Intel’s discontinuing their Blockscale Crypto Mining ASICs with no next-gen replacement

Intel’s pulling back from crypto mining ASICs as the company’s focus tightens on IDM 2.0

Intel has today confirmed that they are discontinuing their fist generation Blockscale 1000-series Crypto mining ASICs, custom processors that were designed to efficiently mine cryptocurrencies. Intel’s Blockscale SOCs have been discontinued without a next-generation replacement for the product, which effectively means that Intel are exiting the cryptocurrency ASIC business.

When Intel launched their Blockscale SOCs in April 2022, the value of Bitcoin was over $40,000, and shortly following the launch of Blockscale the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies plummeted. At the start of 2023, the value of a single Bitcoin was roughly $16,500, and now the value has climbed to around $30,000. Simply put, Intel does not see the cryptocurrency market as a market that’s worth pursuing further. However, Intel has stated that they plan to continue supporting their Blockscale ASIC customers.

Discussing the discontinuation of Blockscale, Intel has stated that they are tightening their focus on their IDM 2.0 operations. In recent months Intel has exited several markets, focusing the company on its core businesses. IDM 2.0 is Intel’s new “Integrated Device Manufacturing” model, a new business model that will see Intel allow 3rd parties to utilise their silicon foundries to manufacture their chips. In theory, this could allow companies like AMD or Nvidia create CPUs and GPUs using Intel’s lithography technologies instead of lithography nodes from TSMC or Samsung.

On the topic of IDM 2.0, companies in need of cryptocurrency mining ASICs can design their own chips and manufacture them with Intel though their IDM 2.0 model. Intel has no qualms with manufacturing cryptocurrency mining ASICs, they just don’t want to design and manufacture these SOCs when the value of cryptocurrencies is low. 

Intel has confirmed that they will continue to support their existing Blockscale customers, and that Intel customers will have until October 2023 to order new Blockscale chips. Shipments for these chips will end in April 2024.  

You can join the discussion on Intel discontinuing their Crypto mining ASICs on the OC3D Forums.