With the arrival of a major deal with one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining companies, Intel's new ASIC chip seems to be gaining ground.
US-based mining firm HIVE Blockchain has revealed that it will not only purchase a set of next-generation Intel “BMZ2” ASICs from Bonanza Mine, but will also work to integrate them into its bespoke mining rig.
The mining company plans to start deploying the new equipment in the second half of 2022. Once installed, it is expected to increase HIVE's hashrate from 1,9 Exahash per second (Eh/s) to 3,8 Eh/s, which which equals 95%. increase.
Bitcoin mining, powered by Intel
Although Intel has not revealed exactly how many ASICs it will sell in HIVE, performance data and unit cost information is available for BMZ2.
As our sister site Tom's Hardware reports, a single ASIC has a throughput of 135 TH/s and a power efficiency of 26 J/TH. One of these devices is expected to cost around €5,600 at HIVE.
Knowing that HIVE expects to almost double its hashing power, that brings the total number of BMZ2 devices to around 14,000 and the total hardware cost to just over €78 million.
Bitcoin is hailed by many as a transformative technology, but the problem of energy consumption and carbon footprint is something the network is struggling to get rid of.
Although some think that the power consumption of the Bitcoin network is exaggerated, a more efficient and energy-efficient device on the market is a welcome sight.
Shying away from the cryptocurrency mining industry in its early years, Intel now seems to have turned around, as evidenced by the vigor with which it pursues this new line of ASICs.
Through Tom's Hardware