Intel Unveiling New Chip Described as an “Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC”

It looks like Intel is about to create it’s own Bitcoin mining chip. The ISSCC conference is a yearly gathering for the chip industry. Intel has a presentation scheduled in the ‘Highlighted Chip Releases’ category to outline a new “Bonanza Mine” processor, a new chip described as an “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC.”

The presentation comes on the heels of comments from Intel’s GPU Chief Raja Koduri during a live stream last December, indicating that the company is working on specialized hardware for cryptomining. 

In December 29, 2021, and Intel’s Systems and Graphics Architect, Senior Vice President and GM Raja Koduri appeared on popular streamer Dr. Lupo’s show to promote the company’s launch of its first gaming GPUs, the Arc Alchemist lineup that will launch this year. While the focus of Intel’s GPUs is for gaming, Koduri hints that they won’t limit the GPUs mining capacity (28:20 in the below video).

“The other part of the answer is that we do think that this whole blockchain, as you call it, […], I think blockchain is a transaction thing that is run much more efficiently than the burning of hardware cycles, is something we are working on.” Koduri said, “And that’s not a GPU thing, so don’t try to confuse that as a GPU thing. GPUs will do graphics, gaming, and all those wonderful things. But being able to do much more efficient blockchain validation at a much lower cost, much lower power, is a pretty solvable problem. And you know, we are working on that, and at some point in time, hopefully not too far into the future, we will kinda share some interesting hardware for that.”

The Intel news is coming on the heels of Jack Dorsey’s Block confirming they are also working on a new more efficient Bitcoin mining system. The Bitcoin mining space is about to get some serious competition as companies see the growth of the emerging crypto market.