Butterfly Labs invests heavily in high speed production equipment

[Monkey1]

So mid November at the earliest, which is late November for us non US residents.

[P_Shep]

so... 4-6 weeks then?

[kaerf]

very interesting to see that the chips have such high overclocking potential.

[bitmar]

very interesting to see that the chips have such high overclocking potential.

...and such energy efficient. This is amazing  based on the frequency, performance and energy consumption must be 1 nm technological process BFL ahead of his time as Leonardo da Vinci This promises to be a great revolution in bitcoin world

[squid]

At least they finally said something that made sense and stated they will be outsourcing their first set of boards. That will actually significantly reduce expected delay (in my opinion) as setting up all the fab pieces, getting people trained, making sure everything works properly and to spec is a significant undertaking.

[scrybe]

That thread answered my big question too, they will not be using the new gear for the first batch, it is for follow-on batches.

Ok, so we have the cats herded, the specs staked out, now we have to actually build these things. As many of you know, we've purchased SMT machines to allow us to manufacture our own boards - and I have mentioned this before, but many have not heard it - we will not be using the SMT equipment to process our first batch of boards; we will be using the same house that did the pick and place for our previous generation products, which means we're still at the mercy of someone else for our first batch shipments. There has been some delays at that stage, but we have the padding, so it's not been a critical issue. There has also been some delays at the foundry, but again, we have padding, so it's not been a critical issue. We are also paying for an expedited run at the foundry (which does not come cheap) to keep our timeline up. All these things have to work out perfectly and our timeline is still looking good. However, if something does not work out perfectly, our timeline is going to slip, plain and simple. We've used up most of our padding at this point and we are still ironing out a few little wrinkles here and there. This has been a long explanation for a simple answer: I would like to tell you we are still on time or pretty close to it, because we are. However, I would also like to tell you that we are going to slip a couple weeks or so if anything goes wrong, and given the complexity of the issues facing us, I would say it's almost inevitable something will crop up between now and the beginning of November that we are not expecting; What that is, I don't know yet, but I would rather error on the side of caution, say the timeline is going to slip a little bit and then surprise everyone with an early delivery than promise an early delivery and not meet that promise. So that's what I'm doing and there's your answer. When I have more information, I'll let people know as soon as I can.

[grishnakh]

Good explanation from Josh about the delivery times. It's gonna be exciting who'll be first in the ASIC market.

[ChipGeek]

This explanation makes me feel better.  IF they were trying to bring up the first batch on the new in-house production line, I would expect the first shipment to slip to December or January because of all of the little things that pop up.  But since they're making the first batch at an outside contractor, they have a very good chance of making November. 

I have corralled many herds of these cats (doing one right now on my job) and I can say it is very frustrating.  Some times something as simple as a $0.02 capacitor or resistor holds up the whole thing because you ASSUMED that they would be available by the millions.  But when you go to order them, someone else (IBM, Intel, Dell, whoever) just ordered every available one for some project they have and you have to wait XX weeks for the manufacturer to make more.

[franky1]

actually a great explanation.

 there i said it.

 Inaba(wearing his work name badge) has actually made a great and proper statement

[Jack1Rip1BurnIt]

I'm also glad to hear that they are not trying to produce the first boards directly at BFL headquarters. I could only imagine the panic that they would be going through trying to push the massive first order out to impatient customers. So basically in the beginning they will receive the boards and cases and have to assemble and test. I think they chose the correct route. Let someone more experienced produce the products from their prototyped designs, and replicate that same process in-house for years to come. The million dollar question is of course - "How many finished boards did they order?". Either way it was awesome to get such a detailed update.

[Keefe]

Actually, is the size of the first batch that important? It's not like you can change whether you're in it or not, at this point. And if you didn't order in the first month, I can almost guarantee you won't get a first batch shipment.

[scrybe]

Actually, is the size of the first batch that important? It's not like you can change whether you're in it or not, at this point. And if you didn't order in the first month, I can almost guarantee you won't get a first batch shipment.

Of course it is important (in mining speculation, of course!)

The size of the initial BFL batch can be used to infer the global has rate and difficulty situation for the 2 periods between batches (assuming it takes 30 days between batches)

The ramp on BFL directly affects the slope of the difficulty curve, everyone wants a peek at that!

[Jack1Rip1BurnIt]

Actually, is the size of the first batch that important? It's not like you can change whether you're in it or not, at this point. And if you didn't order in the first month, I can almost guarantee you won't get a first batch shipment.

I guess too bad for those people huh? Nothing I have to worry about.

[PuertoLibre]

very interesting to see that the chips have such high overclocking potential.

...and such energy efficient. This is amazing  based on the frequency, performance and energy consumption must be 1 nm technological process BFL ahead of his time as Leonardo da Vinci This promises to be a great revolution in bitcoin world

??

Your CPU is probably more energy efficient and probably has a lower TDP based on the frequency alone. (500Mhz)

If you down clocked your processor to 500mhz you could probably get away with passive cooling solutions.

Consider that it is an ASIC design and most of the energy consumed in the chip is probably converted directly into heat. The only reason it is very fast is because the design is very specific to the intended purpose.

(I doubt they use any SOI or other advanced fabrication processes like those found in the CPU designs from larger CPU companies.)

[crazyates]

If you down clocked your processor to 500mhz you could probably get away with passive cooling solutions.

Psh. I'm using a fanless(passive) Hyper 212+, with an undervolted and overclocked X3 445. I doubt I'll be able to do that when those FX-8350s come out, but hey, who cares?!

[bitmar]

BFL_Office - 10-05-2012, 02:11 PM  Reply
Because they're in transit. The announcement was made after our purchase. Once the machines are fully installed, we'll be happy to flood you with photos and assembly videos

let's see

Let's see indeed.  If they were purchased on Wednesday the 3rd, they ought to be arriving around Monday the 8th if they ship from within the US.  I can't imagine BFL waiting for slow international shipping.  They are on a schedule after all.

I'll wager 5 BTC that no such photos show up any time next week (thru the 13th) that are not obvious fakes or highly questionable.  Certainly none that provide a solid assurance that BFL is in fact in possession of and operating or setting up these machines for operation.

(Post in the thread if you wanna take the other side of this wager.)

I accept your bet. Someone quote please.

To be clear, I am betting 5 BTC that BFL posts pictures of their new equipment before 10/13/2012.

Today is 10/13/2012. BFL has not posted any new equipment photos. Was explained that the first picture is not fake, but what about photo 2 and 3? 
Bogart, just won 5BTC.
@CoinHoarder - I hope  you are an honorable man

[Zeek_W]

Today is 10/13/2012. BFL has not posted any new equipment photos. Was explained that the first picture is not fake, but what about photo 2 and 3? 
Bogart, just won 5BTC.
@CoinHoarder - I hope  you are an honorable man

That it is! Sad to say, no new images

[AndrewBUD]

Here is a recently completed auction of the Essemtec reflow oven pictured.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESSEMTEC-RO300FC-REFLOW-OVEN-/320989507198?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4abc772e7e

Is there any way BFL could prove they won the auction?

This is crazy... These things are supposed to ship in few weeks and their just bidding on equipment?

[crazyates]

Here is a recently completed auction of the Essemtec reflow oven pictured.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESSEMTEC-RO300FC-REFLOW-OVEN-/320989507198?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4abc772e7e

Is there any way BFL could prove they won the auction?

This is crazy... These things are supposed to ship in few weeks and their just bidding on equipment?

They said the first batch was too large for them to produce, even with this hardware. The initial batch will be manufactured at the same plant as as the current Singles, and shipped in a large batch. This hardware is for after they're all caught up, so they can make a unit and ship it within days of ordering.

[AndrewBUD]

Here is a recently completed auction of the Essemtec reflow oven pictured.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESSEMTEC-RO300FC-REFLOW-OVEN-/320989507198?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4abc772e7e

Is there any way BFL could prove they won the auction?

This is crazy... These things are supposed to ship in few weeks and their just bidding on equipment?

They said the first batch was too large for them to produce, even with this hardware. The initial batch will be manufactured at the same plant as as the current Singles, and shipped in a large batch. This hardware is for after they're all caught up, so they can make a unit and ship it within days of ordering.

Is that something similar to what happened with the FPGA's?