SFARDS announced they have taped out their 28nm ASIC that will allow miners to mine both SHA-256/Bitcoin and Scrypt coins like Litecoin. The power to gigahash ratio is aggressive according to their press release. They are also shooting for an April release of they miners to both large operations and small miners.

SFARDS is a Chinese cryptocurrency mining company, created from the merger between Gridseed and WiiBox. The Gridseed line of miners was very popular starting with the Gridseed 5 chip Orbs then the larger 5.2 mh/s Blades. They even jumped up to larger sizes like the Gridseed Black a 23 mh/s unit that drew roughly 450 watts before fading out on the mining scene.

The news that they had been reborn as SFARDS when they merged with WiiBox was met with at first skepticism and then anticipation in some sectors. There have been so many scams like KnC and Butterfly Labs that the low profile launch of their miners seems to have found the sweet spot. They also boast a solid backing and clear goals for their steps into the industry.

We are funded by the angel investor Li Xiao Lai. In addition to this, we have financial backing from the tier-­‐one international VC firm Matrix Partners. SFARDS’ primary focus and experience lies in ASIC Research, Miner Development, Data Center Management, and Cloud Services.

Aggressive Chip Specifications

The SF3301 will be the next generation of dual‐algorithm mining chips, the world’s first 28nm with the capability to mine SHA‐256 and Scrypt Simultaneously. The advantages of this ability translate to an extended period of effectiveness for the miner and increased profitability. By using FDSOI technology not currently present in any other chip on the market, power efficiency when mining with SHA‐256 is predicted to reach below the 0.3 J/GH range, and 2.0 J/MH when mining with Scrypt.

If the boards they go on are optimized well and the chips perform to spec they should be a great addition to the Bitcoin and Scrypt ASIC industry. The density of gh/s and mh/s we should see in one package is going to be interesting. The global hash rate for both Bitcoin and many Scrypt coins like Litecoin is higher than it was when Gridseed first came on the market. For the miners to be competitive the density will have to be much higher than before. The new company that is SFARDS will debut their new miners in the coming couple months if all goes to plan. WiiBox being part of the company also allows for them to make even more optimizations at the controller level.

Jack Niederer, International Project Development Manager at SFARDS had this to say on the tape out process:

We are pleased to announce the completion of the tapeout of our new dual-algorithm ASIC and look forward to the announcement of our debut product soon. We feel that dual-algorithm technology at this level will be a refreshing step towards a longer shelf-life for hardware and increased adaptability to price fluctuations.

Things have been slow lately in the ASIC part of the Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency industry as many companies are between generations or have just announced their new chips like BitFury. The opportunity is there for SFARDS to make an impact on the transaction processing industry. We will keep you up to date as we get more information and hands-on with SFARDS new ASICs.

What do you think about SFARDS’ move into the Bitcoin and Scrypt coin mining industry?