March 30th BFL ASIC update

[Crystallas]

Just relaying what I saw in the chat. You can check the BFL chat archives for yourself.


The units are working, but the last issue is fixing the power drain. Some units are using more than 2x as much power than necessary and they think they know how to fix it very soon. They have to fix the drain issue, because despite the power consumption still being low, it's causing heat issues.

If the power/heat issues still exist with the BitForce Single SC(60GH unit), then BFL will option to ship two  Little Single SC(30GH units) in its place until the problem is resolved.

Once this is fixed, units are expected to ship. The rough projection is 2 weeks. In an absolute perfect world, units might ship next week. They can build about 400 units a day. If you're an early pre-order, and have a FPGA unit getting traded up, check the site to find out when.



Take the news or leave it.   I'm not a BFL apologist, but I was curious.

[philips]

If the power/heat issues still exist with the BitForce Single SC(60GH unit), then BFL will option to ship two  Little Single SC(30GH units) in its place until the problem is resolved.

Or (from what I understand) you can wait until the issue is fixed on all counts and receive a (fully functional) single unit as ordered.
But who is gonna do that?

[philips]

28 March 2013 - Mini-Update

I had wanted to post a video tonight, but wasn't able to make that happen, so let me apologize for that in advance. As some of you may know from the chatbox, we have been working diligently to get these ASICs out the door. We've been tracking down a power issue these last few days and have it isolated to a few key systems. In the interest of time, we are planning on potentially scaling back units hashing speed as required to accommodate the extra power and shipping multiple units to those that want their units right now. If would would prefer to wait for a unit after we've made some changes to the systems that need a bit of tweaking, we will be happy to put your shipment on hold. However, if you'd rather have the units right now at an increased power usage, we will ship you as many units as required to get you to the hashrate your purchased, if we end up having to scale back any given class of unit to fit within the power envelope of the current board design.

We have the current design hashing, and as I said, I had hoped to have a video of a unit hashing here in KC, but I wasn't able to bring that all together tonight, but hopefully I can get it posted up tomorrow or by this weekend. I will update as soon as I have more news to share, with a video.

If you absolutely do not want a unit that is consuming more power than expected, you can let us know you'd like to wait for a revised unit or you are welcome to request a refund. If you'd rather have your units shipped regardless of increased power usage, we will still guarantee your hashrate by shipping you however many units are required to achieve your purchased hashrate. There is no need to contact us right now if you are not concerned about the power usage and just want your units shipped ASAP. Even with the increased power demand on these first units, they will still out perform any competing products by a very wide margin in terms of power and megahash/J.

Again, we apologize for the delay, but we are almost there.

[zedicus]

April fools ? LOL

Bazinga!

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Finally! Now the various units can be sent out for UL and FCC approval. I'm pretty sure that's only a 24 hour process, 48 hours at the most, being that a holiday weekend is at hand. Meanwhile, a wave of emails, like a swarm of locust, is going to be sent out for customers to send in their FPGAs, otherwise no ASICs. All should go smoothly from this point forward since enough time has past to make sure all the information on file is up to date and the 1/3:1/3:1/3 shipping arrangement has been all ironed out.

Happy Days!

[fatpan]

Will they change the PCB??

And first 5000 chips, how many ASIC can be made??

I dont thinks it wll ship so fast.

[The-Real-Link]

They're a little over power target but any ASIC at this point will do.  Hopefully they do solve things expediently and get them out the door.

At least the good news is for any of us running any semblance of a substantial mining setup shouldn't have any issue dissipating say, 400-1200w (depending on what you've ordered and how BFL may compensate with # of rigs for the ordered hashrate). 

[Unacceptable]

Its about 40TH worth,give or take 

Even 120-150 watts @ 60GH beats the crap out of 600 watts  & $6000-8000 

[philips]

Will they change the PCB??

And first 5000 chips, how many ASIC can be made??

I dont thinks it wll ship so fast.

PCB related:

Bogart, the rest of the 6 wafers, we have been holding off on the last 5 layers for the rest of the chips to be sure we don't need to make a tweak in the metal layer due to the power issue. I think we've pretty much settled that hte power issue is NOT in the chip, but somewhere in the substrate or PCB (or if it were in the chip, it's not something that's easily and quickly fixed).

The power is still far less than any other unit, so it's not like it's something crazy or anything, but it's not 1w/GH and we're trying to locate the source of the power drain. It may require a revision of the substrate and/or the PCB.

[loshia]

Its about 40TH worth,give or take  

Even 120-150 watts @ 60GH beats the crap out of 600 watts   & $6000-8000  

Dude,

Pls remember "the crap out of 600 watts" Pays the electricity itself with a day or two work for a year:)
What about this crap? I am happy to have that crap in my hands LOL!
 

[polrpaul]

Sheep. Beh.

[creativex]

Its about 40TH worth,give or take 

Even 120-150 watts @ 60GH beats the crap out of 600 watts  & $6000-8000 

Pretty sure the guy with the batch 3 Avalon pre-order will have his unit paid for before someone ordering this week from BFL receives anything...and as to power consumption...I've toyed with the idea of putting Radeon 4850s back to work hashing at this exchange rate and $.08/KwH. ASICMiner is paying the equivalent of $.25 for power on 130nm chips and I think they're doing ok profit wise with their 6.5Th. Power consumption does not matter right now and by the time it is important there'll likely be more options available. Time to delivery is what matters and BFL's competition has beaten them soundly.

BFL should just ship whatever they have that doesn't explode as soon as it's plugged in.

[repentance]

Will they change the PCB??

And first 5000 chips, how many ASIC can be made??

I dont thinks it wll ship so fast.

Only BFL knows how many of each unit they're going to make from the first 5,000 chips.  Based on the wait list thread, it's probably not going to fill more than the first few days orders even if Josh doesn't take any of the units he ordered - but some of the people who ordered in those first few days may choose to wait until the power problems are solved.

BFL is only sticking the boards in their cases for the first batch so they can probably ship fairly fast once they receive the boards.  What might slow things down a bit is the administrative stuff.  I don't see how it's going to be viable to stick with the 1/3 shipping plan now and FIFO is going to be complicated by some people choosing to wait rather than accept low spec units.  Plus people need to return their FPGAs.
Let's hope customer service is on the ball so there are no clusterfucks on their part.

I wonder whether the lifetime warranty will apply to any units which are shipped sub-spec.

[monkee]

Just relaying what I saw in the chat. You can check the BFL chat archives for yourself.


The units are working,

this was not said in chat.  no idea if a single unit has been assembled or tested. the last info is about a test rig.

but the last issue is fixing the power drain. Some units are using more than 2x as much power than necessary

they did not state that the issue was with "some units".  it is likely all units. also the figure of 2x was not stated

and they think they know how to fix it very soon.

they did not say they think they know how to fix it, or that they would do so very soon

They have to fix the drain issue, because despite the power consumption still being low, it's causing heat issues.

may cause heat issues.  likely but they never stated there were heat issues, just the possibility

If the power/heat issues still exist with the BitForce Single SC(60GH unit), then BFL will option to ship two  Little Single SC(30GH units) in its place until the problem is resolved.

again, many assumptions. this was not stated.  they said they would ship "purchased hash rate".  many people purchased prior to the spec upgrade, also it may take 3 little singles and a jalapeno to meet that 40 or 60 gh. we don't know and they may not yet either. also they never mentioned existing heat issues

Once this is fixed, units are expected to ship. The rough projection is 2 weeks. In an absolute perfect world, units might ship next week. They can build about 400 units a day. If you're an early pre-order, and have a FPGA unit getting traded up, check the site to find out when.

again, not stated.  this post jumps to a lot of assumptions and could be very misleading. i advise anyone to read the actual quote from the shoutbox instead

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=160584.0

[Unacceptable]

Its about 40TH worth,give or take  

Even 120-150 watts @ 60GH beats the crap out of 600 watts   & $6000-8000  

Dude,

Pls remember "the crap out of 600 watts" Pays the electricity itself with a day or two work for a year:)
What about this crap? I am happy to have that crap in my hands LOL!
 

Post back here in 6-12 months & let me how much more your earning than me 

Really,I'm happy Avalon got thiers out 

[creativex]

Its about 40TH worth,give or take  

Even 120-150 watts @ 60GH beats the crap out of 600 watts   & $6000-8000  

Dude,

Pls remember "the crap out of 600 watts" Pays the electricity itself with a day or two work for a year:)
What about this crap? I am happy to have that crap in my hands LOL!
 

Post back here in 6-12 months & let me how much more your earning than me 

Really,I'm happy Avalon got thiers out 

Still not getting it I guess. Oh well.

[Unacceptable]

Its about 40TH worth,give or take  

Even 120-150 watts @ 60GH beats the crap out of 600 watts   & $6000-8000  

Dude,

Pls remember "the crap out of 600 watts" Pays the electricity itself with a day or two work for a year:)
What about this crap? I am happy to have that crap in my hands LOL!
 

Post back here in 6-12 months & let me how much more your earning than me 

Really,I'm happy Avalon got thiers out 

Still not getting it I guess. Oh well.

Never will either,remember,I ordered from BFL 

[philips]

split hairs ad nauseam...

[creativex]

Its about 40TH worth,give or take  

Even 120-150 watts @ 60GH beats the crap out of 600 watts   & $6000-8000  

Dude,

Pls remember "the crap out of 600 watts" Pays the electricity itself with a day or two work for a year:)
What about this crap? I am happy to have that crap in my hands LOL!
 

Post back here in 6-12 months & let me how much more your earning than me 

Really,I'm happy Avalon got thiers out 

Still not getting it I guess. Oh well.

Never will either,remember,I ordered from BFL 

Did you sign a contract that said you'd suspend your common sense? Surely you can see the mining profitability charts at blockchain? An ASIC in hand right this second is worth it's weight in silver, there's no telling what the future will bring, but right now the most important factor in ordering is obviously *WHEN*.

[loshia]

Its about 40TH worth,give or take  

Even 120-150 watts @ 60GH beats the crap out of 600 watts   & $6000-8000  

Dude,

Pls remember "the crap out of 600 watts" Pays the electricity itself with a day or two work for a year:)
What about this crap? I am happy to have that crap in my hands LOL!
 

Post back here in 6-12 months & let me how much more your earning than me 

Really,I'm happy Avalon got thiers out 

Dude,

I do not know of others btach 1 others but i do belive 90% of them are delivered yet. Speaking of btc earnings alone  the BFL customers will never be able to catch up in BTC for a life time period Avalons batch 1. I can bet on that and i know i will win but i do not want to wait for that bet for obvious reasons