What is all this FPGA ASIC mining talk

[laststop]

I have been using dual 6990's to mine since the card was released and It's done ok. Can someone point me to some good places of information on these new techniques?

[eestimees]

start here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=76.0

[laststop]

thanks. crossfire 6990's looking stronger then fpga stuff.

[Lethos]

thanks. crossfire 6990's looking stronger then fpga stuff.

Most 6990's can pull a hash rate of around 750-800 Mhash/s (overclocking).
Which yes is very comparable to any of the quad spartan-6 based FPGA's which do around 800.

Saying that most 6990's use about 400 to 450 watts when doing those above numbers.
Most quad spartan-6's do more like 50 watts. Big difference if your electricity costs are a major cost to you.

Cost is about the same, all depends which ones you get. Cost is a hard one to calculate since neither can operate alone aswell. In the end it works out quiet well for FPGA's, since a single pc can handle a lot more FPGA's than a single pc could handle GPU's usually.

So no they are not looking stronger, if anything the hash for has is about the same or better for FPGA's and are about 10x more energy efficient.

[laststop]

I don't pay for electric where i live 2x 6990 is 1500+M/hash

[Lethos]

I don't pay for electric where i live 2x 6990 is 1500+M/hash

Some one is, so for you who isn't paying the bill yes the GPU is the better option.
*sigh*

[laststop]

the apartment building owner i guess? i dunno as long as I'm not paying the bill don't care.

[Gabi]

Time to destroy your enthusiasm

http://www.butterflylabs.com/products/

The FPGA on the left does more than 800mhash and consume 80watt. But ehi you have free energy

Well, then have a look at ASIC. They will be released in october/november.

Yes, for 1299$, the price of your computer, you can have 40Gh/s. A much much more than your 1.5Gh/s you have right now.

That's WHY people are jumping first on FPGA (because not everyone have free energy) and then ultimately on ASIC (because 40gh/s for 1299$ is king)

[laststop]

IF it ever appears

[muyuu]

You are fine with your set-up for now. At some point - likely by December or next year - it won't be worth it to have your computer mining at all. But so far you're fine. Your electricity is paid for you but it wouldn't if you wanted to scale your operation to 10+GHash/s. Questions would be asked. So basically you can remain making a little money under the radar, for now.

Difficulty will shoot up even more if ASICs become even moderately popular.

[Lethos]

IF it ever appears

Their are 2 main corps doing it right now. Think their might be a 3rd, but think it can't stalled.

One well know as the first to bring FPGA's to market... BFL. Not exactly a good reputation but they did get there first, so made plenty of mistakes in unknown territory.
The other is a new to market ASICMiner whom has been incredibly open about the entire manufacturing process, of which I did have some involvement in their first board meeting.

You may have your reasons to doubt them, but it will be done. I suspect ASICMiner will be first, just a hunch. It won't necessarily be the fastest but I don't doubt their ability for it to arrive on time well before the end of the year.

[DeathAndTaxes]

BFL wasn't the first FPGA to market.  Not even close.  They were 4th or maybe 5th and were the most delayed. 
They did have the best MH/$ but they also have a 7+ month delay from the promised shipping date.

[Gabi]

IF it ever appears

If it appears your 6990s will be good for heating the house for the winter and nothing more

[Lethos]

BFL wasn't the first FPGA to market.  Not even close.  They were 4th or maybe 5th and were the most delayed. 
They did have the best MH/$ but they also have a 7+ month delay from the promised shipping date.

My apologies, I was not around when they released it, I must of been misinformed on that part.
Maybe I took it as first to talk about FPGA's, then with all their famous delays got beaten by others.

[squid]

What are the odds of BFLabs ASIC stuff actually coming out in Nov/Dec rather than being much more significantly delayed?

[Lethos]

What are the odds of BFLabs ASIC stuff actually coming out in Nov/Dec rather than being much more significantly delayed?

Well their is a rather significant bet going on right now on GLBSE (I'm sure others are doing it else where too), by Diablo.

29.6 Btc predicts they will fail.
7.4 Btc predicts they will succeed.

So I would say a lot of people are betting they won't achieve what they said they'd do. How late they will be I don't know, but their past history for new ventures certainly does not give them good credibility for being on time.

https://glbse.com/asset/view/DI.BFLSC.FAIL

Diablo Insurance - Butterfly Labs BitForce SC Insurance

DI.BFLSC.Fail and DI.BFLSC.Succeed

Butterfly Labs has recently advertised three new products in their BitForce SC line, a 3.5 gigahash/sec USB powered unit named "Jalapeño", a 40 gigahash/sec unit named "SC Single", and a 1 terahash/sec unit named "SC Mini Rig", all to be delivered in October 2012.

In the event that Butterfly Labs fails to deliver at least a sum total of twenty-five (25) units composed of all three products offered described exactly as above to customers by the end of October 31st 2012, shares of DI.BFLSC.Fail will be repurchased at combined value of DI.BFLSC.Fail and DI.BFLSC.Succeed divided by the number of DI.BFLSC.Fail shares sold minus a 1% fee. Shares of DI.BFLSC.Succeed will be repurchased at a price of 0.00 BTC.

In the event that Butterfly Labs does succeed to deliver a sum total of twenty-five (25) units composed of all three products offered described exactly as above to customers by the end of October 31st 2012, shares of DI.BFLSC.Succeed will be repurchased at a combined value of DI.BFLSC.Fail and DI.BFLSC.Succeed divided by the number of DI.BFLSC.Succeed shares sold minus a 1% fee. Shares of DI.BFLSC.Fail will be repurchased at a price of 0.00 BTC.

The final repurchase price in either outcome depends on the number of shares sold of both DI.BFLSC.Succeed and DI.BFLSC.Fail combined by October 1st. Shares will be issued at a price of one thousandth (1/1000) of one BTC.

[Gyrsur]

BFL wasn't the first FPGA to market.  Not even close.  They were 4th or maybe 5th and were the most delayed. 
They did have the best MH/$ but they also have a 7+ month delay from the promised shipping date.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#FPGAs

[Dum3]

November 2012 is going to be a interesting month