Chinese mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturer Canaan will launch new, improved mining machines with 5-nanometer chips in Q1 2020.
Chinese industry news outlet 8BTC reported on Dec. 24 that the new ASICs will have significant advantages compared to the previous generation. The new firm’s 5nm manufacturing process is expected to improve performance, power and area scaling.
A significant development
The company 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 what is possible with conventional electronics. For scale, 1nm is approximately equivalent to the width of two silicon atoms.
As the features in chips become smaller, it becomes possible to fit more transistors in a silicon die of the same size. At the same time, the electric current has to travel less distance in the circuit to perform a calculation, which means that efficiency is improved and the amount of heat is decreased when the features are smaller.
Canaan is one of the few cryptocurrency-related companies that managed to go public with a $90 million Initial Public Offering (IPO) held in November. As Cointelegraph recently reported, the firm’s shares have seen a 40 percent drop in value since the IPO.
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