Canaan competes with Bitmain on the world first 5nm minning chip in 2020

By Polkadot News 12/27/19 1:22 PM

Two of the largest bitcoin mining chip manufacturers have scheduled to equip their products with 5nm chips in 2020. Lately, China-based manufacturer Bitmain released the world’s first 5nm test-grade bitcoin mining chip and more efficient mining rigs will see production next year, while Chinese mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturer Canaan will also launch new and improved mining machines with 5-nanometer chips in Q1 2020.

Canaan’s IPO | Author: Anthony Russo

The 5-nanometer chip of Canaan

According to 8BTC’s report on Dec. 24, the new ASICs will have significant advantages compared to the previous 7nm chip. The new firm’s 5nm manufacturing process is predicted to enhance performance, power, and area scaling. Before that, Canaan had become the pioneer with the first test-level 7 nm chip over the world.

The corporation expects to scale the production of this new product series faster than it did with its 7nm chips. The number of nanometers refers to the size of the features of the silicon chip, 5nm approaches its possibility with conventional electronics. For example, 1nm is approximately equivalent to the width of two silicon atoms.

The smaller chips become, the more possible they fit transistors in a silicon die of the same size, and the less distance electric current has to travel in the circuit to perform a calculation. The efficiency is improved and the amount of heat is decreased when the features are smaller.

8BTC reporter Vincent He highlighted that Canaan was one of the first companies to reveal its 7nm test-grade mining chip before lots of companies announced the use of the semiconductors. The report also detailed that the co-founder of Canaan said that his company will have a greater grasp of the supply chain and more capital investment after going public.

Canaan competes with Bitmain on 2020

Jihan Wu, Founder of Bitmain

Recently, at the IEEE IEDM Conference, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) discussed its 5nm process alongside Intel’s slideshow. TSMC stressed the distinctive differences between the 7nm and 5nm process as the 7nm productions just a rate below 100 million transistors per square millimeter (mTr/mm2), while the 5nm has shown an average production of 80%, with a peak production per wafer of 90%. Therefore, TSMC’s 5nm chips will have a 15% faster performance than the 7nm performance.

If it is true that both Canaan and Bitmain are planning to produce 5nm equipped models in early 2020, other companies like Microbt, Innosilicon, and Ebang will likely release their own 5nm chips.