Intel unveils new Bitcoin-mining chip

Intel announced the launch of the second generation of its own ASIC chip for Bitcoin mining called Blockscale.

“Based on years of research and development, this specialized integrated circuit will provide clients with energy-efficient hashing for Proof-of-Work consensus networks,” the company said.

Blockscale will deliver up to 0.58 TH/s with around 26 J/TH energy efficiency. A single chain can be assembled from 256 chips, about 148.5 TH/s.

The company said that the nature of the semiconductors used in the technology will enable mass production of Blockscale without threatening supplies of new CPUs or GPUs.

The chip is planned to be available to customers in Q3 2022. Among the first customers Intel named Argo Blockchain, Block, Hive Blockchain Technologies and GRIID Infrastructure.

In February, Intel unveiled its first mining chip Bonanza Mine and a device based on it. The ASIC miner built from 300 chips delivered a hash rate of up to 47.7 TH/s and an energy efficiency of 55 J/TH. The figures trailed leading market players.

GRIID was named as one of the first customers of the chip. However, in its prospectus, filed with the SEC ahead of the listing, journalists uncovered information about future shipments of ASIC miners with higher specifications.

The discussion concerned the prospective purchase of devices with a compute power of 135 TH/s and energy efficiency of 26 J/TH. On the latter metric, the air-cooled setup was about 15% more efficient than one of the leaders in the sector, Bitmain’s Antminer S19 Pro.

GRIID did not directly name the supplier, referring to it as the “leading US-based chip manufacturer.” Meanwhile, Intel is the only chipmaker in the United States.

Earlier in March, HIVE Blockchain announced that it had signed an agreement with Intel to purchase mining equipment with expected delivery in the second half of 2022.