[Announcement] Avalon ASIC Development Status [Batch #1]

[Sitarow]

This point has been made before, but if Avalon is not trying to get people to send them money, there is not a real good reason to expend a lot of effort on proving that they actually have something.

Under the hypothesis that they have gear and a pretty anticipated production rate going forward, a good psychological strategy would actually be to let doubt and accusations build to a crescendo, then just go ahead and make their early deliveries without a lot of fan-fair.  The effect that would have would be to quash a lot of future doubt in whatever projects are to come.

I, of course, have no idea if Avalon is legit, total scam, or something in between.  I hope they are legit because I am starting to feel that it might make sense to get into mining (although not particularly for an immediate profit) and the basic design these guys elude to is compelling to me.

I do wish Avalon were more forthcoming with information, and that they are not counts as a negative to me, but as I mentioned it could be the case that there is not a compelling business case to be.  And they are likely fairly busy.  If they do not take the time to work on transparency at some point I can be pretty confident that they'll not count me as a customer.

Customers that request a refund at this stage should not be surprised to discover the queue of willing customers desperate to pre-order devices as they become available.

This project has a good track record of not taking pre-orders for a future batch.

I recall Tom from bASIC also did not want to take orders on the 2nd batch, however people insisted that he continue taking pre-orders.

That should help put into perspective what bASIC's initial batch would cost to complete.

In retrospect the steps taken by this project team have worked in keeping them focused on the task at hand.

Short of any unforeseen events that may delay the project. The Avalon project and its team, have to contend with similar pitfalls that have delayed other ASIC projects.

Attempting to anticipate all possible outcomes is a waste of effort with such projects.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Keep up the good work.

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[jamesg]

So who's the delusional one in this picture?

+1

[Aseras]

Avalons guys don't give a crap about marketing or fanfare. This thing has been in the works for a long time. ngzhang has never been one to talk much. He's no BS straight shooting and he delivers. Look up his profile and read his posts. He doesn't spend most of his time making thing pretty or flaunting his works like BFL or the other. The closest they came to flaunting anything is announcing some slight speed boosts and the countdown clock on the website. He knows his shit. BFL can even decide on packaging even after 3+ months of delays. Heat is a BS excuse, they would have shipped a first gen and then improved it later if they had a real product.

[tvbcof]

Avalons guys don't give a crap about marketing or fanfare. This thing has been in the works for a long time. ngzhang has never been one to talk much. He's no BS straight shooting and he delivers. Look up his profile and read his posts. He doesn't spend most of his time making thing pretty or flaunting his works like BFL or the other. The closest they came to flaunting anything is announcing some slight speed boosts and the countdown clock on the website. He knows his shit. BFL can even decide on packaging even after 3+ months of delays. Heat is a BS excuse, they would have shipped a first gen and then improved it later if they had a real product.

Agree.  From the time ~ngzhang showed up on this forum he seemed like and interested and thoughtful person.  Nothing more or less.  And all of the technical stuff I've seen from him seem quite credible to me (although I'm not terribly qualified to make a call here.)

I've sorta vaguely worked with Yifu in a minor way once.  Although I was not totally impressed with him as a conceptual visionary, I never had reason to doubt his integrity.  I did feel that bitsyncom was a little to eager to monopolize the project I had some interested in, and that they never really followed through very well.  I lost interest and/or had a philosophical shift as well so I cannot hold that against them to much.

Anyhow, all of these things together give me some degree of hope for the Avalon project (relative to BFL or bASIC...which is not saying much...)

[tvbcof]

...
I've sorta vaguely worked with Yifu in a minor way once.  Although I was not totally impressed with him as a conceptual visionary, I never had reason to doubt his integrity.  I did feel that bitsyncom was a little to eager to monopolize the project I had some interested in, and that they never really followed through very well.  I lost interest and/or had a philosophical shift as well so I cannot hold that against them to much.
...

Actually, in the interest of analyzing all inputs, I should point out one thing which had slipped my mind.  Yifu did seem to have a non-trivial involvement with Bruce and his show.

I personally don't consider this to be a sure sign of scammery as I am pretty confident that some people who had a personal involvement with him were unaware of what a dirt-bag he was.  Much to my embarrassment Bruce fooled the shit out of me on-line.  He probably would have in person as well if had ever met him.

[Syke]

So who's the delusional one in this picture?

Anyone who thinks BFL is going to meet the currently published timeline.

[Unacceptable]

thy are switching all from QFN to BGA 

No no no,they're adding clock buffers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Gyrsur]

thy are switching all from QFN to BGA 

No no no,they're adding clock buffers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

don't try at home neither, kids!

[nathanrees19]

This point has been made before, but if Avalon is not trying to get people to send them money, there is not a real good reason to expend a lot of effort on proving that they actually have something.

Actually, I would say that it's an excellent reason. It would demonstrate that they actually care about keeping their existing customers well informed - every bit of positive news from BFL/bASIC is aimed at least partially at getting more pre orders.

Unfortunately, they have given up this opportunity.

[tvbcof]

This point has been made before, but if Avalon is not trying to get people to send them money, there is not a real good reason to expend a lot of effort on proving that they actually have something.

Actually, I would say that it's an excellent reason. It would demonstrate that they actually care about keeping their existing customers well informed - every bit of positive news from BFL/bASIC is aimed at least partially at getting more pre orders.

Unfortunately, they have given up this opportunity.

They've got a mailing list or forum or something, and presumably when one put in a pre-order they have e-mail addresses for news.  I've not tried to sign up for it (so I probably should not be bitching about lack of design details I guess.)  Anyway, the purported shipping date is right around the corner so it's almost pointless at this point to worry to much about lack of info.  We'll know soon enough if they've got anything.

As for your opportunity, I surmise that any potential you had to be an early-bird has flown long ago.  If they (have something which works and) stick with their pretty modest supply estimates, one does not suspect that they'll be needing a huge amount of effort to keep the pre-order pipelines full.

[Bogart]

This point has been made before, but if Avalon is not trying to get people to send them money, there is not a real good reason to expend a lot of effort on proving that they actually have something.

Actually, I would say that it's an excellent reason. It would demonstrate that they actually care about keeping their existing customers well informed - every bit of positive news from BFL/bASIC is aimed at least partially at getting more pre orders.

Unfortunately, they have given up this opportunity.

I would rather they spend their energy on fulfilling orders than making photo galleries or writing forum posts.

They say everything's on track and they're shipping in less than 3 days.  I don't feel the need to ask for more information.  I think all of the important questions have been answered.

All I need now is just a little more patience.

[kano]

This point has been made before, but if Avalon is not trying to get people to send them money, there is not a real good reason to expend a lot of effort on proving that they actually have something.

Actually, I would say that it's an excellent reason. It would demonstrate that they actually care about keeping their existing customers well informed - every bit of positive news from BFL/bASIC is aimed at least partially at getting more pre orders.

Unfortunately, they have given up this opportunity.

I would rather they spend their energy on fulfilling orders than making photo galleries or writing forum posts.

They say everything's on track and they're shipping in less than 3 days.  I don't feel the need to ask for more information.  I think all of the important questions have been answered.

All I need now is just a little more patience.

... except they've skipped a big item that they said they would do ...
Demo.

If they reach their current modified deadline, good, but if they don't ...

Anyway, I do not see a reason for not spending 5 minutes writing an update.
Will that make them deliver 5 minutes later?
Effort to do a demo? A couple of hours? (if the people doing it are pretty lacking in skills required - a lot less if they know what they are doing)
Will that make them deliver a couple of hours later?

At this point in time, it's quite simple to state the obvious:
To do a Demo requires fully functional hardware, firmware and software.
To not do a demo suggests ... ? Who knows?
Feel free to fill in the blanks where none is supplied ...

[regular]

perhaps they feel if they ship first, they can catch BFL with their pants down.

If they release a demo now, BFL might rush to ship theirs and negate the Avalon advantage.  Just a thought coming from an ex-bASIC preorderer.

[MrTeal]

perhaps they feel if they ship first, they can catch BFL with their pants down.

If they release a demo now, BFL might rush to ship theirs and negate the Avalon advantage.  Just a thought coming from an ex-bASIC preorderer.

BFL is rushing to ship theirs as best they can. They have nothing to ship, and Avalon shipping or not won't speed up the fact that their chips aren't ready to ship.

Avalon could demo now and start taking preorders for the next batch in late Feb. Given the delays BFL has had, it wouldn't be too far fetched that customers with high preorder numbers might jump ship and join new money in buying Avalon. The could sell a ridiculous number of units in a short time with proof that they have a working, mining ASIC.

That they don't, 3 days before their countdown expires... We'll see. Maybe they'll just delay a couple days, but I'd be shocked if they had units in the mail 55 hours from now.

[bitmar]

Where can I find photos of AVALON's rig?

[Vicus]

Where can I find photos of AVALON's rig?

Nowere

[nathanrees19]

.. except they've skipped a big item that they said they would do ...
Demo.

Yep. I'm only holding them to their own terms.

[bitmar]

Where can I find photos of AVALON's rig?

Nowere

No photos, no demo... this a joke? LOL
I never understood the Asian sense of humor.

[crazy_rabbit]

Why is it normal in the BTC community to demand photos of products before they are released? It's not like Apple would show us the iphone 6 just so we could cream our panties in anticipation.

That said, Apple is apple and BTC is something else.

[bitmar]

Why is it normal in the BTC community to demand photos of products before they are released? It's not like Apple would show us the iphone 6 just so we could cream our panties in anticipation.

That said, Apple is apple and BTC is something else.

This is normal in any kind of community. Usually you can see what you're buying, besides buying a lottery ticket.