Original title: “Test and Evaluation of Filecoin Mining Hardware”
Author: Zhao Bao
The complicated Filecoin mining program coupled with a severe penalty mechanism means that the current threshold for becoming a Filecoin miner is still not small. Previously, we conducted a more comprehensive science on the entire Filecoin mining process, but if you want to become a real Filecoin miner, you need to conduct in-depth and thorough research in various subdivisions. This time we will talk about hardware.
More, fast, better, and economical testing direction
First of all, the purpose of hardware testing is to pursue the ultimate input-output ratio, just like Jingdong’s slogan “more, faster, better, and less.”
Multi: The special certification system of Filecoin network puts forward high requirements on whether the hardware can run software algorithms efficiently. Whether Filecoin miners can properly adapt the software and hardware to maximize their efficacy will directly affect the mining rewards;
Fast: Filecoin miners quickly complete sector packaging is a necessary process for computing power growth. The packaging speed depends on the algorithm, and the optimization of the algorithm is the improvement of the hardware utilization;
Good: Filecoin’s mining equipment needs to be in high-speed operation 7*24 hours. If the quality of the mining equipment is not up to standard, damage occurs and data is lost during operation, it will face high pledge penalties.
Province: High performance and good quality are not the best choice for Filecoin mining equipment. Efficient matching at the hardware level can not only save costs, but also ensure mining revenue.
Evaluation criteria for quality, performance and scalability
If the IDC computer room is compared to a mining farm, the hardware equipment of the software program running carrier is the “shovel” in the hands of the miners. As the saying goes, “Knife sharpening does not cut wood by mistake”, Filecoin hardware equipment testing and evaluation is very important, and we summarize it into three aspects: quality, performance and scalability.
quality
The hardware equipment quality inspection method is the same as the traditional hardware factory inspection method, through various index tests to verify whether the hardware quality meets the requirements. However, based on the strict penalty mechanism of Filecoin mining, it is necessary to carry out more stringent stress tests on the equipment to ensure the long-term stable operation of the equipment.
performance
The hardware performance test focuses on the fit with the software algorithm system. Just like forcing the Windows system into a MAC notebook, various incompatibility problems will occur. If good-quality hardware equipment cannot match the mining software, the production capacity will be low.
Take CPU as an example. Filecoin miners used Intel’s CPU in the early testing phase, and later replaced most of them with AMD. The main reason behind this is the SHA256 algorithm. SHA256 is the most used algorithm in Filecoin, and Intel chip does not support it. Early miners have tested and found that AMD, which supports SHA256, runs much faster than Intel. Therefore, while optimizing the algorithm, Filecoin miners must also comprehensively determine the operating efficiency of the hardware.
In addition, in the process of Filecoin mining, the use of different equipment at different stages also plays an important role in improving the overall mining efficiency. For example, in the sector packaging P2 stage, the use of GPU will be more efficient.
Scalability
Scalability is not only a comprehensive consideration based on the reasonable matching of hardware devices and software algorithms, but also hardware devices will be upgraded and updated based on new requirements in the future. The current development of the IT industry still follows Moore’s Law, and the rapid iteration of hardware equipment requires miners to think carefully about scalability and reduce the cost of hardware replacement.
