or up the hashing power. Since you're using usb3, you should be able to squeeze more than 4 GH out of 2 chips...even try moving to a 3 chip solution.
Hi kaerf,
It's possible to up the hashing rate of the chip, but there are critical power usage and thermal concerns above certain levels. We wanted to start off with conservative numbers and design, rather than over promise. Further, we have not finished testing the chip at these higher hash rates (beyond 2.4GH/s). For more details on the tests we have performed so far and the efficiency ratings, you can read this blog post here:
https://bitcentury.io/blog/initial-testing-of-bitfury-asic (scroll to the very bottom of the post)
You can see that at 2.4GH/s the bare chip (no heat sink in these tests) is already at 76 degrees celcius and consuming 1.7W of power, which also translates to a W/GH efficiency that is ~45% worse than the 2.082 GH/s per chip we're currently achieving. So, while we can cool the chips down by various methods, we can't really do a whole lot about the significant power consumption increases. With USB3 having a wall of 4.5W's, even just at 2.4GH/s (nevermind 3 or 3.5 or the max theoretical 5), the power consumption of 3x chips would already exceed the 4.5W limit (3chips x 1.78W=5.34W).
As per our latest video, you can see that at 2GH/s, Nigel was able to touch the chip for many seconds in a row. In fact we had some earlier takes of similar video with him touching the chip even longer, without burning his fingers - but this was with a heat sink as shown in the video. Once we go above 2GH/s temperature rises quickly and we were also contemplating in the background safety issues around much higher hash rates considering that this USB product is pretty much targeted at people new to bitcoin, or those who are not wanting to do hardware assembly etc; as such, safety is an important consideration. Cooling fins and other methods probably will help that, we are currently looking into that, but wanted to get a product announcement out the door ASAP.
Cheers,
Luis