Re: Antminer S2 Speculation thread

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).