A4 Dominator - Pre-Order Group Buy - 280mh, roughly 1000w, $1800 + shipping

[cloudnthings]

Off the wall question...
What's involved in figuring out how to buy the chips directly and implement a small-ish miner with just a few chips?
What type of circuit engineering is needed? Is anyone thinknig about a small rig implementation?
I do not have any clue what would be involved, but it seems it would be an interesting idea, for those who don't want/need a large piece of gear but would prefer to have a much smaller desktop rig based on the A4 chip.
Are there any companies who buy the chips and implement their own circuit boards?

Also a discussion at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1002697.0

Any way you slice n dice it, it appears as a dead end.....

[excelerator]

We have an update!  Whoooohooo! ROFL

So we have some updates to share. Here is the info we have regarding the group buy:

Regarding the group buy and shipping:

For group buy, shipping is a concern since we can only enjoy discount from DHL for at least 31kg. Suggestion is that each customer buy at least three units. For customers who use their own carrier account, this won’t be a problem.

Regarding payment method and process:

We can only accept wire payment. Group buy customers can send me email for payment instruction and quantity confirmation, and then wire the payment to our bank account directly. Shipping fee will be charged in August before delivery since it fluctuates a bit each month with the fluctuation of bunker surcharge. I can give estimated shipping fee though.

Contacting Innosilcon to take advantage of the group buy:

Please do ask to send email with the group buy link so I can recognize them. Thanks!

More miner info:
Innosilicon provided an update that they will be posting a new video soon of the A4 Dominator.

If you would like to contact Innosilicon to take advantage of the group buy offer you will need to order at least 3 units, or work together with other forum members to make an arrangement where at least 3 units can be ordered at a time and shipped to a single address.  Then coordinate how you want to ship or pickup your miner from the member who received the shipment. 

To order please email Innosilicon(Chloe Zhang) directly and include in the subject Bitcoin Talk Forum Group Buy.  She will be able to give the bank wire transfer instructions and give you a quote on the shipping.  Her email address is: zhangq@innosilicon.com.cn

For those that are interested in buying the A4, but will no be ordering 3 or more units make your need known and we can arrange to possible take delivery with a forum member here, and then you would still have to pay shipping from there to your address on top of the portion of the shipping from Inno to us.  Or if you guys have some other ideas let me know and we will see what we can do to accommodate as many folks as possible.   

Ok, so that is the update.  If you want to get your order in reach out to Chloe and she will get you the wire transfer info and shipping info. 

Let me know if you have any questions, or of course feel free to email Chloe and ask her directly.  Let her know your part of the BCT group buy.  She will be looking for those emails. 

Can someone provide a link to the video that was mentioned July 5th?  I'm assuming over two weeks later they would have it completed and posted as unit shipping could start in August.

[usao]

Yea, I haven't seen any video yet either. Didn't think one was available but that it was still being created.
They plan to ship in Aug/Sep, so not expecting to see any HW being produced till the end of Aug.
Hoping they have the video before then.

[Longsnowsm]

I have asked about the video and have not heard anything back yet.  I will ask again.  I think we all want to see the miner in action! 

[cloudnthings]

I have asked about the video and have not heard anything back yet.  I will ask again.  I think we all want to see the miner in action! 

I remember seeing this video a while ago. http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTYwMTEwMTcyNA==.html?qq-pf-to=pcqq.c2c

Are you talking about an updated one with a proper board or a proper unit and not a 1 chip demo?

[usao]

Cool video. I don't know when it was made, but it's definitely an A4.
I did see that they have 3 different hashrates to alter the power consumption.
That will help with as the miners age, making them more efficient to run on electricity.

[cloudnthings]

Cool video. I don't know when it was made, but it's definitely an A4.
I did see that they have 3 different hashrates to alter the power consumption.
That will help with as the miners age, making them more efficient to run on electricity.

The video says uploaded "more than 1 month ago" however I got this link from my browser history dated in May. I think the link is in this actual discussion somewhere.....

[Longsnowsm]

Yes, we posted this some time back and I thought I added it to the OP for this thread.  It clearly shows the A4 is capable of a lot more than what we are seeing with the current specs.  I can only speculate that it means we will see newer models later capable of much higher hash rates. 

Still waiting for that video of the A4 Dominator miner to see the size, noise levels, operating temps, hash rate, power at the wall etc.

[usao]

I was most impressed by the temperature difference, althought I believe they were running on the LOW setting of 1.55W/MHs

[excelerator]

Not sure what conclusions you can draw from a test of a single chip, how a complete rig will run in production, but it is encouraging that it has the potential to run cooler than previous generations.

It was uploaded a month ago and is consistent with their final specifications as this chip ran at 3.52MH and there are 80 chips in the machine (281.6MH).

The test chip ran at 1.55w/MH and was well below the default of 3.2W/Mh for the initial batch shipping which is also slated to be 280MH (896Ws, hence a 1,000W at the wall). I think this means the production chips will be running at ~2x the wattage (much hotter) of the test chip to get the same hashrate.  Really tough to draw any firm conclusions with such limited data!

 Power efficiency: Initial batch will be defaulted at 3.2W/Mhs in Turbo mode, 2.2W/Mhs in Norminal mode, and 1.35W/Mhs in ultra low power mode

[usao]

I just realized that I have a bunch of the old Gridseed linear power supplies, the noisy/cheap ones. They do work, and put out 12V @ 30A.
Since each PCIe plug seems to require 10-11A, I could use one of these linear supplies to power 2x of the 8 PCIe connectors required for each rig.
That way, I can re-use the ones I have already.
Im pretty sure that if I connect the DC ground wires between the PSU's for a single rig, that will work, even if a bit funny looking.
I have 8 of these linear PSU's, and that should cover 2 of the A4 rigs.

[wlefever]

You should ping Chloe and ask her based on your location and number of miners what the shipping estimate will be.  

Got my transfer confirmation and a shipping estimate that was $38 less per miner than I was anticipating so I am happy with that.

Now to see these things start shipping!!

[Longsnowsm]

What did it come out to per miner shipped?  What geographical area are you shipping to?

[wlefever]

What did it come out to per miner shipped?  What geographical area are you shipping to?

Shipping to Canada and it comes out to $82 per unit (Will probably change slightly by the time they ship). I was anticipating closer to $120 per.

[Longsnowsm]

Not bad at all.  I was expecting it to be closer to the $100-130 range... Is it August yet?  LOL

[usao]

Yea, common Aug...
My less optimistic side was thinknig end of aug, but hey...
Anyhow, I have not received any shipping estimates yet, I bounced a note to Chloe to see when I could expect to get that.
I haven't heard anything about a order Queue yet. Do we want to get a order queue going to track who get's what when?

[excelerator]

What did it come out to per miner shipped?  What geographical area are you shipping to?

Shipping to Canada and it comes out to $82 per unit (Will probably change slightly by the time they ship). I was anticipating closer to $120 per.

I was quoted USD $82/unit for US west coast delivery. Was your quote USD or CAD?

[wlefever]

What did it come out to per miner shipped?  What geographical area are you shipping to?

Shipping to Canada and it comes out to $82 per unit (Will probably change slightly by the time they ship). I was anticipating closer to $120 per.

I was quoted USD $82/unit for US west coast delivery.  Was your quote USD or CAD?

USD.  Maybe DHL rates are going to be similar to anywhere in North America? Guess we shall see soon enough.

Not bad at all.  I was expecting it to be closer to the $100-130 range... Is it August yet?  LOL

Come on August!

[excelerator]

You can check your own shipping rates WW here from Shenzen.
http://safestmonster.com/kbase/shipping-delivery/dhl-rate.html

This company is in Shenzen and you'll notice the 11kg rate for shipping to North America is $81.34, almost exactly what I was quoted ($82).

[wheelz1200]

How long is the group buy open?  I might be interested in 3 as these A4s, whats the latest ETA on shipping right now?