The global technology giant Intel received a patent related to work in the field of cryptocurrency mining.
This week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted the company a patent that describes a processor capable of performing energy efficient and high-performance mining on the SHA-256 algorithm, which uses by bitcoin (Bitcoin: BITCOIN).
In accordance with Intel's patent application for mining devices on the bitcoin network, hardware accelerators are usually needed, such as ASIC chips, which require a lot of power. Hardware accelerators are needed, in particular, for processing 32-bit random codes — combinations of bits used once during block creation. Current ASICs perform calculations in several steps, which is a redundant job. As stated in the patent:
“Dedicated bitcoin mining ASICs are used to implement multiple SHA-256 engines that may deliver a performance of thousands of hashes per second while consuming power of greater than 200 [watts]. Embodiments of the present disclosure employ micro-architectural optimizations including selective hardwiring certain parameters in bitcoin mining computation.”
The application says this method will help reduce the amount of necessary calculations, as well as the power consumption of the chip by 15%. As a result, the chip size will also be smaller than that of the bitcoin miners currently used. The patent also notes that changing the number of 32-bit random codes needed for validation can make the device even more energy efficient.
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