Intel details its new bitcoin mining Bonanza Mine ASICs, claiming 300 of the chips consume 3,600 watts and deliver up to 40 terahashes per second of performance
Intel's 3,600-watt Bitcoin-mining powerhouse — At ISSCC 2022, Intel shared the deep-dive details of its new Bitcoin-mining Bonanza Mine ASICs …
Context & Ripple Effects
Intel had just created a Custom Compute Group for blockchain hardware and named Block, Argo, and Griid as mining-chip customers. The Bonanza Mine disclosure turns that launch plan into a concrete power-and-performance proposition for those buyers.
The longer arc is brief: Intel later ended its Blockscale mining-ASIC line without naming successors, underscoring how difficult it was to sustain a dedicated challenge in a market previously described as dominated by Bitmain and Canaan Creative.
First-order effects
- Block, Argo, and Griid gain a stated benchmark for evaluating Intel's mining hardware: a 300-chip configuration rated at 40 terahashes per second while consuming 3,600 watts.
- Intel can position Bonanza Mine as a purpose-built alternative to general-purpose compute for Bitcoin mining, with efficiency and aggregate throughput central to customer procurement.
Second-order effects
- Bitmain and Canaan Creative face a new prospective ASIC supplier competing on miners' operating-power economics, while Samsung's ASIC manufacturing work illustrates that chip fabrication was also becoming relevant to the contest.
- Mining customers evaluating Intel's chips must weigh a new supplier's claimed performance-per-watt against the established ASIC vendors' offerings, making power consumption a more explicit purchase criterion.
Third-order effects
- Intel's later Blockscale exit suggests that publishing competitive ASIC specifications is easier than maintaining a durable specialized-mining product line; scale, customer commitments, and product continuity determine whether entrants alter market structure.
- The episode fits a broader move toward workload-specific silicon, but its short product arc shows specialization does not automatically create a lasting business outside a chipmaker's core portfolio.
The trend: Bitcoin mining was becoming a proving ground for highly specialized, power-conscious silicon, even as sustaining a dedicated ASIC business remained difficult for new entrants.