I'm not surprised, Intel ASICs are last generation efficiency. As experienced a chip make Intel is, this is their first iteration, whilst other manufacturers have tackled all the unique problems of btc mining for years and are generations of efficiency in. www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-details-its-bitcoin-mining-bonanza-mine-chips-and-systems

In the early days of bitcoin mining ASIC designs, I worked with a number of different experienced ASIC designers who were sure they could make something far more efficient than what was available, and each time their results were remarkably similar and disappointing.

In that regard, as a first offering from Intel, it's not too bad, but it's not remotely competitive and I would have hope for better from such an insanely large entity. I doubt many would be buying these unless they're significantly cheaper than the competition.

That said, assuming they are planning to use this as a stepping stone to successive generations, this is a net positive for bitcoin as they will no doubt eventually match and potentially exceed the competition.

But the main thing this offers is competition and having manufacturers in multiple places is a net good for bitcoin in general.

For those wondering what's different about bitcoin mining ASICs, even though bitcoin mining is sha256 based, it is NOT just sha256 run twice. The most efficient possible sha256 cores alone for bitcoin mining would put it at about only 1/10th the efficiency of current hardware.

On pure logic gates alone, there are optimisation opportunities at the starting expansion phase of the hash function that can be reused on subsequent hashes, and the second sha256 can be aborted significantly before completion.

The cores themselves need to be kept occupied with fresh work without any delay, and supporting communication infrastructure needs to be designed with minimising latency for hashes found below target and rapidly aborting work in progress.

Hardware-wise ASICs are not normally designed to be used with every single core running flat out at all times as they are in bitcoin mining, and energy density and heat dissipation provide unique constraints on design.

Using the smallest architecture available is not enough to achieve this endpoint, as most of the efficiency gains there are normally from constantly diverting power and speed to where it's needed, but in mining bitcoin that happens to be everywhere.