The Bonanza Mining Chip is Intel’s first foray into crypto-mining:
In the recent ISSCC program, Intel unveiled the new Bonanza Mine cryptocurrency mining chip. A chip that will no doubt prove popular amongst crypto-miners looking for peak performance.
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Intel is one of the most successful tech companies in the world. Founded in 1968, this technology titan is known for delivering reliable CPUs for desktop computers. However, this tech giant also does business for other sectors, including transistor radio development.
Reports revealed Intel’s current aim of entering the Bitcoin mining industry in 2022, using their upcoming 10nm Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) processing chips based on technology named “Bonanza Chips.”
Due to this, there is an upbeat feeling among fans who follow the news regarding the latest advancements in the crypto-mining world.
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How Did We Get To Know About Bonanza Chips?
At a conference, information was handed out by the ISSCC in 2022 showcasing an entry called “Bonanza Mine: an ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC.” The paper is authored by Intel employees Vikam Suresh and two others.
PC World recently interviewed Suresh, who happens to be a research scientist at Intel Labs and has worked on projects like;
- Micro-architecture and circuit design for data encryption and authentication,
- Design of cryptographic primitives for random number and key generation,
- Block-chain technologies and high-performance data compression.
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What Is The Intel Bonanza Mining Chip?
According to Intel, the new silicon for “blockchain-based transaction processing systems” has 1000x better performance per watt than mainstream GPUs for Bitcoin SHA-256 mining.
For example, Bitmain offers Bitcoin-specific ASICs designed to be used in mining rigs and to make mining more profitable.
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Bonanza Mine Chips Specifications
Each die measures 4.14mm x 3.42mm, totaling 14.16mm of silicon (hence, these are comparatively tiny pieces), reducing manufacturing costs and increasing yields. This helps maximize production throughput (though it does require more work to dice/package).
Additionally, Intel says these are 7nm ASICs but does not specify if this is TSMC’s 7nm or Intel’s ‘Intel 7’ which was the previous generation node to 7nm. All in all, this seems to be a move forward, even though newcomers may be confused about what that means for the mining industry.
Down the road, each ASIC chip operates at 1.35-1.6 GHz while consuming an average of 7.5W per unit. By delivering 51 K/THash/s, you’ll be able to run a mining operation with an average power consumption of 355mV and a hash rate of ~137 Ghash/s (57 J/THash/s).
Diving deeper, Bonanza Mine’s custom-built hardware features a total of 258 dedicated Bitcoin hashing engines, which consume little energy and produce a considerable amount of heat.
Also, Bonanza Mine makes sure to use customized designs that control power and keep the machines cool by pushing excess heat away through the use of thermal sinks. Each engine is capable of independent computational effort while working parallel with others during an ASIC-based cryptocurrency mining process.
For crypto-miners, this is a significant boost. And for PC gamers or enthusiasts, this means the CPU and GPU markets might return from insane levels (at some point).
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Bonanza Mine Chips Availability?
We are still waiting for further details about the new optimized Bitcoin ASIC processor that’s supposed to be coming from Intel later this year:
Notably, Argo Blockchain, BLOCK (previously Square), and GRIID Infrastructure have been revealed as the initial companies to sign on for this new offering.
The chip should be ready in time for manufacturers to release their single-purpose mining rigs before the end of this current year.
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