Intel going to offer ASIC mining chips on Feb 23rd

[adaseb]

What a privilege it must be for one of the largest chip producers to finally start making an Bitcoin mining ASIC. When I got into mining years ago never would I assumed the Bitmains competitor will actually be Intel.

So obviously it won’t be cheap. However given Bitmain build quality at least it will be reliable. Wonder if it will actually be for the masses or if it’s some small batch sold to a select few large farms.

Should be interesting seeing what is announced in a couple of weeks.

[JayDDee]

It looks like they're getting serious about mining.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/intel-bitcoin-mining-chips-51642617554

Nvidia last year restricted mining capacity on some of its products, but Intel has said that it would place no such restrictions on its GPUs.

[Grim]

Don't you actually know that a gpu IS an ASIC ...  

[JayDDee]

Don't you actually know that a gpu IS an ASIC ...  

No, it's a processor. ASIC is "Application Specific", a processor can run any application.

[Metroid]

It looks like they're getting serious about mining.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/intel-bitcoin-mining-chips-51642617554

Nvidia last year restricted mining capacity on some of its products, but Intel has said that it would place no such restrictions on its GPUs.

They need to offer a better product in order to sell it, so it's normal they offer without any lock at moment, if intel was leader in this segment then locks after locks hehe, i.e cpu market, anyway, the good thing we have one more player in this market.

[JayDDee]

They need to offer a better product in order to sell it, so it's normal they offer without any lock at moment, if intel was leader in this segment then locks after locks hehe, i.e cpu market, anyway, the good thing we have one more player in this market.

I don't think Intel will go down the LHR road. It just doesn't work. Miners are still buying LHR GPUs at inflated
prices. Intel's graphics drivers are also open source, unless they decide to go closed for their discrete GPU, so enforcing
LHR would be difficult. It also doesn't make business sense, it adds cost and alienates a segment of the market.

I expect LHR to become a case study in some future business course.

[adaseb]

Intel will also start to build GPUs to compete with AMD and Nvidia however this isn’t about GPUs. They are making an actual sha256d algo ASIC chip, not a GPU.

Their competition right now is Bitmain pretty much. And it will be interesting to see how much more efficient they can make their ASICS compared to Bitmain.

I wonder if they will build an entire ASIC or if they will just sell the chips for other companies to put it inside a PCB and build an ASIC like the Antminer.

[JayDDee]

For ASICs it's just chips. Here's a better arcticle, the other one is pay-walled.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17218/intels-next-gen-bitcoin-asic-called-bzm2-built-on-7nm-137-gigahashsec-at-25-w

They are making an actual sha256d algo ASIC chip, not a GPU.

Both.

[FP91G]

Bitmain has a market share of less than 50% for a long time, so Intel will have to compete with many well-known ones. MicroBT, Ebang, Canaan will compete very well, and intel has problems with chip production. But all modern ASICs consume a lot of electricity and are noisy, and are not suitable for mining at home.

[Metroid]

I don't think Intel will go down the LHR road. It just doesn't work. Miners are still buying LHR GPUs at inflated
prices. Intel's graphics drivers are also open source, unless they decide to go closed for their discrete GPU, so enforcing
LHR would be difficult. It also doesn't make business sense, it adds cost and alienates a segment of the market.

I expect LHR to become a case study in some future business course.

I hope you are right, I gave you a good example on how Intel ***** the cpu market by having had created locked multipliers since 2012, anyway, if intel comes with full hashrate and rivaling x nvidia then that will be good enough, I really dont care what they will do later, It's crucial that Intel goes and show nvidia what is to be the underdog hehe, those semiconductors companies are all evil when they are at the top.

[BitKongy]

I wish this is true, if something big like intel support mining we will see new projects introducing proof of work over again, most new projects today have abandoned PoW for PoS algorithm it's sad.

[ccplz]

isn't there a chip shortage or something? or are those different chips?

[JayDDee]

isn't there a chip shortage or something? or are those different chips?

It helps when you can make them yourself. The shortage won't last forever and they already have orders
for the second generation BTC ASIC. Like I said it looks like they're serious.

Supply may be an issue with the upcoming GPU launch. If they can deliver in volume it would give them
an advantage becoming a third GPU option for gamers and miners.

[adaseb]

Yes there is a chip shortage which leads me to believe there won’t be too many of these produced in the first place. For all we know they might be just doing this to get their name out there and stick it into AMD and Nvidia face and profit won’t be the main goal.

From a business point of view, it seems risky choosing to produce ASIC chip when they can make CPU and GPU chips instead which will for sure give them a profit. If Bitcoin prices go down then they will have issues selling these ASICS to begin with.

[swogerino]

Intel will also start to build GPUs to compete with AMD and Nvidia however this isn’t about GPUs. They are making an actual sha256d algo ASIC chip, not a GPU.

Their competition right now is Bitmain pretty much. And it will be interesting to see how much more efficient they can make their ASICS compared to Bitmain.

I wonder if they will build an entire ASIC or if they will just sell the chips for other companies to put it inside a PCB and build an ASIC like the Antminer.

Intel compared to Bitmain is a huge company which has a lot more revenue than Bitmain internationally.Intel is the giant who produces some of the best processors out there so based on this I think will far out pass the performance of their ASICS compared to those of Bitmain.Intel has better intelligence and better human resources (people who work at Intel I suppose to be far more professionals than those at Bitmain and no offense meant here for Bitmain) so most probably they will win this battle in the long run if they are serious about entering this market and of course their products will be much better in power efficiency.This is just my personal opinion by comparing the two companies in discussion here.

[JayDDee]

The timing of the announcement is interesting, around the same time their GPUs are (were?) supposed
to be released. They might be connected and part of a larger strategy, just speculating.

[Metroid]

Intel bitcoin mining chip is the most efficient to date, meaning --> very good, that will take the monopoly from bitmain that has been for years.

[dmatthewstewart]

It looks like they're getting serious about mining.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/intel-bitcoin-mining-chips-51642617554

Nvidia last year restricted mining capacity on some of its products, but Intel has said that it would place no such restrictions on its GPUs.

So now we understand why LHR became a thing.

It was the set up to try and move some of their customers into a new product line.

And implementing LHR didn’t slow the down the consumption from miners (as likely intended)

Instead, it was an unnecessary tax on a large chunk of their customers.

Thanks for posting this.