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Correct me if I'm wrong - total layman here: It is my understanding that the above process you mention is for customers that have existing FPGA chips in their product line and want to convert, fast and easy, over to ASIC.
Yes, as opposed to designing something from the ground up as an ASIC.
An FPGA works by having a grid of logic units, and then using switches to create links between them.
These FPGA->ASIC designs work by getting rid of all the switching stuff and replacing them with with metal (i.e. wiring them together).
The result is a microchip that does the exact same thing as the FPGA did, but requires way less space.
This is obviously much cheaper and easier to do then designing a new ASIC from scratch. But it's less efficient then doing something like a standard-cell design like what KnC is doing.
A further level up from that is doing a 'full custom' design where you actually specify the exact images you want printed on the chip layers. This is the most difficult but you can maybe take advantage of various electrical properties to make things more energy or space efficient. This is what HashFast (and I think cointerra) is claiming to do at 28nm, and what Labcoin is claiming to do at 130nm.
Sooo.... if ActiveMining is using the 'easicopy' stuff, or whatever they call it, then their chips are not actually going to be that good compared to the competition.
avalon and asicminer have the worst chips in existence. what horrible failures they are.
