The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to Intel, which describes a processor that is said to be capable of “high-performance bitcoin mining with low power consumption”. It is suitable for use with the SHA-256 algorithm, which is used by Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies. An overview of the patent leads CoinDesk .
According to the patent, Bitcoin miners may receive a reward for the production of the unit and transaction fees. However, bitcoin mining devices usually require hardware accelerators in the form of ASIC devices that consume a lot of electricity.
These hardware accelerators are needed in order to find a 32-bit single-use code in the process of PoW mining . The current ASIC devices process transactions in several steps, however, some operations performed during mining can be considered redundant.
“ASIC devices designed specifically for Bitcoin mining are equipped with a large number of SHA-256 algorithm handlers, which are able to provide a hash rate of thousands of hashes per second while consuming more than 200 watts. The system described in this patent uses micro-architectural optimization, including a fixed connection to each other of some components involved in Bitcoin mining, ”the patent says.
Fixed connection to each other of these components reduces the number of calculations, which ultimately leads, according to the patent, to a reduction in the power consumption of the chip by 15%. It also allows you to make this chip smaller than those with which Bitcoin mining devices are being equipped.
The patent also states that the power consumption of mining devices can be reduced by reducing the number of reconciliations with a 32-bit random code:
“Instead of comparing the final hash result with the desired value, the mining device can determine if the final hash result has the minimum number of leading zeros. If it has, then the final hash result is less than the desired value. "
This is not the only initiative of Intel in the field of crypto-mining. For example, in March, the company filed a patent application for a hardware "accelerator" for chips intended for mining Bitcoin. In addition, it was Intel who manufactured the chips for 21 Inc, which was later renamed Earn.com and was eventually bought by the Coinbase crypto exchange .
