ePIC today announced a significant reduction in development fees for UMC OS, its proprietary Bitcoin mining firmware. The development fee has been lowered to a market-leading 1.5%.
Continue readingTORONTO, May 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — ePIC Blockchain, a leading developer of mining firmware and systems, proudly announces the release of two powerful third-party firmware solutions: UMC OS and AltairOS. Built on the same robust technology behind ePIC’s Universal Mining Controller (UMC), both offerings are now available for S19J and newer air-cooled Bitcoin mining machines, including immersion models converted from air-cooled units
Two Paths, One Proven Core
AltairOS – Powered by ePIC
Tailored for home miners and Bitcoin enthusiasts, AltairOS delivers the full power of ePIC’s firmware suite with an accessible 2.2% developer fee. It is now available through altairtech.io and supports USB port installation for AMLogic-based machines (expanded compatibility coming soon).
“We’re thrilled to bring more firmware options to the broader mining community. AltairOS gives everyday miners the tools they need to improve efficiency, gain insight, and stay competitive—without needing to invest in new hardware,” said Aviral Shukla, Founder of Altair Technology.
UMC OS – Powered by ePIC
UMC OS offers the same features and performance, with a focus on institutional miners exploring licensing at scale. It is available now via epicblockchain.io with a 2.5% developer fee as a trial option. Enterprises interested in licensing are encouraged to contact ePIC for tailored deployment options.
“UMC OS is designed to scale. Whether you’re running hundreds or thousands of machines, our firmware delivers precise control and operational resilience. It’s firmware built for the future of institutional mining,” said Earl Mai, CTO of ePIC Blockchain.
Unified Feature Set, Flexible Delivery
Both AltairOS and UMC OS include:
Perpetual tune
Temperature-aware auto-throttling
Detailed diagnostics down to the chip level
Intuitive web-based GUI
SD card installation (currently supporting AMLogic control boards)
For more information or to begin trialing UMC OS, visit epicblockchain.io or contact info@epicblockchain.io.
To access AltairOS, visit altairtech.io/altairos/.
Both firmware solutions are proudly developed and supported by ePIC Blockchain.
About ePIC Blockchain Technologies
Based in Toronto, Ontario, ePIC Blockchain stands at the forefront of semiconductor and system design for Proof of Work (PoW) Blockchains. Offering a range of products and services, including Universal Mining Controller (UMC), Fleet Enhancement Kits, and customized mining systems, ePIC is dedicated to improving the performance and efficiency of mining operations worldwide.
At ePIC Blockchain Technologies, we are excited to announce our involvement in a large-scale project with the Proto team at Block Inc and Core Scientific. We have worked with Block to design and build a modular mining platform, an innovative solution that addresses the key challenges faced by large-scale mining operations today.
The mining industry is continually evolving, and at ePIC Blockchain Technologies, we recognize the need for more efficient, reliable, and sustainable mining practices. This pilot project is designed to address these demands. By leveraging the latest advancements in ASIC technology from the Proto team, we are set to co-design this new platform that later will be built out in one of the Core’s existing facilities.
As an established industry standard, the current mining rig design is a solid foundation for mining operations worldwide. The goal of this pilot is to find a way to develop a solution that integrates effortlessly with existing infrastructures while amplifying operational efficiency and minimizing total ownership costs.
Key Features:
Looking ahead, ePIC Blockchain is committed to driving innovation and efficiency in the mining industry through our collaboration with Core Scientific and the Proto team at Block Inc. This represents a significant step forward in addressing the evolving challenges of large-scale mining operations. By integrating the latest ASIC technology and advanced design features, we anticipate that this will not only achieve substantial infrastructure cost savings and operational efficiencies but also set new industry standards. As we continue to refine and expand this platform, we envision a future where mining operations are more sustainable, reliable, and adaptable to both current and emerging demands. Our ongoing efforts aim to deliver unparalleled value and performance, ensuring that our solutions remain at the forefront of mining technology advancements.
How it started
Not too long ago, ePIC rolled out the SC200 Mining Rig for the Siacoin network. This milestone was the culmination of hard work and perseverance of a small, but talented team. Now, looking back, we are so proud of this achievement. It is easy for industry arm-chair quarterbacks to downplay the efforts it takes to design and to produce a mining rig. They would often say, “it’s just a few lines of code.” That may be so for an algorithm, but math alone is not enough to make a profitable mining rig.
From concept to reality, the path to producing a product requires many steps:
We encountered many challenges along the way, and we took them all in stride, making them into valuable learning opportunities.
What has happened in the last 12 months?
Customer Engagement
Not only did we learn how to bring a product to market from scratch, but along our journey we learned a tremendous amount about our mining customers — especially, their challenging and ever-changing requirements. To that end, we introduced ePIC’s Universal Mining Control (UMC) and companion firmware. These ePIC offerings are compatible with mining systems and enable enterprises to maximize the full potential of their mining fleet. The UMC and firmware will allow mining fleets to respond quickly to fluctuations in their requirements, most notably, the changes in power. Fleets will be able to ramp up and ramp down quickly accordingly. Enterprises can respond to power costs, coin prices, curtailments, and so on with the API to control performance and efficiency.
Supply Chain
As a company that produces physical products, we understand the critical importance of supply chain management. The past two years have emphasized this. We have already built strategic relationships with key suppliers, such as TSMC and ST Micro. As we grow our business, we have engaged multiple vendors, and even collaborated with them to make improvements. One such example is with PSUs — to make them more efficient while keeping the costs reasonable. By taking ownership of the supply chain, from materials to place of manufacture, we ensure that our products are robust with a low failure rate.
System Integration
We have a track record of bringing all these things together. But more than that, we understand how all the components work with each other through fine-tuned system integration. From the semiconductors to the software, from the PSUs to the heat dissipation, each of these components has a number of input variables that must be considered such as operating frequency, voltage, output performance, power efficiency, and so on. We can build systems that are tightly integrated, but have the agility to respond to the customer’s requirements, which are usually driven by market dynamics.
Intel Blockscale
With everything that we have learned and with all the skills and know-how we’ve developed, we are excited to be working on a Bitcoin miner using Intel’s Blockscale chip. Our talented team is well-equipped to design and to deliver this system. Intel’s advanced technology on Blockscale requires experienced engineering.
The Blockscale chip has a wide operating range. This allows for flexibility, but it also creates serious technical challenges. The chip has temperature and voltage sensing capabilities, which we can read, among other parameters. We can then program the chip to find the “sweet spot” for hashing. But, as one can imagine, the temperature and voltage will fluctuate, and many adjustments will need to be made to keep that chip operating in a stable state. All this is for just one chip.
Now, scale this effort to the multiple hundreds of chips in a single mining system. It would be simplistic to think that each chip would be operating identically on a hashboard, and treating them all the same would not maximize the full potential of the hashing power.
Now, scale this effort again, to the thousands of mining rigs that are in a fleet of miners. The engineering effort is enormous.
True to our Fundamentals
We’ve come a long way over the last few years. We’ve grown organically to manage sustainable growth. We’ve tackled new and exciting challenges. Through and through, ePIC’s guiding principle remains the same — bring together world-class engineering and focused operational excellence to deliver dependable, robust and reliable technology.
Final words
Stay tuned and imagine where ePIC can be at our next inflection point.
Will it be our Gen_2 BTC miner? Will secure real-time settlements on the blockchain be the next driver for high bandwidth and low power designs? Will better HW infrastructure accelerate the adoption of a decentralized internet (aka Web3)?
The constant will be the build-outs from ePIC into these emerging blockchain markets. We are ready and we think differently.
CEO, ePIC Blockchain Technologies
Writer for ePIC Blockchain Technologies
The recent pandemic has made us look at things differently, focused our attention on critical infrastructure, and forced us to adapt to new challenges. As a response, old ideas have come back in fashion again showing how foundationally important they are. While new ideas have accelerated ahead spurring on important innovations.
Take for example virtual home workouts. Exercise is an enduring element of daily life. New workout routines and training programs have been created for home, but delivered interactively and streamed in real time. The content might be new, but adoption and success of this new paradigm depends on fast and reliable internet access. Internet access has never been more crucial — so much so, that it is a de facto essential service.
Good system design will lead to dependable infrastructure that is reliable and robust.
In response to cryptocurrency markets, various companies, often with inadequate experience, have produced ASIC miners. In the rush to capitalize on the market, robust system design is often an afterthought by some companies. There could even be an argument that this aspect is completely overlooked. Producing an ASIC is more than just writing a few lines of code.
The adoption and success of a mining operation depends on full-system thinking, end-to-end reliability, and close collaboration with mining farms.
Who can step up to these challenges?
Some of the recent ASIC hardware providers have been struggling with poor integration into the mining infrastructure, field failures and major gaps between specifications and real-life results. While others have just disappeared.
But there are also new players emerging.
This brings us to a promising North America based start-up, ePIC Blockchain Technologies.
This high performance, experienced team applies the best practices for engineering design and operational excellence from the telecom, PC and mobile industries to the ASIC hardware mining space.
SoC design and system design are highly specialized fields of engineering. Combining these specialized design skills with a deep understanding of architectural trade-offs and blockchain algorithms is the recipe for success.
At its core, this is the team inside ePIC.
To date, the industry has been preoccupied with nano-marketing name dropping. It is fashionable for companies to tout their ASIC based on the technology node. However, that may be a distraction from what is lacking.
The end-customer should not care which node their ASIC is manufactured on. What matters is the quality of the design.
The proliferation of multiple variants, 5–6 in some cases, of a manufacturer’s product is another interesting artifact of the current suite of mining providers. Is it a deliberate marketing plan for different price-points? Or is it a design and manufacturing flow that is not well understood and controlled? Could it be a very wide cross-section of performance and power outputs that are produced and pushed out to the unsuspecting customer?
The answer is simple. Get the job done right and on-spec.
Launched recently, the SC200 miner is the product that showcases ePIC’s world-class system design capabilities.
Work doesn’t stop just because silicon is in hand.
Full understanding of the system is required to bring a quality product to market. Having a chip that works in isolation is not enough. Having both the depth and breadth is what distinguishes ePIC from other companies.
Here are a few examples of the behind-the-scenes due diligence taken prior to the introduction of the SC200 to the market. And it serves as a macro lens into the systematic approach that is needed for future generations of ASIC hardware miners.
In any industry, what distinguishes the leaders is straight forward — “what they deliver just works as advertised”.
ePIC Blockchain Technologies is bringing this philosophy and track record to the ASIC hardware blockchain mining industry. World-class engineering design and a maniacal focus on operational excellence are ingrained in the ePIC culture.
To be called out so early as the “Dyson of ASIC Miners” is a distinction to be proud of and the team will press on to provide dependable, robust, and reliable technology.
CEO, ePIC Blockchain Technologies
Writer for ePIC Blockchain Technologies
