1. Chip specifications

There are substantial differences in the way  the BFL chip is produced. They do employ a standard cell ASIC, while we went for a custom design with a focus on performances, achieved via a complex place & route procedure, which took our team almost one full-immersion month of work to complete.
We do confirm that we're expecting to obtain the initially declared performances with the 130nm round, but we will wait for the ICs to be ready, to better assess the yield quality in terms of chip grades.

2. 130 nm vs. newer technology

While 28nm technology is indeed superior, if fully taken advantage of, the NRE costs are enormously different, and so are the skills needed to design a working chip. We don't have the required resources, and we do not think the results obtainable are worth the costs right now, this is a strategy we will explore in the future.
We are happy with the obtained high performances and low consumptions with 130nm and we will show another breaktru' when the 65nm design is ready.

3. ETA

130nm IC is estimated to be delivered in early September and to be mining 7-10 days later.
65nm IC is still under development and no ETA is available yet.

4. General timeline

The following days we will focus on Q/A session and on the normal activities pertaining to our project.
As per your request of more pictures, here are some images of our test environment, with the WR703N router working as real world interface for the simulated IC running on the fpga.

Correct, the first batch of ICs is meant as  a test for our design. Delivery is expected in mid September, in quantities of several thousands pieces.
We expect to have the boards up and running within 7/10 days after we receive the ICs.
65 nm design is currently under development and is expected to go on tape-out in late August or early September.

As announced here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=263445.msg2850861#msg2850861 we do look forward to provide more updates.
A website update is on the way as well, please post any question here or in the security thread as you see fit.

Thanks

Sam

We would like to say thanks all to all the investors for the amount of trust being put in our venture, which led to a very successful IPO; we understand the frustration for the early issue regarding timing and shares distribution, unfortunately it depended on factors beyond our control.
These problems are now left behind and we look forward to give more detailed informations about our products and business model, we only ask to keep the thread relevant and post actual questions to let us track and reply them easily.
A big thanks to burnside and TheSwede75 for all the work done.

Sam Noi

UPDATE:

After an extremely busy week we are proud to announce that our Chinese team is working hard on the final place & route tedious task, scheduled for completion on this weekend.
We confirm that we're going out on fab next week, as per our last announcement.
For anyone who's interested on investing, we are working on the final details of the IPO and will submit all documentation to btct.co today.
We expect the IPO to be launched this weekend as well, and not later than monday 07/22.

Yes, thanks for the head-up.  Fixed. 65nm will go on tape-out as soon as possible, and with great improvement on the original speed and power consuption. The point of the IPO is to raise money for this, because a 65nm tape-out cost is very different from a 130nm one.   Right now we're looking to get 1000/1500 chips from the first run at 130nm.

Thanks for your appreciation, we will have open days as soon as the prototypes are ready! which will be around 45 days from Jul 24.

 SZICC is an incubator for helping startups dealing with large companies like TSMC. http://www.szicc.com.cn/en/comp_gsln.asp

Here are some paperworks about the SZICC contract we are stipulating for the 130nm tape-out with TSMC, to gauge everyone's interest.

We have more exciting updates about the 65nm new generation IC, we will release the updates in the following days.

Estimated chip price may be slightly adjusted, but will stay near that price point. We're looking long-term and we think we will be working with volume instead of focusing on retail market.
We will still probably offer some high-powered devices though, expected in Mid September.

The contract with SZICC is being signed and sealed tomorrow, for booking the tape-out on Jul 24.

The IPO seems to be going a bit slow though, but we have enough funding for this initial tape-out, so it's not a concern.

P.S. All emails received are being automatically added to our newsletter.

Thanks

Sam
Labcoin Team

Thank you. I appreciate that.  First batch will be probably ready for shipment by late august, Follow this thread or send us an email at info@labcoin.com so we can add you to our newsletter.
As for the rack size, i think it's a little early to make promises but we will do our best to give these devices the right casing. Thanks again

Sam
Labcoin Team

Ironic ? well, it's the last thing i find it to be. I respect your point of view though, if you just can elaborate more why you find it odd.

EDIT : Perhaps for conflict of interest ?

EDIT 2 : I just gave a warning, i didn't release any name at all. I think it's more than fair play.

Investment opportunity should be open in 2 days. We'll be probably on btct.co or bitfunder, details are still being ironed out. Exact number of shares and price will be posted here shortly, probably tomorrow. We tried getting back to the French phone number who got in thouch yesterday but we were unable to obtain an asnwer. If who called is reading this, please send us a private message so we can book a time for a phone chat, we will re-try tomorrow morning at a different time.

I would like to add another line to this post, the intention is not to start a flamewar with other ASIC producers, but i want to give a warning to you guys, who are thinking to invest into other ventures present in this forum.

First of all : Do not trust any 3D rendering, whatsoever, they can be purchased easily and cheaply. ( we outsourced graphic design, so i speak from my personal experience ).

they are by no mean a proof of an existing product.

Look for a chip magnification, like those we posted, those are a good indications of the IC being really engineered and not a lie. But don't take them either as granted, it's not so hard to manipulate an EDA tool and obtain such images, or photoshop might be an even easier option.

You need to follow the development and do your own research about the consistency of the informations posted afterwards, and it's not always easy;
You can always use your google-fu if you are not an E.E engineer or have this kind of knowledge.

I want close this post by saying that we will provide btct.co or bitfunder full indentifications documents regarding the people behind this project.

Thank you
Samuel Noi
sam.noi@labcoin.com

For anyone who called us  from France today :

Sorry we missed your phone call on our  Chinese office number, because at the time of the call, it was late and nobody was there.  We will return back the call from Europe  tomorrow morning.

Samuel Noi
Nominee Director
iTec-Pro Limited
sam.noi@labcoin.com

Great news from the team in China, we have got the on-chip PLL version working with multiple cores at 130nm. We're working out the final steps before considering this design good for tape-out, estimated on the first week of August. Investment opportunity will be open to the public soon and all details will be released.  

UPDATE : IC photos and magnifications, showing the internal PLL and the complete design, will be available in about 1 week.

Sam
Labcoin Team

You're looking at a break-trough improvement. As said, we're able to fit 16 cores into a 130nm process, outputting 5 GH at  2.7W/GHash.
The 65nm 500mhz design will output 450~500MH at 0.7~0.8~1W  so it's definitely a great improvement.

EDIT : Also, the 65nm chip is more suitable for an USB miner device, not for mass deployment of hashing power as multi-core communication have yet to be ironed out.
 We think the best choice right now is going for mass production and deployment of the 130nm design with 16 cores, and consider the production of  USB miners for re-sale as well.
                    

We are evaluating different possibilities in this regard. News should be flowing soon.

We have multiple designs under test/simulation obviously to maximise the ability of obtaining results. 65nm results are not competitive with what we reached at 130nm.
NRE costs at 65nm are very high for a full-mask set, and since we're going for mass production, 130nm is not only cheaper, with 16 cores chip this is absolutely the way to proceed at the moment.
65nm chip is currently undergoing more simulations and verifications but it will definitely come shortly after this batch.

Further elaborating, there's a TSMC Shuttle for 130nm on 5 August.

NRE costs for a full-mask at 130nm are affordable enough to be crowfunded, and the cost of full wafers are affordable as well. This is probably ASICMINER secret.

Chip output would be of about 1500 chips for each full wafer.

Estimate delivery of the already packaged chips would be around mid September.

Today we have a very important update, the Chinese team is simulating a lot of design simultaneously and worked almost non-stop for the last 48 hours  targeting different process sizes.

The results are more than positive, i will try to outline them in the clearest way possible.

1) The 65nm 500Mhz is still undergoing post-verification phase, while another simulation is ongoing at 600Mhz and we're waiting for the results.

2)  Post simulations yielded positive results on a 130nm, 300Mhz, Power 0.8W, 6.5x6.5mm design.
    
     The team is working on HDL optimizations to get 16 cores for chip.

     Some math, quoted from the tech team

What does this mean ? i think it's not hard to get.  130nm process and 5GH speed at slightly higher power consumption, but competitive prices.

Shoot any question guys

Sam
Labcoin team