Intel announces the launch of its own second generation ASICA bitcoin mining chip called Blockscale.

“Based on years of research and development, this ASIC will provide customers with energy-efficient hashing for Proof-of-Work consensus networks,” the statement said.

Blockscale will provide a hash rate of up to 0.58 TH/s with an energy efficiency of about 26 J/TH. 256 chips can be combined in a circuit (~148.5 TH/s).

The company said the nature of the semiconductors used in the technology will allow Blockscale to mass-produce it without jeopardizing the supply of new CPUs or GPUs.

The chip is scheduled to be available to customers from the third quarter of 2022. Initial customers at Intel were named Argo Blockchain, Block, Hive Blockchain Technologies, and GRIID Infrastructure.

In February, Intel introduced the first Bonanza Mine mining chip and a device based on it. The 300-chip ASIC miner achieved a hash rate of up to 47.7 TH/s and an energy efficiency of 55 J/TH. The numbers turned out to be significantly lower than the flagships of the market.

GRIID was chosen as one of the chip’s first customers. However, in its prospectus, which was filed before going public SECjournalists discovered information about future posts of ASIC miners with higher performance.

It was about the purchase of proposed devices with a computing power of 135 TH / s and an energy efficiency of 26 J / TH. According to the second indicator, the air-cooled rig turned out to be 15% more efficient than one of the leaders in Bitmain’s Antminer S19 Pro segment.

GRIID did not explicitly list the supplier, naming it “the leading US manufacturer of integrated circuits.” At the same time, Intel is the only chip manufacturer in the country.

Recall that in March, HIVE Blockchain entered into an agreement with Intel to purchase mining equipment with delivery expected in the second half of 2022.