Intel details ‘Bonanza Mine 2’ chip for efficient Bitcoin mining

Intel Corporation, a computer chip manufacturing giant, has shared details of a new mining chip that will be coupled with a high-performance 3,600-watt miner with the ultimate goal of improving Bitcoin (BTC) mining efficiency. Intel’s new chips are powered by a high-performance miner to deliver up to 40 TH/s in a balanced environment.

Intel has shared details of its past explorations on bitcoin mining application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) at ISSCC 2022, a global forum for the presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip, reported Tom’s Hardware.

Intel’s power-efficient chip, called Bonanza Mine, is fabricated in a 7nm process and bundled in lots of 300 to compose a full-fledged 3,600W bitcoin mining machine that can perform up to 40 terahashes per second (TH/s).

When news surfaced that Intel would give a presentation about a bitcoin mining ASIC at ISSCC, it seemed that it would present a new chip. However, an Intel representative later told Bitcoin Magazine that “the SHA-256 ASIC referred to in the paper being presented at ISSCC … was a first-generation product exploration from 2018.”

On February 11, Intel officially announced its Bitcoin silicon program, highlighting that multiple large customers had secured their spot in the orders queue, including Block, the financial services firm previously known as Square, Argo Blockchain, and GRIID, which had already disclosed a purchasing agreement with Intel to the SEC for the new chip that was yet to be revealed.

Intel’s upcoming chip, the Bonanza Mine 2, will only be released later this year.

“The supply agreement released as part of required US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC disclosures from our customer concerns the second-generation ASIC for which we will provide more details soon,” the Intel representative added.

However, Intel will leverage the innovations developed with its first-generation product exploration and shared at ISSCC in its upcoming Bonanza Mine 2 ASIC.

Indeed, the giant chipmaker will need to up its game if its second-generation chip is to be competitive with the likes of Bitmain, today’s market leader in the bitcoin mining industry. While Intel’s first-generation ASIC consumes 3,600W to output 40TH/s, per the report, Bitmain’s flagship miner needs only 3,010W to perform 140TH/s.

The Bitcoin network mining difficulty maintains an upward trend, showcasing a strong indication of growing resilience against network attacks.

At its peak, Bitcoin recorded a hash rate of 248.11 exahashes per second (EH/s) on February 13, after jumping 31.69% from 188.40 EH/s in just one day.

With the increase in the hash rate, BTC mining equipment needs to evolve for delivering higher performance while consuming the same energy comparatively.