Exclusive Interview: Yang Ye, Co-founder of Hangzhou Dark Star Electronic Technology

Recently, several mining machines released by Hangzhou Dark Star Electronic Technology have aroused heated discussions among miners. The author was entrusted by users to conduct a telephone interview with Mr. Yang Ye, co-founder of Dark Star Electronics. The interview transcript is as follows:

Reporter: Hello, Mr. Yang. We have noticed that Dark Star has released five models: Dark Star D1 , Dark Star D2 , Dark Star ET3 , Dark Star ET5 and Dark Star ET7 . Judging from the data currently released, their performance and energy efficiency are very superior. We know that the development cycle of chips from research and development to tape-out and then to final production is generally calculated in years. When did Dark Star start to layout in this field, and what was the team like before?

Yang Ye : We started the project of Litecoin series in 2019 , and Ethereum in August 2020 .

Our technical team has about 130 people, and the personnel structure is people who have 5-10 years of experience in chip research and development . Among them, some have developed BTC chips, some specialize in ASIC Ethereum chips, there are engineers who design integrated circuits, development board designers, etc.

Reporter: From recent news, we see that DarkStar's chips have begun to be masked at SMIC . As we all know, SMIC's production capacity is hard to come by. How did DarkStar solve this problem?

Yang Ye: Chip manufacturing mainly consists of three major areas: upstream design, midstream manufacturing, and downstream packaging and testing. Although the global chip production capacity is in short supply, chip design is also a major problem relative to production capacity, and the process is extremely complicated. There are more than N transistors on a chip. It is necessary to write countless lines of code and verify them, then convert the program into a circuit diagram, and then lay out the wiring. Finally, after the simulation is successfully verified, it will reach SMIC. The lack of production capacity requires early scheduling to solve it. This is not a problem for us. Finding the right way and planning in advance is our solution. In terms of production capacity, Dark Star has a close cooperative relationship with SMIC and has always maintained a good contact relationship. Dark Star has relevant cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China also attended the launch conference at the end of August. In the direction of science and technology, Dark Star has always maintained a good relationship and has excellent diplomatic relations in various fields.

Reporter: Currently, the data of DarkStar ET3 and DarkStar ET7 have been announced to the public, but DarkStar ET5 has not been mentioned yet. Is there room for further optimization of ET5 's data?

Yang Ye: The first version of the Dark Star ET series did have three versions: ET3 , ET5 , and ET7 . However, when the project was launched, it was not affected by policies. Now it is affected by policies. The original one-board-multiple-core solution is not suitable for maintenance in overseas markets, so we have currently updated the latest version. We designed a separate hash board for each chip and used a pcie -end interface, similar to a gpu , which can be flexibly plugged in and out. In this way, the computing power of the entire machine can be flexibly matched. We provide 20 pcie - end interfaces on the main control board, so we have abandoned the previous version plan, allowing overseas markets to solve computing power problems more quickly by replacing chips when a single chip fails.

Reporter: Can you tell users about the expected launch time and approximate production of the above five models? Lou Qi estimates that in March 2022 , the production capacity of DarkStar equipment can reach 100,000 chips. Does this 100,000 chips refer to the Ethernet model or the total number of the five models?

Yang Ye : We expect it to be launched in January next year, but there are still many uncertainties in the chip industry. We have already arranged all the difficulties that can be solved in advance, and hope to launch it as soon as possible. The production capacity of 100,000 pieces is for all equipment , but it is not certain that such a large number will be put into production. It needs to be defined in combination with market conditions.

Reporter: One of the issues that users are currently paying close attention to is that Bitmain's Ant L7 has been confirmed to be shipped in January , but a considerable number of potential customers are still waiting for the actual test comparison data of DarkStar D2 and finally making a decision. Can you reveal some information to these anxious customers first so that everyone can wait patiently?

Yang Ye : I think everyone can wait patiently for this point. They are all good devices. If you compare and test them, there will definitely be pros and cons. The data can only represent part of the demands, but in reality, price, delivery, and production time also need to be carefully considered.

Reporter: All three models of DarkStar can mine ETH . What do you think about the idea of ​​ETH switching to POS ?

Yang Ye : There are many different opinions at present. The conversion of ETH to POS is a matter of time. As an investor, I think this is a matter of opinion. But no matter what, it will be completed step by step. Before it starts, all discussions are only theoretical. But our equipment supports all projects running under the Ethash algorithm, such as ETC , so I think no matter what time node the project itself changes, it is only a matter of time. Planning the time can solve the problem. Next year, in addition to Ethash equipment, we will also release SHA-256 and Scrypt equipment, so please stay tuned.

  The above is the entire content of this interview. Mr. Yang Ye gave a comprehensive analysis to the miners from the team to the products to the production capacity. I hope that the information brought by Mr. Yang Ye can provide everyone with a certain decision-making basis. I also wish that the next product of Dark Star Electronics will sell well.