Interesting post. Did ORSoC ever do a press-release regarding the failed project and where the funding went?
As far as I know, there was press release. This was not preorders as in the knc case, it was more of "donations", however the donations went directly to orsoc and it could be that they gave away some pcb:s in the end to a few of the top donnors. Info should be out there.
I just think the campaign was quite similar, lot of marketing hype and very few technical details.
Also, what is your relationship to ORSoC?
I like to be anonymous, but I can just say that I work in the same field as they and has known about the company and persons from some time, but as I mentioned, they are quite well known for their behaviour in the local industry.
According to a very recent local news article, they claim to have received enough money from existing orders to start production....... I have NOT done any .28nm tape outs, but just to get an idea of costs, have a look at page 4 on the following pdf:
http://www.arena-international.com/Journals/2012/03/16/s/i/l/3_Xilinx.pdf...sure, there is many ways to reduce the costs and this will be a very simple design, but I would expect them to need AT LEAST _a few_ million USD:s to do this. This makes me very sceptical! What is the harm in being open about these numbers?
Anyway, I may soon be out of newbie status and can then post a little in the other forums....