US compute giant Intel will ship its “Blockscale” ASIC chip this year.
According to a company blog post, the chip is set for delivery to Argo Blockchain, Block (formerly Square), Hive Technologies and GRIID Infrastructure in Q3 2022.
A standalone chip, Blockscale specs in at 580 GH/s per circuit at 26 J/TH efficiency. Each “chain” can support up to 256 circuits, placing a singular chip’s max potential hashrate at 148 TH/s at 3,860 watts (W).
Any final build will more than likely lose efficiency over the raw chip values, however, due to inefficiencies introduced by other components. For example, Intel released specifications for its Bonanza Miner 2 (BZM2) in March, which uses the Blockscale chip. It clocked in slightly lower at 135 TH/s and 26 J/TH efficiency.
The Santa Clara, California-based firm further said shipments to other companies will be weighed against their commitment to sustainability in 2023.
“Intel’s decades of R&D in cryptography, hashing techniques and ultra-low voltage circuits make it possible for blockchain applications to scale their computing power without compromising on sustainability,” Intel vice president of Custom Compute Balaji Kanigicherla said in a statement.
Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash.
