Bitmain remains one of the market leaders in the Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer space. The company has unveiled their Antminer S9; a device Bitcoin enthusiasts have been looking forward to for quite some time now.
The Antminer S9 Is Here
Bitcoin miners have been waiting for news from Bitmain for quite some time now. Ever since the Antminer S7 was released, it appeared as if no new model was coming anytime soon. But lo and behold, the company has finally unveiled their S9 model, which is the world’s first Bitcoin miner using 16nm chips.
Under the hood, the Antminer S9 will produce 14 TH/s of mining power per unit, using 16nm ASIC chips. In fact, there are 189 chips packed into every miner. The power consumption sits around 1.38 kW, although there is a 7% variation to take into account. However, this makes the miner very power efficient, as just 0.1 Joule per GigaHash.
Bitmain also wants to address the rate at which miners discarded their hardware due to no longer being profitable. In most cases, ASIC hardware has an average lifespan of just three months. Keeping in mind how much money people put into these machines, something has to be done to increase the shelf life of Bitcoin mining hardware.
But there is more, as the Antminer S9 is backward compatible with power supplies used in older models, which is a welcome change. Moreover, the machines keep their air-cooled system, which is easy to maintain by both experienced and novice users. Last but not least, there are no hidden upkeep costs, other than electricity to be paid by the consumers themselves.
There will only be a limited quantity available for every batch of Antminer S9 miners, and interested parties are advised to place their order as soon as possible. Speaking of the ordering process, Bitmain will limit the number of devices one user can order in total. This should help distribute these devices in a decentralized fashion over time.
The company expects to sell their first batch of Antminer S9 devices very quickly. If the trend of previous hardware generations keeps up, it may take 15 minutes or less to sell out an entire batch of Antminers. With such a power-efficient device hitting the market right in time before the upcoming Bitcoin halving, it is expected there will be a lot of interest. Keep an eye on the Bitmain website for further information.
Source: Press Release Via Email
Header Image via NewsBTC
