Intel unceremoniously dumps its year-old Blockscale chips for bitcoin mining

Enlarge (credit: Intel)

In April 2022, Intel announced a new Blockscale series of application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) meant for "energy-efficient blockchain hashing." In other words, chips designed for mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The company positioned the Blockscale 1000-series ASICs to lower power usage and help ease the then-ongoing shortage of GPUs.

“For proof-of-work algorithms that are compatible with ASIC-based systems and SHA-256 hashing, the Intel Blockscale ASIC will provide the energy efficiency and computing power needed to achieve scalability and sustainability," reads an unsigned Intel blog post. "And given the nature of the silicon powering this technology, Intel will be able to supply it in volume without compromising the supply of new CPUs or GPUs.”

Today, Intel quietly discontinued the Blockscale 1000 chips, and the company told Tom’s Hardware that it has no immediate plans to introduce any upgrades or replacements. The company will "continue to support" companies that have already purchased Blockscale chips, but it looks like the project is fading away barely a year after its original announcement.