Two S7's will almost certainly overload the switch. If it's used with 240V, it MIGHT squeak by. You need to do the math depending on your exact electrical infrastructure, which includes the AC voltage, current, and then the power supplies you are using.

The number refers to the "feature size" of items etched onto the die (as I understand it). The smaller, the more that can be squeezed onto the die.

Well, it sounds like you are all set to conquer the Bitcoin mining market with free energy. Please let us know how it goes. ....

If the Wikipedia entry is correct, the 4004 was 10um (micro-meter). That seems consistent with the previous mention regarding the 8080 earlier in the thread (6 micro-meter).

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next 60 days or so. The wisdom to date was that the halving and more efficient gear would render a bunch of older gear "obsolete" (from an economic point of view). With BTC price as high as it is though, that's not nearly so accurate. S5's and SP20's are still viable at this BTC price, even if not huge money makers (i.e. turning an operating profit if paid for). We'll have to see if that still holds in 30 days.

You can apply all the math you want to this general industry, but BTC price still looms large, and that's still almost entirely human driven.

It would be REALLY attractive to know what Pi software is expected to be teamed up with which MM firmware. They obviously have their own dates and own features/fixes. When got my used A6, I had no idea which Pi software to use,
and one I got past the bad cable, no idea if my combination was "good" or "bad". I have been quite reluctant to tinker with the MM firmware for fear of bricking the A6. I don't worry about the Pi, since i's always possible to get back to a working state.

Any guidance on this on the website would be swell.

It's much easier to sell BTC when it's nearly $700 than when it was $250. Since my current view of BTC is primarily one of a "volatile, speculative commodity", I don't want to hold it until it falls. My last sale of BTC was in 2013 when it was $800. While I missed selling it at $1200, I also skipped selling it at $250.

I am generally in Phil's camp. Not always optimum, but not a terrible disaster either. If it were to make it to $1000, I am sure I would sell more. I doubt that I am unique in this regard.

At a price of $630+, there is plenty of gear which is viable to run for the next 4 weeks. SP20's and S5's have to still have legs at this price, assuming they are paid for. Or perhaps it's the best time to SELL some older gear. In my experience, when BTC price is high, older gear fetches a better price (in fiat).

This will NOT be a negative difficulty adjustment this round. Those might be gone until after the halving.

I think there is a commercial device like this. Look into iBoot from Dataprobe. I am sure that there are others.

Just something to consider.

Looks like Batch 2 is completely sold out. Buy button is now Gray.

Let the Batch 3 speculation begin.........

For some reason I thought the halving would line up with the end of difficulty period. But with a cycle of 2016 for difficulty adjustment, that doesn't go into 420,000 without a fraction. So as I figure it, well finish the current adjustment period, and then get another full 2016 block period, and then the "halving" will happen a third of the way through that period.

Just an interesting fact (assuming I did the math right).

You might want to consider locking this thread with an optional link to the S9 thread in the Hardware sub-forum.

My understanding is that B2 is essentially a "clock frequency reduced" B1. Maybe it's more than that, but I don't expect so, hence no efficiency change.

Does the acquiring company (aka "Shandong Luyitong Intelligent Electric PLC") use another name I might be familiar with?
I am woefully ignorant of many Chinese companies, but the article suggests that I should have heard of them.

Any good hints or clues?

One thing to remember regarding your "free power". I expect there are limits on it as you mentioned, but furthermore, at a practical level a miner converts electricity to heat. A 1000W miner is just like a 1000W heater. If that is going to impact your living environment in some way, be aware of it. Some miners are also quieter than other, with the general being that the hight the wattage, the louder it is. If you are thinking of putting two S9 miners in a closet, what would it be like if you were to put 3 hair dryers, on full blast, in there round the clock.

Would that be a problem?

My apologies if you got your feelings hurt. I would suggest that you don't read too much into the "Legendary" or "Hero" tags. Best that I can tell, they are accrue primarily as a result of time and post count.

As for your desires, if you have zero interest in the "dirty money" or "money intensive" aspect of Bitcoin, then you might not really enjoy the various sub-catagories under Mining (e.g. Hardware and Mining Speculation). I say that since the acronym ROI is present in many of the threads, and well that's about money and "Return On Investment".

For your grander socio-economic aspirations regarding Bitcoin, I can't give you any good suggestions of what forums you would find work best for you. I don't expect them to be under the general category of "Mining", but I will freely admit that I don't visit all that many sub-forums. Despite the "Legendary" tag, I don't claim to be overly knowledgeable about many aspects of Bitcoin, as you might.

Best of luck. 

While it's an interesting question, I can't imagine that anyone on this forum that knows, would be allowed to answer. Anyone else that does answer is more or less speculating. Without an associated delivery date, and cost, the order itself isn't of much interest. There's a huge difference between placing an order and actually having it delivered. If true you would think that could easily consume most of their available ASIC's for a while.......

OK, I missed the mention of about 50GH per chip. If the part comes in at 55 GH, will they ship you fewer parts? What if you ordered enough other parts to build 10,000 stick miners, and they ship you 9200 chips? When you buy resistors to put on the your boards, do you order OHMS? How about LED's, do you order lumens? Maybe they should have just specified the weight of all those parts (MOQ 250 lbs). 

I'll bet that when a contract for actually sending parts is signed, there is a part count specified.

I just thinks it's silly to specify a quantity (i.e. a count) in terms of some other derived equivalent. It was probably done to try and hide, for a while, the $$/chip. In the end though, you figure that out in terms of how you price the hardware you sell.

Enough of my rant..........

So what's the problem with buying the S9? Doesn't that get you three hashing boards and some stuff you'll likely need to actually run them? Don't like the price? Where has Bitmain stated that they are in the business of making Bitcoin into something that millions of folks can mine?

Bitmain sells a complete product, not just parts to suit your desires. Many companies are like that, in a variety of industries.

As with all posts that mention decentralization, what is your definition? The fact that Bitmain sells miners has zero to do with decentralization. Feel free to design, fabricate and deploy your own mining hardware. Shouldn't cost more than a few million dollars to do that. While they have obviously deployed a bunch of their own gear internally, you are free to "decentralize" as much as you can afford. They didn't take a dime from anybody to design and build the S5, S7, or S9, until they had already spent the big money to develop their respective ASIC parts. If they failed, it was all on their dime. All the risk was on them.

Yes it's a shame, but very few Bitcoin ASIC designers have chosen to sell their ASIC's on the open market, not just Bitmain.

I find it a bit amusing that a MOQ would be something other than a part count (i.e. the Quantity part of MOQ). Stating it in terms of dollars, or hashrate, or some other item which is actually DERIVED from a quantity value just seems goofy (and confusing). Maybe this is by design?

For this example, I am guessing that sidehack assumed a 50GH/chip hashrate?