Intel shows off its energy-efficient ‘Bonanza Mine’ bitcoin miner

Tech giant Intel has publicly released technical specifications of its Bonanza Mine bitcoin miner hardware.

Presenting at the 2022 edition of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Intel revealed that the first generation of its miner provided greater energy efficiency than other offerings on the market.

These days, bitcoin mining is carried out using specialized hardware called an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Each Intel Bonanza Mine (BMZ₁) miner packs 300 BMZ₁ chips according to the technical specifications presented during the conference. The “one-subscript” in the name means that it is the first generation of the miner hardware.

These 300 BMZ₁ combine to render a power rating of 3,600 watts (W) while delivering 40 terahash per second (TH/s) of computing power. This latter specification lags behind the hash rate quoted by leading miners on the market.

Bitmain’s Antminer S19 and S19 Pro deliver between 95 to 110 TH/s while MicroBT’s WhatsMiner M30S produces up to 112 TH/s of hashing potential. Bitmain is even coming out with a new liquid-cooled miner that the company says can reach up to 198 TH/s.

While Intel’s offering does not match up with the hashing power of its competitors, the company says the BMZ₁ is more energy efficient. Companies like Block and Argo are already among the list of high-profile customers that have already made purchase orders.

It is not yet clear whether Intel will deliver only BMZ₁ chips themselves for clients to incorporate into their own mining systems or ship the 3,600 W miners to customers.

Intel has also followed up the BMZ₁ with plans to unveil the second generation of its miner hardware.