Goldstrike 1: CoinTerra's First-Generation Cryptocurrency Mining Processor for Bitcoin

Abstract

There is an intense technological race underway to build the highest-performance and lowest-power custom Bitcoin mining appliances using custom ASIC processors. This article describes the architecture and implementation details of CoinTerra's first-generation Bitcoin mining processor, Goldstrike 1, and how this processor is used to design a complete Bitcoin mining machine called Terraminer IV. Because of high power density in the Bitcoin mining processor, delivering power and cooling the die posed enormous challenges. This article describes some of the solutions adopted to overcome these challenges.