Topic: Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC from Intel (23 Feb 2022) - page 2. (Read 1145 times)
January 21, 2022, 05:09:08 PM
Wonder if Intel is planing doing their mining chips at the new Fabs to be built in Ohio? https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/intels-100b-ohio-megafab-could-become-worlds-largest-chip-plant/
January 20, 2022, 06:59:41 PM
It makes sense for mega farms to once again be able to secure mining chips and just have their own custom miners built from them. Virtually every major data center does that with custom server mobo's and storage solutions tailored to their specific needs that they designed together with the actual hardware vendors that build them for the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Google, Hulu, Netflix etc. For new build outs I foresee most being liquid cooled setups rather like BM's ANTRACKS. Gives the maximum power density per cu/ft with none of the problems of scaling up immersion tank setups. Air cooling should be right-out.
Whenever I see farms like this
I always have to ask -- why in the hell...? Noise be damned, maint of the fans and PSU's has to employ over a dozen techs and other support people just to keep up with expected failure rates...
And by today's standards that farm in the above pic was a fairly small operation...
eg...
Way back around 2013 there was a 'monster' farm in Oregon that rolled their own miners using BitFury chip and their own hashboard designs. Somewhere I have an article saying their were pulling over $250k a day in BTC rewards...
Whenever I see farms like this
I always have to ask -- why in the hell...? Noise be damned, maint of the fans and PSU's has to employ over a dozen techs and other support people just to keep up with expected failure rates...And by today's standards that farm in the above pic was a fairly small operation...
eg...
Way back around 2013 there was a 'monster' farm in Oregon that rolled their own miners using BitFury chip and their own hashboard designs. Somewhere I have an article saying their were pulling over $250k a day in BTC rewards...
January 20, 2022, 05:38:53 PM
So, they have a client:
and that client got a month later a $525M Credit Facility from Blockchain.com
From a miner's point of view, oh sh***!
I'm scared to start updating a table on how much gear and how much money these companies are putting into gear, guess pretty soon you either mine for fun and to support the network or you don't mine anymore, profits will be counted in cents.
Quote
The filing is a four-year supply agreement between Intel and Griid Infrastructure, starting on September 8th, 2021, and the BZM2 chip is designed specifically for SHA-256 cryptographic hash functions. While exact purchase agreement numbers are redacted, Griid is to supply an 18-month rolling forecast of requested supply that Intel will work towards, with a specific reservation quantity, and a minimum deposit at the start of the agreement.
and that client got a month later a $525M Credit Facility from Blockchain.com
From a miner's point of view, oh sh***!
I'm scared to start updating a table on how much gear and how much money these companies are putting into gear, guess pretty soon you either mine for fun and to support the network or you don't mine anymore, profits will be counted in cents.
January 20, 2022, 04:48:12 PM
Update on the expected performance specs https://www.anandtech.com/show/17218/intels-next-gen-bitcoin-asic-called-bzm2-built-on-7nm-137-gigahashsec-at-25-w
😄 As I said earlier, that is pretty much what I expected to hear for them. 7nm lets them get REAL experience using their EUV litho processes and in theory by not shooting for 5nm makes it easier to hit those performance targets.
More to the point, of course since they already have Foundries using EUV there are no other customers (or at least very few) vying for a place in the production lines.
😄 As I said earlier, that is pretty much what I expected to hear for them. 7nm lets them get REAL experience using their EUV litho processes and in theory by not shooting for 5nm makes it easier to hit those performance targets.
More to the point, of course since they already have Foundries using EUV there are no other customers (or at least very few) vying for a place in the production lines.
Good read.
and an interesting conflict in the story
in that 55 watts a th vs 18 watts a th are both listed As the power used.
a board with 25 chips burning 2.5 watts = 62.5 watts does 3.425 th if 25 x .137 is correct.
62.5/3.425 = 18.24 watts a th.
now we all know fans and a controller and other shit = some power.
But I can say 3 boards = 187.5 watts
maybe a six board rig pulling 375 watts + other parts say 75 watts = a 450 watt miner that does 21 th is possible
that makes it 21 or 22 watts a th which is better than all gear other than the s19xp
And if set to be a 450 watt unit it would be a nice item.
Well if 500 watts and 20th are possible at a good price the small guy will buy it.
January 20, 2022, 03:04:31 PM
Update on the expected performance specs https://www.anandtech.com/show/17218/intels-next-gen-bitcoin-asic-called-bzm2-built-on-7nm-137-gigahashsec-at-25-w
😄 As I said earlier, that is pretty much what I expected to hear for them. 7nm lets them get REAL experience using their EUV litho processes and in theory by not shooting for 5nm makes it easier to hit those performance targets.
More to the point, of course since they already have their own Foundries using EUV there are no other customers (or at least very few) vying for a place in the production lines.
😄 As I said earlier, that is pretty much what I expected to hear for them. 7nm lets them get REAL experience using their EUV litho processes and in theory by not shooting for 5nm makes it easier to hit those performance targets.
More to the point, of course since they already have their own Foundries using EUV there are no other customers (or at least very few) vying for a place in the production lines.
January 19, 2022, 06:10:10 PM
Let's just hope they decide to sell the chips like they do with their CPUs and let multiple 3rd parties develop the end products. That way the home miner might be able to get a quiet and efficient 1KW miner, and the industrial guys can get their 10kw 415V 3 phase monster... or whatever is coming next...
AFAIK that's what they're going to sell. That's their main business anyway, selling chips. Sometimes they do sell end products like the NUC, but that's the minority.
It would be really interesting to have a small unit at home that doesn't produce a lot of noise and heat and yet still gets you a bit of bitcoin every day through a pool.
January 19, 2022, 02:07:42 PM
From a working demo to actually producing this is a long way with the mandatory hop of it actually being that efficient compared to the current gear. But, what I would love to see some small miners, not USB sticks but some really low-power miners on pair with what futurebit offers, it would always be better to have 1 million home miners doing 2-5TH/s than a single entity controlling 5Exa, plus with really small consumption one wouldn't really care about electricity prices, 100-200 watts is nothing.
@philipma1957 rather than mobo chips I would rather see standalone cards, but ... we're a bit daydreaming right now.
@philipma1957 rather than mobo chips I would rather see standalone cards, but ... we're a bit daydreaming right now.
January 19, 2022, 01:50:46 PM
I wonder if they would ever make these commercially given the bad press crypto mining has been getting recently.
Intel are a global household name, and getting involved in the "dirty eco-killing" mining business might a PR step in the wrong direction.
Intel are a global household name, and getting involved in the "dirty eco-killing" mining business might a PR step in the wrong direction.
January 19, 2022, 11:18:20 AM
Well it would be nice to give a home owner a quality miner with good efficiency .
Under 800 watts full power
and compete with 30 watts a th.
Just think:
25th unit that uses 750 watts = Good
25th unit that uses 625 watts = Better
25th unit that uses 500 watts = Best
I think it could sell well. It can't be a lot more efficient that the beast miners.
I picked that th and those watts for specific reasons.
If they really were smart they could sell a mobo using up to 2 mining chips
and let the mobo be able to be upgrade to better mining chips. I e much like an intel server mobo
Under 800 watts full power
and compete with 30 watts a th.
Just think:
25th unit that uses 750 watts = Good
25th unit that uses 625 watts = Better
25th unit that uses 500 watts = Best
I think it could sell well. It can't be a lot more efficient that the beast miners.
I picked that th and those watts for specific reasons.
If they really were smart they could sell a mobo using up to 2 mining chips
and let the mobo be able to be upgrade to better mining chips. I e much like an intel server mobo
January 19, 2022, 10:47:40 AM
Well it looks like I am going to eat my words from what I have been saying around here for a while.
I REALLY thought that Intel would never enter such a niche market. They have for years only been about CPUs, memory, things that can be sold to everyone everywhere.
Yes, they always had some smaller product lines, but that was usually obtained from when they bought other businesses. Something like this developed in house has been rare from them as of late.
As others have said, lets see how it pans out in terms of efficiency & cost & availability.
-Dave
I REALLY thought that Intel would never enter such a niche market. They have for years only been about CPUs, memory, things that can be sold to everyone everywhere.
Yes, they always had some smaller product lines, but that was usually obtained from when they bought other businesses. Something like this developed in house has been rare from them as of late.
As others have said, lets see how it pans out in terms of efficiency & cost & availability.
-Dave
January 19, 2022, 10:37:46 AM
Let's just hope they decide to sell the chips like they do with their CPUs and let multiple 3rd parties develop the end products. That way the home miner might be able to get a quiet and efficient 1KW miner, and the industrial guys can get their 10kw 415V 3 phase monster... or whatever is coming next...
January 18, 2022, 07:56:24 PM
As I posted on Discord
Quote
My take is that Intel is building on their recent DARPA contracts for ASIC crypto chips https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/darpa-partners-intel-domestic-fpga-asic-program/
Since mil chips need to be as fast and low power as possible, it makes sense for Intel to follow the lead taken by TSMC and Samsung to very cheaply test out designs and production processes by making mining chips. As I've said in the past, ja Apple, Cisco, Broadcom et al drove and paid for all the research into ever-shrinking node sizes but it was the Foundries producing the far cheaper and more fault-tolerant mining chips by the gazillions that sped up them perfecting the processes.
OF course, as we saw last year, once the processes for the 5nm nodes were vastly honed to perfection the Foundries then shifted production capacity to their bread and butter customers and left BM and friends with crumbs. 😉
Who knows, maybe by practicing on low cost mining chips, Intel might one day figure out how to get their CPU's below the 10nm node...🤔
Considering that Intel is one of the handful of Foundries that have the EUV litho equipment required to produce chips with 7nm and smaller gate sizes it makes sense for them to put it to good use by practicing on mining chips. Since mil chips need to be as fast and low power as possible, it makes sense for Intel to follow the lead taken by TSMC and Samsung to very cheaply test out designs and production processes by making mining chips. As I've said in the past, ja Apple, Cisco, Broadcom et al drove and paid for all the research into ever-shrinking node sizes but it was the Foundries producing the far cheaper and more fault-tolerant mining chips by the gazillions that sped up them perfecting the processes.
OF course, as we saw last year, once the processes for the 5nm nodes were vastly honed to perfection the Foundries then shifted production capacity to their bread and butter customers and left BM and friends with crumbs. 😉
Who knows, maybe by practicing on low cost mining chips, Intel might one day figure out how to get their CPU's below the 10nm node...🤔
January 18, 2022, 07:32:25 PM
It will be interesting to see if it is able to perform J/Hash like current miners,
or if it is just a 'working demo' with poor performance.
Intel's CPUs still aren't even under 10nm yet ...
or if it is just a 'working demo' with poor performance.
Intel's CPUs still aren't even under 10nm yet ...
January 18, 2022, 07:27:42 PM
Interesting! It would be a game changer for sure, if Intel decides to hop in to the btc asic game.
January 18, 2022, 07:10:09 PM
Intel will be showing a working demo of their paper: Bonanza Mine: An Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC at the ISSCC Conference on Wednesday February 23rd, 7:00 AM PST.
This is the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, where most of the best new chips are presented. This conference will be held in San Francisco and online because of the spread of omicron.
This is the program of the conference in pdf. You can find the Intel demo in page 27:
This is probably going to be related to a previous Intel patent from 2018:
Optimized sha-256 datapath for energy-efficient high-performance bitcoin mining
This is the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, where most of the best new chips are presented. This conference will be held in San Francisco and online because of the spread of omicron.
This is the program of the conference in pdf. You can find the Intel demo in page 27:
This is probably going to be related to a previous Intel patent from 2018:
Optimized sha-256 datapath for energy-efficient high-performance bitcoin mining
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