Hangzhou Dark Star Electronics: Focusing on the research and development of innovative chips, it is expected to launch "high computing power, low power consumption" equipment in January 2022

In 2019, Canaan Technology was listed on the Nasdaq in the United States, becoming the first stock in the global blockchain supercomputing chip track. This marked the beginning of the capitalization of this field. After that, Ebang International, a hardware manufacturer also located in Hangzhou, successfully listed on the Nasdaq, and Hangzhou also launched the influence of Chinese blockchain hardware brands in the world.

In August 2021, the "Star World Core Future Scrypt Encryption Chip Launch Conference" hosted by Hangzhou AnexMINER opened in Hangzhou. At that time, this "industry newcomer" launched two ASIC supercomputing chips.

After more than three months, this technology company focusing on blockchain and chips has once again launched its self-developed computing chip Anexet. The supercomputer device AnStar ET7 equipped with this chip can achieve a computing power of up to 6000MH/S when used on the Ethereum network.

Why can Hangzhou continuously produce supercomputing equipment companies with chips as their core products? What are the characteristics of the newly born startup Dark Star? What is its Ethereum-based supercomputing equipment? To answer these questions, we interviewed Lou Qi from Hangzhou Dark Star Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.

▲AnexMINER "Star World Core Future Scrypt Encryption Chip Release Conference" site

Focusing on blockchain hardware, the chips of this Hangzhou company are not simple

On November 24, the 14th Zhejiang Businessmen Annual Meeting 2021 of China Everbright Bank opened at the Hangzhou International Convention Center. At the meeting, the list of "2021 Zhejiang Businessmen Digital Service Benchmark Enterprises" was officially released, and Hangzhou Darkstar Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. was on the list.

The award speech from the organizer reads: Dark Star Electronics has been working silently in the forefront field of blockchain technology development and application, and has spent ten years honing its skills to create SCRYPT, the first chip in the entire network's computing power, and has become the guardian of truth and security in the era of digital transformation.

▲AnexMINER was selected as the 2021 Zhejiang Merchants Digital Service Benchmark Enterprise

Hangzhou AnexMiner Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., also known as AnexMINER, is a technology company serving blockchain and chips. It has mature blockchain network architecture and chip design capabilities. Its main businesses include integrated circuit chip development, implementation and optimization of encryption algorithms, supercomputing base station deployment and services, Internet security and network protection, and an integrated digital financial venture capital model. It is reported that AnexMiner has also begun to design AI and VR chip equipment, thereby combining artificial intelligence with computing chips, enabling it to enter today's extremely popular metaverse track.

According to Lou Qi, the technical team of Hangzhou Dark Star Electronics has about 130 people. Judging from the personnel structure, they are all senior practitioners with 5-10 years of experience in chip research and development. There are engineers who focus on integrated circuit design, engineers who focus on development board design, and of course, there are ASIC chip staff who specialize in Ethereum research. Some developers have previously participated in the development of Asic chips based on the Bitcoin network.

It was this team that laid the foundation for the birth of supercomputing chips and equipment based on the Ethereum network.

As we all know, in the field of supercomputing equipment, especially after Asic chips entered the 5NM process, chip design capabilities have always been the core competitiveness of such companies. However, supercomputing chips based on the Ethereum network have rarely appeared in the past few years. In addition to market demand, it has higher technical requirements for chips.

It is not difficult to find that DarkStar Electronics has always focused on blockchain and chips, and has an innovative team. This may be the most core reason why it has successfully launched several supercomputing chips in a short period of time.

▲AnexMINER office space

Focusing on globalization, the first batch of products will be launched in the market in 2022

It is reported that DarkStar Electronics is about to launch three supercomputers, namely DarkStar ET3, DarkStar ET5 and DarkStar ET7. The rated computing power of ET3 is 300MH/S, and the wall power is about 160W. The rated computing power of DarkStar ET7 is 6000MH/S, and the wall power is about 3200W.

According to the data disclosed so far, DarkStar ET7 can be said to be the "pinnacle" of current Ethereum network supercomputing equipment. Its main features are "super-large computing power and ultra-low energy consumption", which is very competitive in the market. In addition, DarkStar Electronics also provides customized services for Asic chips of the Ethereum network.

During the design process, Dark Star Electronics integrated the functions of small-scale integrated circuits on a single chip, which optimizes the circuit of the entire device, reduces the number of components, shortens wiring, and reduces volume and weight, thereby improving system reliability.

"Everyone should know that there are not many pioneers of this type of product, so there is relatively little experience worth learning from. We still encountered many difficulties in the early stage of design. In particular, the cost of chip tape-out is also very high. There are not many companies that dare to make such products. You must have an excellent technical team and a certain amount of financial strength, and most importantly, you must have the spirit of daring to charge forward." Lou Qi introduced.

This is easy to understand. In 2021, the global chip production capacity is stretched, so Dark Star Electronics not only needs to find chip supply, but also needs to seize the time node. For a startup company, the difficulty can be imagined.

Fortunately, the project was approved in late August 2020 and put into production in September 2021. At present, SMIC has started the mask stage, and as long as all the chips are in place, they can be combined with the computing board. Therefore, it is expected that the prototype and the first batch of products will be available in January 2022.

In September 2021, this series of products began to be accepted for pre-order, and its delivery time is expected to be January 2022. Lou Qi estimates that based on the current static income, the payback period is about 6 months. Therefore, the current market demand is very large. He predicts that in March 2022, the equipment production capacity can reach the level of 100,000 chips, which also means that they are sufficient to cope with the growing market demand.

In 2021, Chinese supercomputing equipment manufacturers including Canaan Technology have launched globalization strategies for overseas markets, and so has Hangzhou Dark Star Electronics. In the future, they are more inclined to expand overseas markets and strive to provide better and more systematic services to global customers. However, Lou Qi also mentioned that while they absolutely support domestic policies, they will not give up the domestic market.

In fact, the computing devices mentioned above have not yet been put on the market in batches, so their market performance after listing still needs market feedback. But there is no doubt that with the launch of ET3 and Dark Star ET7, Hangzhou Dark Star Electronics has further consolidated its capabilities in the field of chip design.

Lou Qi said that in the future, they will adopt a group operation model, with Dark Star Electronics focusing on research and development and responsible for the technical field. At the same time, they will also get involved in some other fields and strive to make achievements in the innovative technology sector. In 2022, they also plan to launch their own chip based on the Bitcoin network.

In his opinion, Dark Star Electronics is an open, young and enterprising team. "I hope to cooperate with more outstanding companies in the field I am good at and achieve win-win results," he said.