Intel, a leading semiconductor circuits manufacturer, has decided to enter the crypto space. The company did so, not through crypto investment, but rather by creating a special crypto-mining chipset. It revealed that its new product will offer 1000x better performance per watt than standard GPUs.
Intel Corporation, the American manufacturer of semiconductor computer circuits, recently took its first official step into the crypto business. The company launched a new chipset, calling it the “blockchain accelerator.” The chips are specifically customized for crypto mining and can be used for mining Bitcoin as well as many altcoins. With the new product launch, Intel has doubled its focus to make greater contributions to the crypto/blockchain sector.
The Problem with Crypto Mining
Cryptocurrency mining has been saddled with many problems over the last several years. But the primary issue remains the same: mining requires a lot of energy because it consumes an enormous amount of computing power, especially when it comes to Bitcoin. The gear needed to successfully mine cryptocurrencies has been steadily rising, as Bitcoin can no longer be mined with simple CPUs and GPUs.
Bitcoin’s high energy consumption attracted a lot of negative publicity in May 2021, when Elon Musk cited the coin’s carbon footprint and eco-unfriendliness as a reason why Tesla, his electric car company, will discontinue Bitcoin payments.
Aware of the ongoing need for massive amounts of mining computing power, Intel has designed their new chipset to be scalable, sustainable, and as energy-efficient as possible. Intel’s years of experience in cryptography, hashing techniques, and ultra-low voltage circuits have been a great advantage in developing the chipset.
The Chips will Ship Out Later in 2022
The company intends to reveal additional details about their circuit innovations during the International Solid-State Circuit Conference later this month. For now, the firm’s Senior VP, Raja Koduri, has revealed that Intel expects its circuit innovations to deliver over 1000x better performance per watt than what mainstream GPUs for SHA-256 based mining can offer.
Lastly, Intel noted that the chipset will be ready for shipping later this year, without revealing a specific date. Intel, however, did articulate that there are already multiple firms that have preordered the chipset, including Jack Dorsey’s BLOCK (formerly Square), Argo Blockchain, as well as GRIID Infrastructure.
