What is Plan B?

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This goes for all the other companies not just BFL. (Avalon / bASIC)

At what point is it time to call it quits?

A) Is it when one vendor ships and the one you ordered from is still in a holding pattern?

B) Is it when there are more than 2 delays?

C) Is it when the block halving has taken place?

D) Is it when the mass refunds start for any one vendor? (any of the three companies)

Having our orders Ready To Ship will save a lot of time for the ship team.  If we had waited until product was in the shop, sorting out all the orders, payments, free & paid upgrades, shipping upgrades and special customer requests would have brought our process to a standstill.  Mine and Tom's intention was to get everything staged as far as possible so we don't fall down at the goal line.
We'll have boxes & bubble wrap, shipping labels and everything ready so the units could literally be packaged while still warm.

Getting these bASICs out to customers on time will require a lot more than just having the product in hand...

The toggle-rate is so high that they are running the chips with much lower frequency that you would normally expect to run 65nm designs on to protect them from overheating. Had they gone with other package (eg. flip-chip), they could've run them at much higher clocks.

To this end we've purchased an entire SMT assembly suite and hired a capable team to run it. These units are currently being installed in our new facility.

Hi Elden, the node and method are detailed in the upcoming issue of bitcoin magazine.   (Issue #4).

For all intensive purposes ASICs are as good as it gets.

Just that BFL have usually been very secret and if I know something everyone else doesn't know, of course I'm not going to be the one to announce it

As far as I know, you can force a PSU to power on by tying 2 pins together on the ATX connector:

http://pinouts.ru/Power/atx_v2_pinout.shtml

Just short PSON to ground permanently.

I also now provide switches for your ATX power supplies if it is not the host system: Can be for modular and non-modular types. Pricing is 1.0BTC each

As I said that was my understanding from previous pages reading. The exact post I cannot find now.   Tom will let us know. The 2.5mmID 5.5mmOD type is going to be used on the BFL SC singles.

I believe what abracadabra posted is correct. The board is supposed to have a female 4pin molex as well as a female DC coaxial connector.  
My understanding was that it is to be a center +ve 2.1mmID 5.5mmOD type.

I also see from the bASIC website that a power adapter aka "wall wart" does not appear to be included in the accessories so you will probably have to provide your own.

I would wait though for Tom to confirm these points.

IRC might be useful for that sort of thing, but it's very ephemeral. The first bASIC shipment will be worldwide (I'm in Australia, myself) and it might be a bit difficult for people to get assistance at times. That's not saying IRC doesn't have a use here; just that it probably shouldn't be the main support line.

Tom has talked about the possibility of setting up a forum; I think that would be an excellant idea and would allow a much higher degree of moderation than either here or IRC.

That said, I don't know the degree to which people would use something like that [has anyone here had much experience with the BFL forums and the degree to which they are used/abused?] so it may or may not be worthwhile. Remember that Tom has a much smaller client base than BFL, so the cost per client, measured in both time and money, is possibly far higher.

In any case, even in the absence of a forum, I'm sure we'll find some way to communicate, either here, an ad-hoc IRC channel, Reddit, or some other forum, so I wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage (we're still a month off, remember).

For the record: I will contact the FCC and find out what changes we need to make if any to keep within regulation.

I fucking hate cats.

... so who's going?

Still waiting for firm dates from Josh.  Hoping we get it nailed down soon. 

...also I want everyone to remember our refund policy. If you have any doubts what so ever about the bASIC line of Bitcoin mining devices or if you need a refund for any reason at all please do not hesitate to email me and request to cancel your order.

Due to the nature of how we buy the parts to build these units, once an order has been placed and payment has been made - the order cannot be canceled.

...

We do not issue refunds however we do offer a full 1 year warranty.

fixed this for you. its only one person

The first "batch" is scheduled to begin shipping the first week after thanksgiving. I have probably only 2 people confirmed so far to help out, I still have to interview others and depending on our order load come the end of November I may need another 3-8 people to work 1-2 weeks.