Apparently, Intel is going to release equipment for bitcoin mining. At the upcoming ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference), the company will be presenting its new Bonanza Mine chip, which is described as an “energy efficient ASIC for bitcoin mining.”

At the end of December, the head of Intel's GPU division, Raji Koduri, in an interview with streamer DrLupo, indicated that video cards should be engaged in graphics processing, and more affordable products with low power consumption would be suitable for blockchain operations. He also noted that Intel may soon introduce products for working with the blockchain.

For cryptocurrency mining, there are ASICs - specialized processors designed for one type of workload. ASICs have advantages in terms of energy efficiency and performance over more complex chips such as CPUs or GPUs, which are nevertheless also used for cryptocurrency mining. However, most bitcoin mining takes place on ASICs supplied by companies like Bitmain.

The first signs of Intel's interest in mining hardware appeared in 2018, when the company patented a specialized processing system using the SHA-256 cryptographic algorithm that is used to mine bitcoins. As with all patents, it takes time for the final product to reach the market, but Intel has experience with SHA-256: the company uses these algorithms in its processors. Combined with its chip manufacturing capabilities, Intel could well become a competitive player in the mining hardware market, especially given the focus on high-performance, low-power products.

Intel is expected to reveal more about the Bonanza Mine on February 23rd. A tick in the list of presentations means that Intel will present a video demonstration of the chip. It is not clear at this time if the Bonanza Mine will be available to the general public, but based on Koduri's comments, these chips are likely to be offered to customers in the near future.

bbabo.Net