Intel Corporation, a giant in computer chip manufacturing, has announced details about a new mining chip that will be paired with a powerful 3,600-watt Bitcoin miner, with the ultimate goal of improving Bitcoin (BTC) miner efficiency.

Intel unveiled its second-generation BTC miner at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2022, a conference dedicated to the electronics and chip manufacturing industry.

According to the company, Bonanza Mine (BMZ2) is an energy-efficient ultra-low-voltage Bitcoin mining ASIC capable of delivering 40 terahashes per second (TH/s). It is all very complicated language, but the BMZ2 will in other words be a device specifically designed for Bitcoin mining and it is very energy efficient.

Back in 2018, Intel applied for a patent on "high-performance Bitcoin mining." The company was convinced that it could reduce the energy consumption of mining by about 15%. At the time, Intel representatives showed confidence in competing with established players, including Bitmain, MicroBT, and Nvidia.

The BMZ2 chips are anticipated to follow an architectural design similar to the BMZ1, the first-generation mining chip, in which more than 300 chips, powered by a 3,600W miner, work together to deliver up to 40 TH/s in a balanced environment.

Intel's next-generation BTC miner will be able to deliver a balanced performance of 40.4 TH/s by consuming 2,293W of power - with a low power consumption of 56.97 joules per terahash (J/TH). Compared to Bitmain's hardware, the Antminer S19j ASIC Bitcoin miner consumes 3,100W to deliver up to 90 TH/s at room temperature, resulting in an efficiency of 34.5 J/TH.

In addition, the hardware will also have the option to operate in high-performance and power-saving modes to optimize the energy-cost ratio.

Intel has yet to announce an official launch date, along with the technical requirements of the second-generation miner.

The difficulty of mining the Bitcoin network continues to show an upward trend, which is a strong indication of its growing resistance to network attacks.

At its peak, Bitcoin recorded a hash rate of 248.11 exahashes per second (EH/s) on February 13, after a 31.69% jump from 188.40 EH/s in just one day.
With the increase in hash rate, BTC mining equipment must evolve to provide higher performance at relatively flat energy consumption.