Semiconductor manufacturing giant Intel is reportedly discontinuing the production of its crypto mining chip series, called Blockscale.

The news comes just a year after the chip was launched.

By 20 October 2023, Intel hopes to stop accepting orders for the series, and cease shipment by 20 April next year, reported Reuters, citing a document on the company’s website.

The volatility in the cryptocurrency market has hurt chipmakers, including Nvidia, whose graphics cards were used extensively by crypto miners.

“As we prioritise our investments in IDM 2.0, we have end-of-lifed the Intel Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC while we continue to support our Blockscale customers,” a company spokesperson was quoted by the news agency as saying.

The US-based company said that it will continue to “monitor market opportunities” in the cryptocurrency industry.

Intel’s IDM 2.0 strategy is part of its efforts to increase its manufacturing capacity by outsourcing its chip-making to outside customers.

The chipmaker is facing tough competition from rivals such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC).

Earlier this month, Intel Foundry Services (IFS) joined forces with Arm, a semiconductor design company.

The tie-up will allow Arm to build low-power compute system-on-chips on the Intel 18A process.

Initially, the collaboration would focus on developing semiconductors for mobile phones. It could expand into other areas as well such as the Internet of Things, data centres, aerospace, and government use cases.