In transient: Intel believes it might probably assist cut back the environmental affect of mining Bitcoin and different proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, so it is forging forward with a second-generation blockchain accelerator chip. The firm can be assured it might probably ship the brand new chip in quantity with out compromising the manufacturing of CPUs and GPUs.
Back in February, Intel revealed its first-generation “Bonanza Mine” blockchain acceleration answer throughout a presentation on the annual IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. The firm mentioned it had been engaged on a second-generation answer that will provide higher efficiency per watt, however did not provide a transparent timeline on when it will hit the market.
This week, Intel launched a brand new application-specific built-in circuit (ASIC) referred to as Blockscale which is supposedly able to delivering as much as 580 GH per second. The firm says it’s going to devour wherever from 4.8 to 22.7 watts of energy, which works out to an influence effectivity of as much as 26 J/TH.
Intel’s first-generation Bonanza Mine chips have been a lot much less environment friendly at 90 J/TH. Blockscale chips may be built-in into chains of as much as 256 ASICs, and such a system would supposedly ship round 148 TH per second with an influence consumption of round 3,850 watts. This approaches the effectivity of Bitmain’s S19J XP mining system, which might obtain 140 TH per second with solely 3,010 watts.
More importantly, Intel claims it might probably flood the market with Blockscale chips for Bitcoin mining with out compromising the manufacturing capability for CPUs and GPUs. In different phrases, the corporate is utilizing a distinct, extra mature course of node, probably from an exterior foundry.
The largest prospects for Intel’s Bonanza Mine and Blockscale mining methods embody Jack Dorsey’s Block (previously Square), GRIID Infrastructure, Hive Blockchain Technologies, and Argo Blockchain. According to GRIID, Intel’s new mining methods price $5,625 per unit, or about half the value of comparable options from the likes of Bitmain.
The price ought to be low sufficient to entice some GPU miners to modify over, however whether or not or not they are going to largely depends upon how rapidly the Ethereum community can transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. In the meantime, GPU pricing and availability appear to be bettering with every passing month. Blockscale will begin transport in Q3 2022.
