Current crypto mining hardware is starting to suffer from higher electricity costs. This coupled with the lower price of crypto markets, along with a relatively flat difficulty level, is forcing many miners to temporarily switch off their systems. However, Intel has finally secured a patent for a new high-performance crypto mining hardware that will be more powerful than existing systems, while using much less power. Intel has been waiting for the patent to be given the green light since 2016, but this news means it can officially ramp up prototyping and production efforts without the fear of having its tech stolen.
Optimized SHA-256 Datapath
Great news for Bitcoin and other SHA-256 miners, as this new tech is exclusively for you. The patent covers Intel’s new design to optimize the Datapath for creating SHA hashes. The new design will connect a processor to a number of padding bits and a hardware accelerator – both of which will be communicatively coupled to the processor – in a bid to create stage 1 SHA hashes. Essentially, the path the data takes from the processor will be given more channels to pass through and the journey will be more direct – think of it like building a direct superhighway bypass rather than taking the back roads.
ASIC Killing Hardware
These new chips from Intel will effectively eliminate the need for ASIC mining rigs and will make them obsolete. Thanks to the new chip design, these optimized chips will remove the need for recursive rounds of computation in order to create a specific hash. In fact, these new chips should be able to churn out the perfect hash every single time. On top of this, the new chips will save around 15% in total size, meaning you can hook more of these new devices up in the same amount of space you previously had available. This tech will end the ASIC generation and will usher in a new breed of crypto mining rigs.
Power Consumption Greatly Reduced
Crypto mining is one of the greenest and cleanest forms of mining in the world. In fact, an estimated 77.6% of all power used by crypto miners is from renewable sources. Mining firms around the world are constantly looking at new jurisdictions that are mining friendly with low cost power – all to help fuel their ASIC rigs. With these new chips, the power consumption will be greatly reduced, meaning it will be profitable to mine even on the most expensive power grids in the world.
Mining hardware manufactures – such as Bitmain – will be slightly unsettled by the news of the patent from Intel, but it doesn’t mean the game is over. Intel still has to design and develop these chips. On top of this, algorithms change slightly in order to resist these types of chips from taking over. Intel could be in for one hell of a ride and potential problems at every turn. If it manages to pull it off, we could see Bitmain using these new Intel chips in its own mining hardware – or a very similar version that is made in-house.
