S1 to 180 and fit 3 of them together with 1 control board.

Would make sense, right?
legendary
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March 04, 2014, 02:26:33 PM
#11
Anyone who has closely look at their Antminers and did a raw calculation on the production costs plus shipping costs and salaries will come to a conclusion that it will be very tight to sell it under 0.2 BTC at curent BTC price.

holy f**k sounds crazily low at me, 120/150 USD are enough to produce an ant?
legendary
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March 04, 2014, 02:23:38 PM
#10
1.2W/GH
500GH/S
2.4BTC


would be great, but at least for me we need to wait another month
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 500
einc.io
March 04, 2014, 02:22:53 PM
#9
Is 55nm inferior to 28nm process node in the mining competition?

As a miner myself, I won't take the 28nm vs 55nm too seriously. I would only care the price, power efficiency, space density of hashing rate( to save rooms and spaces). Different designers generate different results from the same process node, as Bitfury v.s. Av**n, which is well known about. Bitfury's 55nm chip is even better effective in power consumption than some 28nm chip.

Chip level hashing power density has yet improved nothing in over all hashing power space density to save space. Our 55nm miner will save more space for miners, compared with some 28nm mining rig (We actually have bought one from the second hand market).

We are not saying our 55nm node will win forever, but we are not staying at 55nm forever at the same time.

Anyone who has closely look at their Antminers and did a raw calculation on the production costs plus shipping costs and salaries will come to a conclusion that it will be very tight to sell it under 0.2 BTC at curent BTC price.
They are not using Foxconn to assembling their stuff.
This is not mass production, the miners world is still small compared with normal electronics.
I think they already have their next gen ready or before their Antminers S1 reach the point of 0.5 BTC plus free shipping.

Anyone who has more knowledge and are willing to tear down the S1 for exact production costs is welcome to share his/her opinion.
I only did a quick raw calculation
legendary
Activity: 3234
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March 04, 2014, 02:07:35 PM
#8
1.2W/GH
500GH/S
2.4BTC
sr. member
Activity: 252
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March 04, 2014, 12:57:10 PM
#7
I am hoping it is a newer chip design. alternatively, maybe more chips on an undervolted PCB to get a slightly higher efficiency?

There are too many other vendors starting to crowd into the 900W/1TH range, if it is not a new chip offering better hash to watts then they will not be selling many.
legendary
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ASIC Wannabe
March 04, 2014, 10:51:46 AM
#6
I am hoping it is a newer chip design. alternatively, maybe more chips on an undervolted PCB to get a slightly higher efficiency?
full member
Activity: 178
Merit: 100
March 04, 2014, 10:23:30 AM
#5
Gmaxwell may know S2 specifications now but he will not disclose for us. Anyway, I'am eager for S2 from Bitmain and bored with pre-orders from other ASIC companies.
sr. member
Activity: 388
Merit: 250
March 04, 2014, 09:12:04 AM
#4
I'll speculate.

They've made a new control board and it's going to be 3-5 "slices" in a new unit. I think this is likely.

It's also possible that they've made boards that utilize more than 32 chips; maybe the same 2x "slice" units, but with 40 chips instead of 32. I don't know how likely this is, but it would only make sense if there would be a net decrease in watts consumed.

The basis of my speculation is that they do not have a new chip. It is my understanding that the chips they use in their existing hardware is of their own design. I don't see any indication that they are in the wave of A1 clones that are making their way to users.

Secondary to this is that there is a loss of wattage to components other than chips, and that they have found a way to make the current design more efficient. I've seen a lot of concern that some hardware out there draws more power than the average consumer has per circuit in their residence. Their existing hardware is not as efficient, and is roughly 1.9w/GH. Other manufactures have released hardware that is near 1w/GH, but this is with next generation ASIC technology.

Have they found a way to make their current hardware more efficient, or do they have new technology?

We should start a poll.
legendary
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March 04, 2014, 08:39:49 AM
#3
If the S2 is under 1W/GH, is available for immediate delivery (no pre-orders), and is priced as competitively as the S1 I'll be a happy repeat customer.

Yeah, me too
Personally i don't expect 1w/gh in a very near future from bitmain

hero member
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March 04, 2014, 08:25:07 AM
#2
If the S2 is under 1W/GH, is available for immediate delivery (no pre-orders), and is priced as competitively as the S1 I'll be a happy repeat customer.
legendary
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March 04, 2014, 08:05:58 AM
#1
Will these coupons be able to be used for any new products that come out such as the S2?

When S2 comes, we will be issuing coupons again  Smiley Smiley

With this quote BITMAIN has silently announced the new antminer s2, what do you expect from the bitmain second generation?
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