Intel is also going to be producing ASIC chips this summer for an unnamed partner. It will be interesting to see what happens with both the GPU and ASIC mining hardware industry this year.
"The world’s largest semiconductor company Intel has submitted a patent document for Bitcoin mining chip “accelerator”.
"The file was entitled “Bitcoin Mining Hardware Accelerator With Optimized Message Digest and Message Scheduler Datapath” and was published on 29th March 2018 by US Patent & Trademark Office, the patent being first submitted in September 2016.
The Bitcoin mining chip will reduce the consumed energy"
"The document refers to a new method of capitalizing the existing Bitcoin mining operations. Thus, the plan is to reduce the consumed energy of the Bitcoin mining centers, respectively this will lead to the need for fewer financial resources. The document also emphasizes the increase in mined quantities."
“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.”, according to the Intel’s document."
"The application proposed by the Intel giant ensures that the new accelerator will significantly reduce the energy used by approximately 35% compared to standard hardware."
https://coindoo.com/intel-submitted-a-patent-for-bitcoin-mining-hardware-accelerator/