Intel's New Energy Forward Mining Chip

Intel announced on April 4th that the company will be launching an energy efficient mining chip in the third quarter of 2022. The Intel Blockscale ASIC (Application-specific Integrated Circuit) is considered to be the culmination of all of Intel’s work. With a dedicated research and development (R&D) team, Intel plans to release an ASIC that will meet the high demand for mining hardware while adhering to a less energy intensive approach.

Intel Vice President Balaji Kanigicherla states that momentum is building around the space and is enabling new business models for companies. Kanigicherla says they will greatly benefit due to the distributed nature of blockchain and do not have to compromise on environmental sustainability in order to do so. He goes on to explain that with Intel’s decades of R&D on cryptography as well as other related fields, his team is in a prime position to deliver the needed hardware.

The Intel Blockscale ASIC Includes:

SHA-256 ASIC processor that can mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that use the same algorithm.
580 GH/s hash rate.
Temperature and voltage sensors.
Can integrate 256 Blockscale ASIC chips into one unit.

Intel claims that the Blockscale ASIC consumes between 4.8 to 22.7 watts of power with an energy efficiency of 26 joules per terahash (J/TH). With the ability to merge multiple Blockscale ASICs into one unit, we can calculate how much more efficient these chips are when compared to their competitors.

If 256 Blockscale ASIC chips are integrated with one another, they will be able to produce a total hash rate of 148.5 TH/s and consume between 1,228 to 5,811 watts. In comparison, Bitmain's Antminer S19 XP has a hash rate of 140 TH/s while consuming 3,010 watts of power and 21.5 J/TH of power efficiency.

Companies like Argo Blockchain, Block, Inc., Hive Blockchain, and GRIID, will have access to Blockscale’s ASICs and potentially mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at cheaper rates.