Bitcoin Forum

There are couple of consistent posters asking same question, without answers. :)
 
I opened a ticket though.  (which hasn't been answered yet.)

They're more responsive on skype, but the guy answering there doesn't seem to have much info besides, "We're on track to hit the date"

I think that's the best thing they could respond with (depending on the question, of course). Their time is best spent working towards this promise.

Just remember, Feb 24 is the date they envisage they will start shipping, starting with Order #1. This doesn't mean every single order will ship on this day. They'll be sending your order according to your place in the queue. My ship date changed to early March. I'm OK with that. If I wanted an earlier shipping date, I should have ordered earlier.

Absolutely. Everything is coming together nicely.

Just to chime in here.
 
First off, it is important to us that we are as transparent as possible. We announced our release date was late Feb since day one even while our competition was saying they were going to release months prior. We analyzed our situation and had forecast our honest release date. We've not had any setbacks and are proceeding slightly ahead of schedule. There's absolutely no reason for us to change our release date.
 
I'll pay attention to this thread especially closely over the next few days and try to answer any questions that may come up.
 
Thanks!

Based on how long it took KnC, HashFast, and Cointerra to go from tape-out to having chips in their hands, I'd put my money on BlackArrow receiving their first chips at the end of March. KnC pulled off an amazing turn-around from getting chips to shipping within two weeks, but others have taken significantly longer. I predict that BlackArrow will start shipping batch 1 around April 15th. Based on my personal difficulty estimates, power requirements, and delivery dates - I think the 2Th unit will mine 7.8 BTC after electricity costs.

Very disappointed. I sort of knew it but wanted to give them the benefit of doubt.... Batch1 will coincide with the delivery of the Batch2.... blarrrr

Everyone over-promise but under delivers.

-------------------------------------------
 We have to inform you that our schedule to manufacture and assemble the system has been disrupted and we are unable to make delivery of the Batch 1 Minion ASIC chip on the initial scheduled date (end of February). We are now expecting to dispatch all Batch 1 orders on 1st of May 2014.

Please be re-assured we are confident that we have tried our best to accomplish our initial ambitious targets. However, we came to the conclusion that it is in the best interest of our customers to delay shipping in order to ensure that the product provides the best-possible user experience.

Without this delay we would have achieved 1.5W/Ghash which would have meant that our chip would not have been competitive at all.

We have now finalized the design process using our newly improved code and will start manufacturing the chip (tape out) in the next few days.

We are happy to announce that Black Arrow Software’s products remain on target for being the best in their class for power consumption. We confirm that our latest improved design has the following technical specifications:

    ·0.75w/Ghash on TT corner @ 25C which is expected to run at 120Ghash/sec.
    ·SS corner will be 0.6w/ghash and will run at 100Ghash.
    ·A further underclocking and underpower should be possible and should yield 80Ghash @ 0.5W/ghash. However, please note that this is not guaranteed to work stable.

Please note, that a further push for improvement in the optimization process would have guaranteed further delays for at least 1-2 months.

It is no secret to us that the Bitcoin mining process is proving to be more and more difficult every day. To compensate our loyal customer for the unforeseen delay of in delivering our miners for batch 1, we are happy to offer free extra hashing power which consists of 25% of your purchased hashing power from our Rent-Some-Minions cloud program for 4 months.

The account for the tape-out has been settled in full and we are confident that the delivery will be completed shortly.

We are taking all the necessary measures and positive actions to expedite delivery to you as soon possible and we are confident that we have the resources to be successful.

Please note:
    ·We estimate that the delivery for the Batch1 will coincide with the delivery of the Batch2
    ·The delivery of Batch2 remains unchanged
    ·The one-off offer presented above is open to the customers who placed orders for Batch1

Sincerely,
The Black Arrow Software Team
----------------------

HI Thomas

We would like to assure you.this delays are only forProspero X-1 and Prospero X-3 product. this doesnt affect your "Rent-Some-Minions - 4 months (starts in March 2014) order.Thank you for understanding.We appreciate your business with us.


Sincerely
The Black Arrow Team

They did  answer my ticket in a day.

I would have much preferred a non-generic update even if it had to be oneliner actual status update rather than a generic, we are on time, and we understand your worry.,  but  they replied is better than not replying.

They have assured me in their mail, that they are on schedule for the promised date.

I think I will be happy if they start shipping by Feb 24th to anyone.  They have a device ready by Feb 24th will give me confidence. And if they could ship me by March first week also , that is enough confidence for me to invest   four times in their next product.

Sorry to burst everyone's bubble but as a longtime GPU miner and Avalon Preorder owner, I've sworn off this preorder scam and am much happier as a result.  Think about it this way:

Avalon was 6months late.  Not a huge issue as they released ASICS first, but I still lost 40BTC on my Batch 3 preorder.  BFL 13months.

KnC got the "closest" to on time and was a bit over 1 month - but still "average joe" got their unit closer to 2months late as only the rare 1st day order made it out only a month late.  

Hashfast is how late?  Cointerra is how late?  Btmine is how late?

So those of you thinking BA was going to hit FEB 24th... well it sucks but to estimate with their new date might even be too optimistic.  You need to start to plan for the worst case.  Even if they *start* shipping sometime in May, how far back are you in the order queue?

If anyone still has money to burn, but wants calculations with less variables and an actual chance at a profit, consider loading up on multiple 200GH Bitmain ANTMiners @ 1.45BTC each.  Sure $5800 only buys 1TH but you would have it in a little over a week.  As the network gets twice as hard every 40-45 days give or take that's like getting a 2TH preorder in March  ;)

Sorry to burst everyone's bubble but as a longtime GPU miner and Avalon Preorder owner, I've sworn off this preorder scam and am much happier as a result.  Think about it this way:

Avalon was 6months late.  Not a huge issue as they released ASICS first, but I still lost 40BTC on my Batch 3 preorder.  BFL 13months.

KnC got the "closest" to on time and was a bit over 1 month - but still "average joe" got their unit closer to 2months late as only the rare 1st day order made it out only a month late.  

Hashfast is how late?  Cointerra is how late?  Btmine is how late?

So those of you thinking BA was going to hit FEB 24th... well it sucks but to estimate with their new date might even be too optimistic.  You need to start to plan for the worst case.  Even if they *start* shipping sometime in May, how far back are you in the order queue?