Fresh out of the rumor mill, it looks like Intel is creating a chip that specializes in crypto mining. Called "Bonanza Mine", team blue could be presenting the new processor at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2022) which is scheduled between 20th and 24th February.
The chip is entitled "Bonanza Mine: An Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC" and brings Intel into direct competition with the likes of Bitmain and MicroBT, which are market leaders for bitcoin mining application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for the first time.
The demand for crypto mining has driven up the prices of graphics processing units a lot, including Intel"s, so much that it is one of the reasons for the ongoing chip shortage. The company has also placed the first order in the industry for High-NA EUV tools that will help it achieve its fabrication goals in the coming years, as it moves on to the 18A technology.
Unlike its competitor Nvidia, Intel says that it does not plan to add ether mining limits on its newly announced ARC GPUs. Intel had also discussed its plans about researching and manufacturing specialized hardware for crypto mining purposes during a live stream on Dr. Lupo"s YouTube channel.
Source: Tom"s Hardware