Bitmain Has Announced New 7nm BM1397 ASIC chip for SHA256 Mining

Bitmain has just announced its next generation 7nm ASIC chip called BM1397 that is apparently capable of great performance and energy efficiency for mining cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), that use the SHA256 algorithm for their Proof of Work (PoW). The new BM1397 ASIC chip requires lower power and can offer an energy consumption to computing ratio as low as 30J/TH or with other words almost 30 percent improvement in power efficiency compared to their previous 7nm chip BM1391 that is already found in the company’s latest SHA256 ASIC miners.

The new BM1397 ASIC chip is made using TSMC’s 7nm FinFET manufacturing process and it is expected to be featured in the upcoming Antminer models named the S17 and T17 that will be announced by Bitmain at a later date. There are no detailed specifications available for the moment, however ~30% better power efficiency could mean up to about 30% higher performance for the same power as the currently available AntMiner S15 and S17 ASICs that sue the first generation of 7nm chips form Bitmain. It is not all about performance however…