Intel's "Bitcoin Mining Hardware Accelerator" Patent Filling Published

[Raevenlord]

A filed patent by Intel has shed some light on the company's idea to somewhere, along the fuzzy lines of the future, introduce a Bitcoin mining hardware "accelerator" to the market. The application itself, for a "Bitcoin Mining Hardware Accelerator With Optimized Message Digest and Message Scheduler Datapath" was originally submitted in September 2016, so it's not exactly a novel idea. However, the fact that it has just now been published doesn't really mean there hasn't been work behind closed doors at Intel towards development of working silicon of this technology.

In the filing, it appears it's Intel's intent to create a chip that could augment the existing Bitcoin mining process by increasing energy efficiency. As they themselves put it, "Because the software and hardware utilized in Bitcoin mining uses brute force to repeatedly and endlessly perform SHA-256 functions, the process of Bitcoin mining can be very power-intensive and utilize large amounts of hardware space. The embodiments described herein optimize Bitcoin mining operations by reducing the space utilized and power consumed by Bitcoin mining hardware."





In the filing, Intel expects its bitcoin mining accelerator tech would he able to cut power usage by as much as 35%, and could be added to ASICs, SoCs, CPUs, and FPGAs as well. It's an interesting tech, really, and a needed one - the amount of energy bitcoin mining consumes is already overboard, and should see a much needed reduction.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Mistral]

Is that another early April 1st?

 

[Konceptz]

Is that another early April 1st?

Has to be, SEC is getting ready to shutdown the whole bitcoin scene from what I've been reading.

 

[silentbogo]

...and that's probably where Altera comes into picture.

 

[windwhirl]

They freaking better not integrate any of this in their CPUs... Last thing we need is CPU pricing going sky-high...

 

[TheLostSwede]

They freaking better not integrate any of this in their CPUs... Last thing we need is CPU pricing going sky-high...

There's always AMD...

 

[windwhirl]

There's always AMD...

You're right. Go Intel! Go! Do it!

 

[mirage_pt]

From my very short "research" the patent(s) are actually real and aren't that new:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180006808A1
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180006807A1

The content of them probably have enough to learn a bit of the methods used to do it.

 

[R-T-B]

Has to be, SEC is getting ready to shutdown the whole bitcoin scene from what I've been reading.

News to me. Link?

Anyways, the problem with answers like this is that once it hits the market, every player will buy one and also expand operations to ensure they don't lose any edge they may have. I predict energy usage will remain unchanged, because greed.

 

[Hood]

Coin mining isn't going away - it's a good way to make money just by investing in automatic hardware, no employees needed. Just another way robots are killing jobs. If the US outlaws it, it will all be done somewhere else. By making it more efficient, Intel will make it more accepted (excessive power consumption is one of the major negatives about mining, causing brownouts in certain areas). Localities that allow coin mining will limit power consumption per customer, and massive investment in solar panels and batteries will be the way around that problem. Eventually it will find it's own limits, or become worthless.

 

[owen10578]

Don't know if this is April Fool's or real but anyone who thinks better mining efficiency will reduce total power consumption of mining is seriously short sighted. All it will do is make it viable to more people to mine where previously electric costs were prohibitive and the people that are already mining will just get more hashrate while using the same amount of power.

 

[R-T-B]

Don't know if this is April Fool's or real but anyone who thinks better mining efficiency will reduce total power consumption of mining is seriously short sighted. All it will do is make it viable to more people to mine where previously electric costs were prohibitive and the people that are already mining will just get more hashrate while using the same amount of power.

Unfortunately you are completely correct.

 

[Jism]

It's larrabee. What's new. All those cores could be stripped and scaled down to the most ideal ASIC.

 

[R-T-B]

It's larrabee. What's new. All those cores could be stripped and scaled down to the most ideal ASIC.

ASIC != general compute chip.

 

[Captain_Tom]

Has to be, SEC is getting ready to shutdown the whole bitcoin scene from what I've been reading.

Hahaha can't tell if you are joking, or this insanely misinformed.

 

[Konceptz]

News to me. Link?

Anyways, the problem with answers like this is that once it hits the market, every player will buy one and also expand operations to ensure they don't lose any edge they may have. I predict energy usage will remain unchanged, because greed.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...c-says-dozens-of-ico-investigations-underway/

Hahaha can't tell if you are joking, or this insanely misinformed.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...c-says-dozens-of-ico-investigations-underway/

 

[R-T-B]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...c-says-dozens-of-ico-investigations-underway/



https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...c-says-dozens-of-ico-investigations-underway/

ICOs are not the bitcoin scene. Heck, bitcoin isn't even an ICO.

 

[Konceptz]

ICOs are not the bitcoin scene. Heck, bitcoin isn't even an ICO.

Thanks for the correction.