Antminer S9 Bitcoin Miner Breakdown

A simple guide that shows and describes the different parts of an S9i ASIC miner.

Today's leading Bitcoin mining computers are called ASIC miners which stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit.

In this post I'm going to break down the different parts and components of an ASIC miner to help familiarize yourself with the different parts, what they're called and what their purpose is.

I will use this Bitmain Antminer S9i as an example to show each of the parts and do my best to explain what they mean and what they do.

The S9 is one of the mining devices that changed Bitcoin mining by moving from CPUs to wide adoption of ASIC miners.

This thing is a piece of history and a good starting point for learning about ASICs and Bitcoin mining.

Today nobody mines on CPUs and most miners are using the latest ASIC miners from the leading manufacturers like Bitmain, MicroBT, Canaan and StrongU.

In 2022, Antminer S9 miners are fairly inexpensive as they're not the most profitable miners anymore but they are a great device to get started with and great for learning.

They only cost around $500 to $600 and you can buy through Bit Helm here.

Bitmain Antminer S9 Specifications and what they mean

Let's first take a look at the specifications and understand what each of them mean. You can find all the detailed miner specifications for other miners on each of the manufacturer's websites.

Hash boards, ASIC Chips & Heat sinks

The Antminer S9 has 3 hash boards and 189 BM1387 ASIC chips in each miner.

The BM1387 is a 16nm ASIC chip designed to solve hash rates as fast as possible while keeping the energy consumption as low as possible. Here’s the BM1387 chip specifications document for more details.

Each chip has a heat sink on top to help pull the heat off the chip so the fans can blow the heat out of the miner.

Hashrate

The S9 has a 14.0 terahash per second ±5% hash rate.

• Hashrate is the number of hashes that the chips are processing the Bitcoin hashing function. The higher the hashes per second the miner can do, the faster it can complete the solving process.

• New miners like the S19Pro can have a hashrate of +100 Terahash per second

Control board

The Control board controls the hash boards with the ASIC chips on them and the fans.

Here’s an example of an Antminer S9 control board that sits on top of the miner above the hash boards.

There are 3, 18 Pin Data Ribbon Cables that go from the control board to each of the 3 hash boards for moving information to and from the ASIC chips.

SDCARD (firmware)

The control board has an SD card slot where you can insert an SD card to update the firmware.

Default Frequency

The S9 default frequency is 650 MHz.

• Both overclocking and auto-tuning involve adjusting the frequency on the hash boards in order to alter the ASIC’s performance.

• Something to note on changing the frequency is that most manufactures void the warranty when doing this as overclocking makes that miner work harder, faster and run hotter so there is risks of damaging the miner if not done right.

Network Connection

The S9 uses a standard Ethernet connection to provide network access. A CAT5 cable is plugged into the miner and into the network router.

There are two lights on the ETH port. One will indicate connection state (Solid) and the other connection activity (Flashing).

The IP report button works with the Bitmain IP Reporter tool that helps you find the IP address of the miner on a separate administration computer on the same network.

Operating Temperature & Cooling Fans

The S9 operates within 0 °C to 40 °C.

This is what makes all of the noise with an ASIC miner. They are spinning fast, sucking cool air in one end of the miner and pushing the hot air out the other side.

If the fans get blocked or dirty, the miner will shut down.

Click Image to listen

The S9 has 2x 6000 RPM miner fans(12038). The newer S19 miners use a 7000 RMP fan.

• There is a fan on each end of the miner. One to push air into and across the ASIC boards and chips and one on the other end to help suck out the hot air.

Power Consumption

The S9 consumes 1375W + 7% at the wall, through the APW3 power supply unit shown below.

The S9 miners rated voltage is 11.60~13.00V. This is the voltage that the chips require. The miner does not contain a AC/DC converter; therefore, higher input voltage will cause higher mining efficiency.

This power supply requires a 220volt power outlet. Most North American wall outlets are 120v and your miner won’t work with this voltage.

10 PCI-e connectors (yellow and black wires) come out of the power supply unit(PSU) to be plugged into the hash boards and control board on the top of the miner.

9 of them are for the hash boards and one to power the controller.

Each hash board must be powered by the same PSU to prevent possible damage and instability.

Learn more about the details on Home mining electrical setup.

Power Efficiency

The S9 Power Efficiency is 0.098 J/GH + 7% at the wall, with APW3 93% efficiency, 25°C ambient temp)

Power efficiency is the ratio between miners hashrate and the miners power consumption.

Power Efficiency = the power used / hashrate.

It describes how many units of hashrate can be mined with 1 watt or electricity. The power efficiency can be expressed in different formats depending on how much the hashrate of the miner is.

The Power Efficiency measurement is used when comparing different results within the same algorithm. For Bitcoin, that is SHA265.

The larger the power efficiency the better the miner is.

This also means that the miner with the higher hashrate can hash more Bitcoin for the same amount of power consumed.

Compare electrical efficiency on specific algorithms on the ASIC Miner Value website.

Summary

If you’re new to mining and ASIC miners, I hope you found this post informative and helpful in learning more about the different parts and components of an S9 ASIC miner.

If you have questions or need more clarification, please leave a comment below or come reach me on Twitter @CraigOnBitcoin.

If you want to buy and S9 or any other miner, you can purchase through Bit Helm here and we’ll help you find the right equipment for you.

Happy Hashing!