Energy-efficient, it should help speed up blockchain tasks like bitcoin mining or NFT typing.
Intel does not want to miss out on the potential computing revolution opened up by blockchain. The company unveiled a chip on February 11, described as a “blockchain gas pedal.” The first ones will be delivered during 2022.
The tantalizing energy performance of this new chip
Jack Dorsey’s company, which specializes in blockchain-related technologies, as its name suggests, Block, will be one of the first to get the new chip from Intel.
If the Twitter co-founder jumped at the chance it’s because the promise of this chip, “blockchain gas pedal” promises to remedy one of the most worrying issues of bitcoin mining: its environmental impact.
Raja Koduri, Intel’s senior vice president, expects “our chip innovations to deliver a blockchain gas pedal with more than 1,000 times the performance per watt of consumer GPUs for SHA-256-based mining.”
The SHA-256 hashing algorithm is the one used to generate bitcoin and a number of other cryptocurrencies. Intel’s promise is therefore tantalizing to industry professionals, who are facing the gradual introduction of regulations to oversee mining and the like.
The expected performance of Intel’s chip might be able to reassure lawmakers around the world. Since China banned cryptocurrency mining and trading, officially for environmental reasons, but not only, lawmakers in the United States and the European Union are also considering restrictions.
More information to come, Intel promises
Intel promises to give more information about its new chip at the International Solid State Circuits Conference. It will begin on February 20. The presentation of the American giant will probably be highly anticipated by the participants.
Through the voice of Raja Koduri, Intel demonstrates that it intends to sustainably strengthen its presence in the blockchain sector. The company announced the creation of a segment to support research in the field and others, named Custom Compute Group, within its business unit Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics.