According to rumours, Intel has developed a new processor dedicated to cryptocurrency mining. "Bonanza Mine', the processor's codename, could be announced at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2022) to be held from 20 to 24 February. Specifically, Intel is scheduled to give a talk titled 'Bonanza Mine: An Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC'.

The conference, which last year was held in hybrid formats, both in-person and virtual, but given the spread of the Omicron variant globally has decided on an all-digital edition.

Should it actually produce such a product, Intel would for the first time enter into direct competition with Bitmain, which is already 5nm ready, and MicroBT, the market leader in ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) chips for bitcoin mining. Among Intel's first customers could be crypto startup GRIID.

Demand for cryptocurrency mining has driven up the prices of graphics processing units, including Intel's, so much so that it is one of the reasons for the continuing worldwide chip shortage. Cryptocurrency mining also requires high operating costs, primarily power consumption. Intel's new processor is expected to enable low power consumption while remaining highly efficient.

Intel has already shown interest in mining-related hardware in 2018, when it obtained a patent showing a design for a specialised processing system using a specific optimised cryptographic algorithm called SHA-256.

Written by: Joshua Wilson