Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics cards will not launch with a cryptocurrency mining limiter or other sort of software lockout that prevents miners from utilizing the full mining potential of its products. This has been confirmed by Roger Chandler, Intel’s VP and GM of Client Graphics Products and Solutions, who clarified in an interview with Gadget 360 that the company hasn’t implemented any features that target miners. “It’s not a priority,” Chandler said.
Gadget 360: Will Alchemist have any hardware or software lockouts to discourage mining […?]
Chandler: This is a tough one to answer, but what I will say is that we are designing Intel Arc and the Alchemist family of products as gamer-first and creator-first. All the optimisations, the features, everything we’re doing, is really to make sure we can solve problems and deliver value to gamers and creators. As far as like software lockouts and things of that nature, we’re not designing this product or building any features at this point that specifically target miners. As far as actions we’re taking to avoid or lock them out, it’s a product that will be in the market and people will be able to buy it. It’s not a priority for us.
Gadgets 360’s interview also includes some comments from Raja Koduri regarding Alchemist’s supply. The SVP and GM of Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics was reluctant to make any promises due to the current market.
Gadgets 360: Is Intel confident that it will have enough supply of Arc GPUs are launch time?
Koduri: The response to our announcements at architecture day from our OEM customers and end users has been phenomenal. Everyone is welcoming us, so that’s great news. We’ll be coming in as a third player. I’ll always be very cautious, when the demand is so high and when the market is so hard. I can always use more supply. So I’m not going to say I have enough supply in this high-demand market. I think every one of my competitors will say the same thing right now.
Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics cards will launch in Q2 2022, according to recent rumors.
Source: Gadgets 360