Intel patents hardware 'accelerator' for mining chips

On March 30, new documents revealed that tech giant Intel is applying for a patent for a hardware "accelerator" for bitcoin mining chips. Intel initially submitted an application for a "bitcoin mining hardware accelerator with optimized message digest and message scheduler datapath" to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in September 2016, which was finally published on Thursday. In the document, Intel outlines a method that could scale up the existing bitcoin mining process, which would consume less electricity and thus reduce costs.

In addition, the document shows that due to the endless execution of SHA-256 functions in Bitcoin mining, the process can be very power-intensive and utilize a lot of hardware space. Intel's new method will optimize Bitcoin mining operations by reducing the space and power consumed by Bitcoin mining hardware. Intel pointed out that its "accelerator" method can reduce power consumption by up to 35% compared to general-purpose processors.