Bitcoin Mining Company BitFury to Acquire Allied Control For Immersion Cooling
BitFury to Acquire Allied Control For Immersion Cooling To Deploy New BitFury ASIC Chips at Unprecedented Power Densities
Valery Vavilov, BitFury CEO, recently told me in a one on one interview at TNABC (The North American Bitcoin Conference) in Miami that he believes in the technology of the blockchain. He sees the infrastructure that has been built up around it as amazing with endless opportunities. He told CCN.com that BitFury is making some moves to be able to make transaction processing (mining) more efficient and widespread beyond just making faster chips.
In a move that goes along with that goal, BitFury is acquiring Allied Control; a top immersion cooling company based in Hong Kong. This move will allow BitFury to expand everywhere, not just in cold climates, and be able to take advantage of the low power costs and existing infrastructure in many more areas of the world. The sheer density they will be able to pack their chips into using immersion cooling tech and refining it even further to meet their needs will be massive.
Valery Vavilov – BitFury CEO:
We are very excited about Allied Control and its founders joining our team. This acquisition will enable us to substantially increase energy efficiency of our data centers and speed up deployment of our new ASIC chip allowing us to lower overall capital expenditure. In addition, it provides an opportunity for us to enter new markets such as HPC, using the experience of the Allied Control team. The use of immersion cooling will provide BitFury with flexibility when choosing locations for our data centers.
Allied Control uses 2 phase immersion cooling. They also use 3M™ Technology Partner for Novec™ Engineered fluids. Here is some relevant information on how it works.
Two-phase immersion thermal management is a viable technology for meeting the power density and energy efficiency needs of the high-performance computing market. Power densities up to 100 times higher than a typical air-cooled server have been cooled this way with efficiency superior to direct water cooling.
In a two-phase immersion cooled system, electronic components are submerged in a bath of dielectric heat transfer liquids, which are much better heat conductors than air, water or oil. With their various low boiling points ( 49°C vs. 100°C in water), the fluids boil on the surface of heat-generating components, and rising vapor passively takes care of heat transfer. In contrast to submersion oil cooling, liquids are clean, environmentally friendly, and non-flammable. No heat sinks, pumps, and jets are required to keep hardware cool. Circulation happens passively by the natural process of evaporation and without spending any extra energy. It is this simplicity that eliminates conventional cooling hardware and results in better cooling efficiency. Compared to traditional air, water, or oil cooling, this passive process results in the use of much less energy. Two-phase immersion cooling is 4000 times more efficient at removing heat from chips than the air.
BitFury Next Gen ASICs
So for BitFury to be able to acquire this technology, the manufacturer will allow them to take current and next-gen transaction processing ASICs and drive them to more efficient speeds. Valery hinted the next-generation chip was close but would not say how close or divulge theoretical specs yet but will let me know as soon as he is ready. Valery and BitFury have a careful approach to Bitcoin, and he sees himself and his company as part of the stewardship of Bitcoin and the technology that underlies it. This news is an exciting development.
Kar-Wing Lau, VP of Operations at Allied Control commented:
We are very glad to partner with BitFury and to help them further increase the efficiency of their operations. Both blockchain technology and two-phase immersion cooling are very disruptive in nature. Passive two-phase immersion cooling is especially promising for blockchain transaction processors as it addresses their need for flexibility and rapid deployment while allowing to take full advantage of higher hardware power density. BitFury, with its focus on efficiency, renewable energy, and innovation, is the perfect match for this technology.
Big things are coming from BitFury and with Allied Control another step has been made in the progress of expanding and making transaction processing more efficient in more locations. Valery and BitFury have more coming, and we will bring it to you.
Images from BitFury.
