The first customers for the upcoming blockchain accelerator product include Argo Blockchain, BLOCK, and GRIID Infrastructure
Intel aims to ship its blockchain accelerator this year. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
Intel has revealed intentions to play a role in the development of blockchain technologies by launching energy-efficient blockchain accelerators.
The tech major said that it will engage and encourage an open and secure blockchain ecosystem and will help take the technology forward responsibly and sustainably.
Intel claimed that it is building the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale to focus its efforts on realising the complete potential of blockchain.
The company has scheduled the shipping of its blockchain accelerator later this year. Among its first customers for the upcoming blockchain accelerator product are Argo Blockchain, GRIID Infrastructure, and BLOCK (previously known as Square).
According to Intel, the upcoming product’s architecture is implemented on a small piece of silicon to ensure that it has minimal effect on the supply of current products.
The company expects its circuit innovations to deliver a blockchain accelerator with more than 1000 times better performance per watt than mainstream graphics processing units (GPUs) for SHA-256 based mining.
Intel has created the Custom Compute Group within its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics division to support its plans.
The goal of the new team at Custom Compute Group is to develop custom silicon platforms that are streamlined for the workloads of customers to cover blockchain as well as other custom accelerated supercomputing opportunities at the edge.
Intel senior vice president and accelerated computing systems and graphics group general manager Raja Koduri said: “We are mindful that some blockchains require an enormous amount of computing power, which unfortunately translates to an immense amount of energy.
“Our customers are asking for scalable and sustainable solutions, which is why we are focusing our efforts on realising the full potential of blockchain by developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale.”
Earlier this month, Intel’s foundry services business created an ecosystem alliance called Intel Foundry Services Accelerator to enable a smooth journey for foundry customers in bringing their silicon products from idea to execution.