Intel launches energy-efficient Bitcoin mining chips

Intel has announced the launch of the “Intel Blockscale ASIC” mining chip. Intel had announced in February that it was developing this chip to focus on energy efficiency and speed.

Intel launches energy-efficient mining chip

The second-generation Bitcoin mining chip comes with a hash rate of 580 GH/s (gigahashes per second). The hash rate measures how miners can validate the next block. The energy consumption of the chip is only 26 J/TH (joules per terahash), showing that it is highly energy-efficient. 

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The Vice President of Intel, Balaji Kanigicherla said,

To power this new era of computing, Intel is delivering solutions that can offer an optimal balance of hashing throughput and energy efficiency regardless of a customer’s operating environment.

Intel further added that the chip would have sensors for temperature and voltage while supporting 256 integrated circuits per chain. These features were not available in the Bonanza Mine processor. The company has also said that it is capable of supplying the chips at high volumes “without compromising the supply of new CPUs and GPUs” because of the nature of the silicon being used.

Block will be among the first companies that will receive Intel’s new chip by the third quarter of this year. The CEO of Block, Jack Dorsey, had earlier said that before Intel entered the market, the production of Silicon was concentrated and constrained. The other companies that will also receive these chips as the first recipients are Argo Blockchain, Hive Blockchain Technologies and GRIID Infrastructure.

Intel is also optimistic that from 2023, it “will be working with and supplying prospective customers who share the company’s sustainability goals.”

Debate over Bitcoin mining

Intel has explained that the chip was built to focus on sustainability. This comes amid the growing concern over the energy-intensive Bitcoin mining process. Recently, the co-founder of Ripple, Chris Larsen, funded a campaign geared towards changing Bitcoin’s code to halt more energy being consumed via the mining process.

Bitcoin’s use of energy during mining was also an issue of discussion among European lawmakers. A bill was tabled before the European Union seeking to ban proof-of-work mining. However, the bill was rejected after 32 lawmakers voted against it.