A website would be awesome! Do you have server hosting already available that could be utilized?

We need to come up with a good name for this.

Here's my first pitch: Avalon + Jalepeno = Javal

From suggestions on previous posts. Here is my 3rd design pitch (the 1st was on another post that was then deleted by me)

Thanks to all for the input!

"simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" - Leonardo Da Vinci

Thanks! Been meaning to get around to figuring out the math on this.

I'll make the PCB with room for 3 chips (the third one can be optional). Either you can run the two chips to the max or settle for running all three at slightly slower speed, but with more overall hashing speed. Using 3 and running them slower might be a good option for passive cooling too (decided to go with passive cooling).

You are right, this does not produce crap for the serious miner. But IMO the project will do few things:

1) Help the new curious miner get into bitcoin at a very low cost yet still be somewhat competitive compared to the GPU or CPU.
2) It would be cheap enough and small enough that they could be given out to friends to get them "hooked" on the concept.
3) Set the ground work for a better atmosphere with regards to ASIC competition; make cheaper mining options quickly available to anyone.

I was hoping that the Avalon chips already had a PLL on board (aka clock multiplier for others reading) so we would only need to input 8Mhz or 16Mhz; however, they have not got back to my email or posts to confirm.

I see what you are saying on the PCB. I was thinking about doing two versions. The geeky hole through for now and for development. and one that is SMT shortly after. Since PCB prototyping is my specialty, I had planned on doing this why programmers got the firmware and software ready to go.

Thanks tbd and SebastianJu!

You are exactly right! I'm going to simplify the design further!

Yeah, I appreciate that. Just hoping there will be some chips available for development when the time comes.
I guess I should have said sampled 20 to 30 parts followed by a purchase of tens of thousands of parts.

BitSyncom,
         Thanks for chiming in!

     Let me try pitching this idea to you at a different angle. I understand you would be very supportive
of this project and any others related; however, your plate is REALLY full. And I would assume you probably
feel a lot of reservation allowing something like this to progress without your constant input and guidance.
So, what do you do? Just brush it off?!?! until your ready? That would be understandable.

I believe there is a lot of programming talent lingering in these forums. And it has been painful for many of them
including myself sitting in the waiting room while a few companies try to give birth to an ASIC and deliver on
a mass scale. We would like jump in and be a part of it.

I think the amount of information required for us to get started is minimal. And I kindly ask for you to take
just a moment to give us some guidance and then just trust that we will do ok. Sure, we might mess up and
have to re spin a PCB design or two, but that is ok. We can finalize the firmware a few months from now
when the spec's are fully prepared.

Could you please answer two questions in the OP:

"My two biggest design hurdles at the moment:
1)Frequency driver for the Avalon ASIC. What is the input frequency?
I assume it has a clock multiplier, but if not I will need to reconsider that portion of
the design.

2) Having no idea how work is passed to the chip, would 8 data lines with a frequency
of 48 MHz cause a bottleneck? If so, by how much?"

Would you tell also tell us what the PINOUT is?

Would you sell us around 20 to 30 chips so we could build boards right away
and send them out to anyone that wants to help develop?

I think this is all we need to get started and we can worry about the finalization
a few months from now when the spec's are finalized. This would be so much
better than starting the project from scratch a few months from now. I think
it is potentially in your best interests as well. It would be like having an army of
engineers working for you for free.

Thanks for the consideration,
          Allten

Final Update (Nov 18 2013):
So, I have finally taken care of the butterfly infestation at my home.
Then it was time to get back to this project and see where it should go.
I spent the weekend building up a few boards with the chips that "daemondazz" had sent (Thank You!).
Everything works except the Nonce capture from the Avalon Chip. The design needs
revised for a better clock filter from the incoming data out of the Avalon. It might as well be revised
for the 55nM chip as well. I believe there is already a good solution found in this open source design
for a clock filter: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=323175.0

Honestly, I don't have the drive to complete this project only because a single chip miner
seem so pointless given how the mining world has shaped up so far so fast and where it is going.
I would like to dedicate my energies on helping out on some other Open Source projects.

If there is anyone that has the ambition to finish this, PM me. I'll be happy to send
all the Eagle cad Files and materials to help out. This would include x10 55nM Avalon
sample chips and I also have a pickit 3 available if needed. I would also be happy
to share what I've learned and insights that would help get this project to the finish line faster.
Just hoping for the right person that can put the drive back into this and make it happen.

Thanks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIY Setup for a little over $200:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161715.msg2374824#msg2374824

PCB Version A0 (Build 0). All files found here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161715.msg2426942#msg2426942

Low Cost DIY ASIC Miner

Purpose:
This thread is intended for the development of a very low cost DIY open source
ASIC miner based on Avalon's chips. Hopefully, it will inspire other Bitcoin ASIC
manufactures to offer their chips as well.

Objectives:
* Get ASICs in the hands of the masses ASAP.

* Create the cheapest solution possible. The lowest possible price is the goal.
The $ per hash ratio is not expected to be the best.

* Make it simple enough that anyone with a DIY spirit can assemble one of these with
some simple low priced tools.
https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/category/2
DIY manufacturing may be an avenue to get these out much faster.
Expect a few hours assembly time per board.

*Make the PCB design that is not only DIY friendly, but mass production friendly as well.
It will use surface mount technology.

*Inspire more ASIC Bitcoin Mining manufactures to pop up all over the world (Decentralization).
ASIC manufacturing in general is the most complicated production process in the world.
IMO, the best thing for Bitcoin would be for ASIC Bitcoin Manufactures to be decoupled from
final product production; or at least offer their chips as well on top of their final products.

Specifications (subject to change):
* USB power source is all that is required.
* Utilizes a single Avalon ASIC
* 256+ MH/s
* 2 Watt maximum power usage
* TYPE A USB Male option on either side of the PCB
* Type B USB Female option
* More to come

Sponsors:
*Burnin - He is a serious manufacture of Bitcoin mining equipment. He has committed to helping
with the open source software/firmware to make this project function. He has started an official
thread for his miners and it's worth checking out:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179769.0

*Zefir - He is preordaining Avalon ASICs in smaller quantities for anyone interested:
funds: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177827.0
Zefir is committed to helping this low cost DIY project be successful by making a small quantity
of chips available for ordering and development.

Team:
All of you! An open source design also means its open to anyone. Feel free to take the initiative
to help out in your own way. Please don't get discouraged as it may take time to figure
out where your talents fit in best. I have received an overwhelming quantity of supportive emails
and also many request to help out. I wasn't prepared for that, but now, I would like to make
a list of anyone that wants to get involved here and what they would like to bring to the table.
Shoot me ANOTHER email and I will add you name here.

"Someone42" who was the inspiration and pioneer in hardware wallets has offered his help here.
"Burnin" has also offered his help, but is also very busy as he is preparing his own miner.

Allten's Commitment:
I will engineer the schematic and the PCB. As soon as the chip specifications are available, I will
release within a week a preliminary design for feedback. I will personally manufacture enough
of these to get them in the hands of all those that will be helping with firmware/software development.
After that, a detailed tutorial will be made on how to order and produce these by yourself.

Important note: I do not want to become a distributor for these for the simple fact I would like
to have time available for other projects I'm passionate about. This is a golden opportunity for anyone
or a few people to become distributors of DIY kits and already assembled miners. I will assist anyone
to get set up for this once I've completed the tutorial.

Funding:
Sending some coins would be very helpful and greatly appreciated.
1AqEzSiw7aqZ7T53XvXMqrcnUD5tKcvJxP
What will donations cover? Enough to order the parts and PCBs for the initial boards used for development.
All extra will be used to drive bounties for software/firmware development.
I get the feeling that many have ordered chips with confidence that there will be a PCB solution
readily available before the ASICs arrive. If that is the case, consider donating up to 5% of
what you invested in chips to this project. It would sure help hurry it a long! Much of the bounty portion
may go to "burnin" as his code development for the controller portion will be shared with this project and
he is most heavily invested to make it work along with his product ASAP.

I thought a lot about this during the night. Didn't sleep much.

I want to help make it happen. I think we could realistically have
available and working within available in 4 to 6 weeks ;-)

It would really be nice if AVALON published their spec's.
Maybe they want to be reimbursed on setup costs or
something. I'm sure we could crowdsource the funds.

Leaned something new today: Assurance Contract

Though I'm still having a difficult time seeing how this
could be implemented in a simple manner for Bitcoin.

There's one idea I've had (I post it here because it seems to relate.....maybe)

I would like the ability to pay fees not just to the miner who solved the block
but to the miners of the following X number of blocks. Doesn't seem to controversial
and easy to implement. Fees are still kind of free and for those that do pay a decent
amount, it would be nice to have a choice to break up those fees over the next
10, 100, 1000, even 10,000+ blocks.

Where do you live? What kind of shipping can I expect to pay?

Is there escrow available? How can I trust you?

Thanks

Getting Started with Microchip's PIC32 IDE (MPLAB X)

If you want to develop, compile, or make small tweaks to the Bitsafe firmware,
you'll want to start by installing Microchip's latest IDE (MPLABX) They've made
considerably improvements over the last several months and it works really
good.

Download and install these two programs for your OS:
Windows:
       MPLABX: http://www.microchip.com/mplabx-ide-windows-installer
       X32C: http://www.microchip.com/mplabxc32windows
Linux:
       MPLABX: http://www.microchip.com/mplabx-ide-linux-installer
       X32C: http://www.microchip.com/mplabxc32linux
OSX:
       MPLABX: http://www.microchip.com/mplabx-ide-osx-installer
       X32C: http://www.microchip.com/mplabxc32osx

The 32 bit C compiler has 3 modes: Free, Standard, and Pro.
The Free edition will work just fine for our purposes. The binaries
will be slightly larger, but they work just the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Additional resources to learn about MPLABX

Main Page:
http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/family/mplabx/

Great Intro:
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/Market_Communication/Getting_started_with_MPLAB-X.pdf

Wiki:
http://microchip.wikidot.com/mplab:_start

Forum:
http://www.microchip.com/forums/f238.aspx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Opening Project

work n Progress

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Compiling Project and Downloading Firmware with the PICKIT3

work n Progress

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Compiling Project for the bootloader

work n Progress

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finding the binaries for the bootloader

work n Progress

Open Source Hardware and Software Files (Bitsafe 1.0)

Note: The only difference between 1.0 and 1.1 is the later version has a 0.1uF
(100nF) capacitor soldered on top of R30 (750 Ohm resistor) to help provide a
more stable 4.05V source.

Firmware:
https://github.com/someone42/hardware-bitcoin-wallet
https://github.com/someone42/bitsafe-tester

Microchip's Bootloader:
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1824&appnote=en554836
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/AppNotes/AN1388%20Source%20Code%202013_02_01.zip

There were edits made to Microchip's Bootloader for Bitsafe compatibility. Due to licensing,
it was felt that it would not be a good idea to publish their bootloader on Github until all
concerns are resolved.

Please email me if you would like a copy of the source with the Bitsafe edits.
_____________________________________________________________
Schematic:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0wlb2j80xwmmfd/Schematic.pdf

Schematic File - Requires Eagle CAD Tool:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rab32936mwqe0ve/BitSafeDev.sch

Bill of Materials (BOM) - PDF Format:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rclrxxhhhud5zwz/BOM.pdf

Bill of Materials (BOM) - Microsoft Excel Format:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6czeygtv7i90ixk/BOM.xls

Top View of PCB Component Placement:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bib6x9cicxtd212/Top.pdf

Bottom View of PCB Component Placement:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/khi322q14npnx9o/Bottom.pdf

PCB File - Requires Eagle CAD Tool:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2fy2shgx5kjn5p/BitSafeDev.brd

Fabrication Files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sfod6gk17ui1qvf/BitSafeDevA0_FabFiles.zip

Bitsafe Hardware Wallet Development:

New Thread with new discussion and direction:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=152517.0

Bounty paid and logo maid.

Thanks!

Main Bitsafe thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=152517.0

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll do that.
Did I mention developing hardware is my strong point and PR is my weak point 

Thanks, but which one? the getting started thread?

Loading and Updating The Firmware

As firmware rolls out the door followed by updates, it is important to know how
to get those upgrades onto the Bitsafe. Here is a step by step process on how
to do just that.

1) First, plug the Bitsafe into the computer while holding down one of the
buttons. It doesn't matter which one. The Bitsafe will start flashing the green
LED and it will enumerate with the OS in a few seconds. You should always be
able to enter Bootloader mode this way. If the LED is not flashing then unplug
the Bitsafe and try it again.

2) The Bitsafe uses Microchip's Bootloader. The source code is freely
available for download. Here is the link to the PIC 32 Bootloader AP note:
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1824&appnote=en554836

Download the PIC32 Bootloader Zip file:
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/AppNotes/AN1388%20Source%20Code%202013_02_01.zip

3) Extract the zip file and run the compressed executable. This will simply
extract all the source files and bootloader program to the C:\ directory. The
default path is "C:\AN1388_Source_Code_2013_02_01"

4) Run the PC Software: PIC32UBL.exe Here's the default location:
C:\AN1388_Source_Code_2013_02_01\PIC32_Bootloaders\PC application\PIC32UBL.exe



5) Click on the Enable Check box in the USB section Leave the
Vendor ID (VID) and Product ID (PID) numbers at their default values
(VID=0x4D8; PID=0x03C). This VID belongs to Microchip and they have
designated PID 0x03C for their HID bootloader.

6) Click "Connect". For successful connection with the Bitsafe, make sure
it is plugged in and running the bootloader firmware (Green LED should be
blinking). See step #1.



7) Click "Load Hex File" then find and select the firmware binaries of
interest. Binaries will have .hex file extension. Make sure the Binary file was
compiled for this hardware and this Bootloader (currently version 1.0). If it is
not then programming verification will fail.

8: Click "Erase-Program-Verify":


If all went well, you can now unplug it and plug it back in (avoid pushing any
buttons) and it should work. The "Run Application" button on the software
may not work if the newly loaded firmware does not yet support it. Just
use the unplug method.

[Important Update - Please Read]
All the Bitmit listings regarding the Bitsafe and Bitsafe development are now live!
https://www.bitmit.net/en/q/?q=bitsafe

There was also some changes to the description of the main Bitsafe listing. (i.e. Disclaimer now included)
https://www.bitmit.net/en/item/20780-bitsafe-1-1-hardware-wallet-firmware-now-upgradeable-via-usb

Please review these changes and the new listings to make sure you are happy with your order.
Gladly refund anyone in a heartbeat if there is any issue. Also, check if any of the development
accessories are something you are interested in. It would be nice to ship them together.

As mentioned in the OP, I want to support anyone that would like to develop for this open source
project but don't feel like they have the extra funds to purchase a Bitsafe at full price.
Development support from others is of utmost importance for the success of Hardware Wallets
in general. I've included a Bitmit listing just for you. Please purchase this one, and pay what
you feel is appropriate. Hopefully, no one will find this as a barrier to getting involved if they are
serious about improving this project:
https://www.bitmit.net/en/item/20786-bitsafe-1-1-donors-and-developers-version

There has been no Bitsafes shipped out the door yet. Thanks for your patience. I would like to
give everyone a chance to review these new Bitmit listings first and make any changes if needed.
The plan is to ship in mass this next weekend. With a full time job and family, mass shipping will
help me make best use of the extra time I find for this project.

Lastly, I've now included my email in my profile. I dislike the PM system. If you tried to contact me
through Bitcointalk's PM system, but I haven't responded then please try my email. That is still
no guarantee I will reply in a timely matter, but eventually, it will happen.

Thanks,
     Allten

OK, I delisted the auction in hopes that I could reactivate, but then it was gone :-(
I was hoping it would be moved to the "Not Sold" category of the sell area.

Oh well, I've recreated the listing so no worries.