Last week the California-based technology company Intel explained its intentions to develop crypto mining semiconductors that would showcase “1000x better performance per watt.” Now Intel has revealed more details about the “Bonanza Mine” (BMZ1) blockchain accelerator chip at this year’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).
Intel’s Bonanza Mine Crypto Chip Products Introduced at ISSCC
Information concerning Intel’s new crypto mining accelerator chip has been revealed to the public, according to various reports covering 2022’s ISSCC event. On February 12, Bitcoin.com News reported on Intel’s intentions to craft blockchain accelerator chips as Intel executive Raja M. Koduri described Intel’s goals.
Intel’s presentations at ISSCC revealed the “Bonanza Mine” (BMZ1) accelerator, but Tom’s Hardware author Paul Alcorn explained that Intel is already working on a second-generation “Bonanza Mine ASIC, known as the BMZ2.” Alcorn’s research notes that Intel described how it combined 300 chips into a “powerful 3,600W miner that delivers up to 40 [terahash per second (TH/s)] of performance.”
The BMZ1 leverages a 7 nanometer (nm) process and the size is an approximate “7 x 7.5mm exposed-die FCLGA package.” Alcorn says that while the BMZ1 is a 7nm process, it doesn’t give many details on the process node.
“Each chip die measures 4.14 x 3.42mm, for a total of 14.16mm^2 of silicon, so these are comparatively small slivers of silicon,” the report published by Tom’s Hardware explains. “The smaller die size improves yield and maximizes wafer area usage (up to 4,000 die per wafer), thus helping maximize production capacity (though it does require more wafer dicing/packaging capacity).” Alcorn’s BMZ1 summary adds:
Bonanza Mine ASICs have 258 mining engines. Each engine can compute parallel SHA256 double hasheds. These engines comprise 90% of the die area and operate at what Intel characterizes as an ‘ultra-low’ voltage of 355mV. ASICs run at 1.35 GHz to 1.6 GHz at 25C. Each ASIC consumes an average of 7.5W per ASIC while hitting upto 137 Ghash/s. At 355mV, that works out to 55 J/THash/s.
Intel’s specifications are not as profound as Bitmain’s recent mining rig launch announcements. Bitmain unveiled the Antminer S19 XP in November 2021. It boasts 140 TH/s. Bitmain launched the Antminer S19 XP, a stronger Bitcoin mining unit at the end of January. Each unit is capable of producing 198 TH/s, according to Bitmain.
Intel already has orders from firms looking to leverage the new BMZ1 and BMZ2 accelerators stemming from company’s like Griid, Argo Blockchain, and Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square). Griid’s S-4 filing doesn’t mention the BMZ1, but it does include the BZM2 integrated circuit product.
What do you think about Intel’s Bonanza Mine BMZ1 and BMZ2 mining chips? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
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