Intel scraps Bitcoin mining chip

[Nat Quinn]

Intel has discontinued a chip designed for efficient Bitcoin mining, claiming the company wants to prioritize other investments.

Intel is one of the largest producers of semiconductor chip manufacturers in the world by revenue.

The company told Tom’s Hardware that the Blockscale 1000-series ASICs would no longer be manufactured just one year after the chips were released in April 2022.

“As we prioritize our investments in IDM 2.0, we have end-of-lifed the Intel Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC while we continue to support our blockscale customers,” the company said.

When the chip was launched, Intel said that the components would provide an energy-efficient, sustainable and efficient solution which would advance blockchain technology in a sustainable way.

Intel said that new technological advancements were needed to service the enormous amount of energy that blockchain computations require.

“The Intel blockscale ASIC is going to play a major role in helping Bitcoin mining companies achieve both sustainability and hash rate scaling objectives in the years ahead,” the company said.

But just one year later, the chips are being scrapped. Tom’s Hardware pointed out that Intel’s launch timing was poor.

The price of Bitcoin halved in the two months following the product’s launch and is now starting to recover just as the decision to scrap the chips has been announced.

Intel will continue to offer the chips to existing customers until October 2023 to satisfy its long-term contracts with large mining companies. Final deliveries will be completed before April 2024.

The company has not announced plans to launch new products and is scaling back its operations to cut costs. The company sold its server business, ended its 5G modems, wound down its Optane memory production, scrapped its drone business and sold its SSD storage unit.

The company said that it will be focussing on its IDM 2.0 investments.

IDM stands for integrated device manufacturing and is part of a strategy Intel unveiled in 2021 to manufacture, design, and deliver “leadership products”.

Intel announced plans to expand its manufacturing capability through substantial investment in new factories, along with plans to become a major provider of foundry capacity in the United States and Europe to serve customers globally.

The strategy has three focus areas:

1. Intel’s global, internal factory network for at-scale manufacturing

2. Expanded use of third-party foundry capacity

3. Building a world-class foundry business, Intel Foundry Services

Here are the key features of the Blockscale 1000-series application-specific integrated circuits which are being discontinued:

• Dedicated Secure Hash Algorithm-256 (SHA-256) ASIC processor.

• Up to 580 GH/s hash rate operating and up to 26 J/TH power efficiency.

• On-chip temperature- and voltage-sensing capabilities.

• Support for up to 256 integrated circuits per chain.

• Reference hardware design and software stack to jump-start customers system development.

 

SOURCE:Intel scraps Bitcoin mining chip (mybroadband.co.za)

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