That is my understanding.

But this is still a situation where you only know which version is currently installed by flashing, or attempting to flash, it.

There is no other way? Such as via some query? Or some other response string/artifact?

Is there a way to determine which version the controller is currently flashed with?

The one I went to did. There are at least two universities in Texas with the capability.

Just doing a quick search, here's one in Alabama.

I would find it hard to believe that MIT on the East coast doesn't have one and that there are at least another three or four in California.

IIRC he stated, in this thread, that his first chips came from a shared wafer at a university.

Some quantity from a portion of a wafer, not 'a few wafers' as a test run at a commercial fab in preparation to just cranking out commercial amounts from the same fab.

I have no idea what would be involved in moving from a proven test run from a 'shared university wafer' to x number of wafers at commercial fab. But there is bound to be some delay. And risk.

+1

And one more thought, the professional software industry knows very well how to avoid these types of failures.

There just isn't enough money / ROI involved here to make it worth applying full-scale software engineering practices.

--

And that goes well beyond just 'slinging code'. It gets into Project Management, Administration Practices, Policies and Procedures, etc.

Well, my impression is just that the operator of Bitfloor is young and inexperienced. With age and wide experience, not just ten or twenty years of the same thing over and over, Murphy's Laws become entrenched. Just automatic habit.

And paranoia becomes a professional asset.

--

I do praise him for immediately coming forward / fessing up.
Most people's first inclination is usually to hide or attempt a cover-up.

Well, since I will have far fewer than 50, I won't have your problems.

ty, ebereon.

It is known that the BFL Single units don't do well with p2pool.

Do the CM1's have any issues with it?

My boards are in transit. So, I'm trying to get everything I can ready to go before they arrive.

Two questions:

1) What version of the controller is installed on the currently shipping boards? 1.5?

2) Is "spiprog", which is constrained to MS Windows, the only way to upgrade the controller?

In other words, am I going to have to dig up some Windows machine in order to upgrade the controller firmware?

Looking at the qty per week he intends to build, I'm pretty sure he'll be getting more than enough orders to fill his queue. Just from his existing and happy customer base.

Little risk perhaps. But also little gain for the pain/hassle of doing it.

Anything he puts together and shows will instantly be inundated with statements about how easily it could have been faked. Why bother?

Less network and application overhead load for you.

A lot less network and application/execution overhead load for the pool.

How do you know?

Being off by a factor of four, or more, is not unprecedented in statements from BFL.

It is a false statement. I have zero tolerance for that.

Pleading 'technical difficulty' is insufficient excuse for falsehoods.

I did not order a BFL single until they were not only shipping product, but until the order to shipping lags had dropped to the low 50 days - the trend indicated they were finally catching up on backlog and would be able to meet their commitment on order date, with full payment taken, until ship date. Then they started slipping again on shipments and I eventually got a device in the BFL infamous 'four to six weeks'. (That is, long after their promised delivery by date.)

Enterpoint accepted my email indicating interest in x quantity of their product. They replied saying that I shouldn't expect anything until September, OK? In September I got an email from them stating sufficient quantity is available, time to pay if I still want the stuff. I paid them. They shipped the next day.

That is how to build a good reputation.

And, again, with some fundamental credibility problems.

From their page:
"Availability:   In Stock"
"boards are projected to ship in November/December of 2012"

Thank you. I'll have to turn them on long enough to see his. 

Yes it does. Thank you.

--

edit: I'll just search this thread to find the git link.

He's just trying to keep us somewhat on track.

Much of the GLBSE conversation had shifted to one of general GLBSE issues. Nothing at all specific or unique to this thread's topic.

As such, those thoughts really do, IMO, belong over in the GLBSE thread.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=60489.0

This question is directly related to 'the bounty'.
Maybe there are still a few loose threads to be resolved.

Even though the bounty has been paid, IIRC, one of the conditions was that it be solved by an open-source solution with a clearly defined tool-chain and build process.

Have those conditions actually been met?
If so, I'm having a bit of a problem chasing down the info.

Can we have some 'close-out' posts summarizing all that, please.

--

I'm not saying I don't appreciate all y'all's hard work to date, but I am interested into digging into the guts of this stuff myself.