Intel’s crypto mining chip the Bonanza Mine (BM) or BMZ1 was unveiled earlier in February and was a part of a presentation at IEEE’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2022. The company has now revealed more about its new range of specialized Bitcoin mining processors.
Tom’s Hardware claims that each chip has a die measuring 4.14 x 3.42mm with 258 mining engines and is based on TSMC’s 7nm process.
Intel claims that the system can pack 300 BMZ1 chips into a 3,600W ASIC miner that can reach a peak performance level of approximately 40THash/sec. Intel claims that the chips can operate under various performance profiles. However, for the chip to work, it will need to sustain 3,600W of power.
Currently, most high-end mining operations are dependent on ASIC systems, that use chips built especially to make use of the hashing algorithm SHA-256 also used for Bitcoin mining.
Bitmain and MicroBT are the leading players in the market for such machines. Intel’s specialized silicon chips may soon change the narrative.
The company unveiled that the 2nd generation BMZ2 chips are already accessible to some customers, such as BLOCK and Argo Blockchain.
For now, not much is known of the company’s approach to introducing the Bonanza Mine chips to the market. However, Intel is likely to distribute BM to companies that develop custom mining systems. Moreover, it is also likely that the company plans on bringing its Bonanza Mine-powered systems as a standalone product to consumers.
Intel’s mining chips, for now, remain engulfed in secrecy. Yet, the existence of a special internal team for the research and development of Bonanza Mine chips suggests more is in store.