Bitfury Group Unveils New Bitcoin Mining Hardware
Bitfury Group has unleashed a new generation of Bitcoin mining equipment, based on its new ASIC chip Bitfury Clarke. The new hardware builds on the company’s five generations of mining chips designed to offer solid performance characteristics.
The new ASIC chip is customized for bitcoin mining while executing at a hash rate of up to 120 gig hashes per second. It also comes with a power efficiency rate of as low as 55 millijoules. It can be operated with a supply voltage of as low as 0.3 volts.
“Bitfury is looking at all factors, including silicon packaging, chip efficiency, optimal power distribution, cooling designs and speed of development when designing our mining hardware. We think that this will lead to solutions that deliver the best ROI to our customers — regardless of ASIC size,” said CEO Valery Vavilov.
In addition to integrating the Bitfury Clarke ASIC chip in the new hardware, the company also plans to sell the chip independently. The chip is also to be incorporated into the company’s mining servers as well as black boxes. Plans are also underway to implement the new ASIC chip in the company’s mining centers in Canada, Norway, and Georgia.
The unveiling of the new mining hardware does not come at the best of times given that Bitcoin price has imploded from record highs. Bitcoin business is no longer as lucrative as it used to be as Bitcoin price continues to edge lower.
Initial reports indicate that demand for ASIC crypto mining hardware has taken a hit waiting to see whether Bitfury will be successful on sales with the new hardware. Price drops have had to come into play in recent months as hardware makers continue to explore ways of selling more products. Some of the most affected companies as a result of low demand include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, a renowned manufacturer of ASIC chips.
The price of specialized graphics processing units has also been on a downward trajectory ever since the price of Bitcoin imploded from record highs. For instance, AMD’s OEM 4GB RX 580 six-pack which went for $3,600 in April was retailing for $2,500 in July. Nvidia is also generating less money from GPUs as its 8GB GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card was retailing for $709 in July down from $1050 as of April.
The slump in prices raises serious concerns about Bitcoin mining hardware maker business given the uncertainty that has rocked the industry.