Posts Tagged ‘Antminer S9 alternative OS’

New Braiins OS Cobalt Available Now for S9 and T1 ASIC Miners

6, Dec 2018

Braiins OS has just released a new update to their alternative opensource OS for Bitcoin ASIC miners available for Antminer S9 and DragonMint T1 with support for AsicBoost support enabled. The new Braiins OS Cobalt is here to replace the previous released called Wolfram bringing some improvements such as new status page, per chip frequency calibration for S9, improved bulk upgrades and full compatibility with the Awesome Miner management app.

The Cobalt update brings multiple ways of upgrading your ASIC miners from their stock firmware including a version that can now directly be flashed via the stock firmware’s update feature for a really easy deployment. Installing from a PC with Windows is now easier as with the previous release you had to use a Linux PC to deploy the Braiins OS software to your miners and that was not always an easy to do thing for many people. Here you can find more details on how to install Braiins OS Cobalt on the compatible Bitcoin ASIC miners using al supported methods.

Braiins OS uses over (version-rolling) AsicBoost in accordance with BIP310, so in order to take advantage of that feature that essentially reduces power usage while maintaining the same hashrate you should go for a mining pool that supports it. With Braiins OS you have easy per chain control of the operating frequency and voltage of the miner, though you should be extra careful when playing with these in order to be on the safe side. The ASIC Boost is enabled by default, so if you are having trouble connecting to a mining pool then it most likely does not support AsicBoost and you may have to disable it from the settings.

One thing however that is still missing in the updated Braiins OS is a user control feature for the cooling fans, the operating system uses automatic fan control maintaining low RPMs and higher operating temperatures. When increasing the voltage and frequency of the miner by overclocking it will compensate with higher RPMs for the fans, but the temperature will still be maintained pretty high for our taste. Unfortunately there is no option to force it to 100% fan for example via the web interface and in our opinion this is a must have feature that is still missing. Other than that we like what we are seeing from Braiins OS and how it is improving with new releases, so if you still have not tried it you might give it a go as an alternative for the stock firmware from Bitmain’s S9 or Halong Mining’s T1.

– For more details about the new Braiins OS Cobalt release for S9 and T1 ASIC miners…

Braiins OS Wolfram With AsicBoost Support for All S9 ASIC Miners

26, Oct 2018

While we are still waiting Bitmain to release AsicBoost support for all of its Antminer S9 variations, Braiins OS Wolfram was made available from the Braiins team. This new release of the Braiins opensource OS for Bitcoin ASIC miners comes with support for all Antminer S9 variants and adds support for AsicBoost as well, it also works on DragonMint T1 (only the variant with Xilinx based control boards). Aside from AsicBoost support on S9 mining hardware, by using the Braiins OS Wolfram you also get the ability to change the clock frequency and voltage for the miners on per hashboard basis, so more tweaking options.

Braiins OS uses over (version-rolling) AsicBoost in accordance with BIP310. For Antminer S9, this is currently done using the bitstream provided by the manufacturer, but the goal is to switch to a custom open-source bitstream as soon as possible. All Antminer S9 models (S9, S9i, S9j) are supported, however, the amount of possible variations is rather high, so for this reason it is recommend to test an SD card image first on a single device and once you are confident that the firmware operates according to your expectations, you can apply factory transitional firmware images. Then you can start tweaking the voltage and frequency settings to utilize the extra power savings that you should get of about %13 thanks o the use of AsicBoost.

– For more details about the new Braiins OS Wolfram for Bitcoin ASIC miners with AsicBoost support…

Braiins OS, An Opensource Operating System for ASIC Miners

3, Oct 2018

Braiins is the company behind one of the oldest and most trusted Bitcoin mining pools – Slush Pool, and they something new and interesting to show – an alternative opensource operating system for Bitcoin ASIC miners in the form of what they call Braiins OS. It is the very first fully open-source, Linux-based operating system for cryptocurrency embedded devices with the initial release targeted on mining devices and more specifically Bitcoin ASIC miners. Braiins OS has been developed for two primary reasons: to be open-source and have no “hidden features” and to work stable following standards without issues.

The first release includes images for Antminer S9 and DragonMint T1 (only the variant with Xilinx based control boards). Braiins OS is currently mostly on par with the official vendor firmware at this point. It monitors the hardware and its working conditions, handles errors and provides various performance data, but more features will be introduced making it a more interesting alternative. Most importantly possible performance improvements are being looked into as that would probably please the miners the most. The Braiins OS is intended to integrate flawlessly with the Slush Pool, but it should be just fine with any other alternative pool for SHA256 mining, so you are not going to be limited in where to mine with it.

Be aware that Braiins OS is still in alpha stage and has not been tested on a large scale yet, so you might want to start by deploying to single miner to give it a go before deciding to deploy on larger scale!

– For more details about the alternative Braiins OS for Bitcoin ASIC miners…


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