Intel announced Tuesday that it has ended production of its first-generation Blockscale cryptocurrency mining chips. The announcement comes just a year after the introduction of the Blockscale 1000 family and marks a fairly rapid shift in the product Intel once hoped would carve out his billion dollar business.
Intel has begun the end-of-life process for its Blockscale 1000 series ASICs (models 1120, 1140, and 1160) on April 7, 2023. Customers already using these chips must order the ASICs by October 20, 2023. Intel will deliver final block-scale products to clients by April 20, 2024.
Notably, Intel has ended production of the Blockscale 1000 family without announcing a successor chip. The company has confirmed to Tom’s Hardware and Reuters that it is not completely exiting the crypto mining ASIC business, saying it is “continuing to monitor market opportunities” but that it will not have an immediate successor. usually means the end of the road for struggling products. line. Especially now, Intel has narrowed its product focus very openly in recent months.
“In order to prioritize investments in IDM 2.0, we have discontinued production of the Intel Block Scale 1000 Series ASICs while continuing to support our block scale customers,” the company said in a statement. increase.
Tangentially, Tom’s Hardware points out that Intel has now removed virtually all Blockscale-related product pages. This basically means they’re no longer advertising chips, and they may not have high hopes for the new ordering method either.
Hive Blockchain was one of the largest users of Intel Blockscale-based machines, custom-built Hive BuzzMiners that the company designed and promised hash rates of 110 TH/s to 130 TH/s. As of January 2023, the company has ordered 5800 such systems to be manufactured, but it is unclear if it plans to acquire more units. Other notable Blockscale customers were Argo Blockchain, Block, and GRIID Infrastructure. Among the few public details of Intel’s supply agreements with these customers, it’s worth noting that his GRIID’s first order for Intel’s Blockscale hardware was due to close in his May of this year. worthy of This is closely aligned with Intel’s decision to scale back its business.
Intel’s Blockscale SHA-256 accelerator chip, first unofficially unveiled by Intel at its annual ISSCC conference in early 2022 as “Bonanza Mine,” was developed by Intel’s Custom Compute Group. Apparently, Intel no longer has AXG or Blockscale. Intel, meanwhile, has pulled back quite a few operations since Pat Gelsinger returned to the company and was appointed CEO in early 2021.
Among other things, Intel sold its 3D NAND memory production and SSD operations, Optane SSD and 3D XPoint development, laptop modem business, barefoot switching units, and prebuilt server business. It’s part of Intel’s larger strategy to focus on a few core businesses that have greater impact and can deliver higher margins.
Source: Tom’s Hardware & Reuters
