[Group Buy] BFL ASICs, + Board Design Underway.

[Lucko]

It will stoup increasing so fast I'm sure...

[bitpop]

Yeah but you instantly exchange ltc to btc.

I started mining about 3 months ago with GPU's.
I mined BTC for about 3 hours and then switched to litecoin.  Have not mined BTC since.
And based on the pricing of all these group orders I question whether
it's worth it even if they actually deliver on time. 
Constant increases like 18% in difficulty will put us at 250,000,000 on 1/1/14.  At 5 GH/s you will
make about $8 a week.  And based on the pricing/estimates for these BFL chips/boards/assembly/delivery
I don't think it's going to show a profit.  At least not for a few years.  I could be wrong.
I ordered two Jala's late (April) and did an analysis of revenue based on 18% increases.
Here is the result if anyone is interested.  http://tinyurl.com/llahjrd
It's not pretty.

[MWNinja]

Once the price crashes and the hash rate stabilizes, we won't see large increases in hash rate without a corresponding uptick in prices.  But we have to reach 50x the pre-asic hashrate before this is likely to happen.  ASICs have already been way over ordered. 

[mokahless]

I am interested. I have some chip credits I wish to potentially use. Avalon chips are already my self-assembly challenge and especially considering the BGA, I have no interest in assembling miners myself with their chips.

[Lucko]

I am interested. I have some chip credits I wish to potentially use. Avalon chips are already my self-assembly challenge and especially considering the BGA, I have no interest in assembling miners myself with their chips.

Hey guys, the chip buy is closed. Please don't send me any more BTC or codes, unless you want to make a donation.

The buy was done today, so we're in the queue to get chips on their way. Thanks to everyone who participated or expressed interest.

I think this GB is finished... But you can join my...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=238052.0

[Doken]

Mr. Teal, how many chips you ordered, can you put Orders list?
Number order Butterfly labs?


Estimate date chips arrival...  

[MrTeal]

Mr. Teal, how many chips you ordered, can you put Orders list?
Number order Butterfly labs?


Estimate date chips arrival...  

Hi Doken,

Estimated arrival for the chips is 95 days, IE I haven't heard anything other than the 100 day lead time.
The order number with BFL is 1000679XX.
We ordered 1200 chips. I am not going to put out a list of individual orders within that, as I haven't asked if people are willing to have that disclosed.

[Doken]

Thanks MrTeal!!!! 

[nexus99]

Mr. Teal, how many chips you ordered, can you put Orders list?
Number order Butterfly labs?


Estimate date chips arrival...  

Hi Doken,

Estimated arrival for the chips is 95 days, IE I haven't heard anything other than the 100 day lead time.
The order number with BFL is 1000679XX.
We ordered 1200 chips. I am not going to put out a list of individual orders within that, as I haven't asked if people are willing to have that disclosed.

Thanks for putting in the work to get it done. 1200 is a good size number!

[Dagger75]

I hope BFL follows through with the sample chips at a reasonable date so PCB's and components can be tested and worked on w/o someone having to tear apart their Jalapeno to scavenge the chips   

For the Heatsink&Fan, are any AM2 HS w/ 92mm Fans going to fit?  Can get some great deals on them these days even for the Direct contact heatpipe versions.  The DC Heatpipe w/ 92mm cool better then most 120mm fans w/o DC pipes.  I wish I could remember the the brand of HS&F that some other Group buy was using on their boards...Think they were able to order direct and get a nice bulk discount.

Any new info on how many chips per board will be used?  Hoping for 6 if the board design can handle it.

[MrTeal]

I hope BFL follows through with the sample chips at a reasonable date so PCB's and components can be tested and worked on w/o someone having to tear apart their Jalapeno to scavenge the chips   

For the Heatsink&Fan, are any AM2 HS w/ 92mm Fans going to fit?  Can get some great deals on them these days even for the Direct contact heatpipe versions.  The DC Heatpipe w/ 92mm cool better then most 120mm fans w/o DC pipes.  I wish I could remember the the brand of HS&F that some other Group buy was using on their boards...Think they were able to order direct and get a nice bulk discount.

Any new info on how many chips per board will be used?  Hoping for 6 if the board design can handle it.

I would actually recommend staying away from most DC heatsinks, it should have an entirely flat base and direct contact heatpipes often have small gaps between the base and the heat pipe. It's not an issue with a CPU because the die is coupled to a large heatspreader, but with the ASICs it's possible you could end up with localized hot spots under where the gap is.

[nexus99]

Just bumping this up for all of us who participated in this buy.

[daemonfox]

Chipgeek posted on the BFL forum 2 days ago that they should have a board design to share in 1-2 days.

I am hoping that means today sometime we might see an update on progress from both Chipgeek and MrTeal.

There was also a post from Josh about the sample chips... sadly, the person they had in charge of that has left BFL and apparently was not on top of sending out the sample chips. Josh stated he has remedied this so chips should be on their way to MrTeal and Chipgeek so they can move along with these boards.

MrTeal and Chipgeek, TY for putting this together... any updates on progress this week would be greatly appreciated.

Also, MrTeal... when do you anticipate needing the second half of the chip deposit and at what point will you be asking for the remainder of the cost for the board and assembly per option 3?

~Daemon

[Swimmer63]

Can I assume this GB is closed, or did you order extras?  Looking for 16-24.

[af_newbie]

MrTeal,

Did you receive the samples?

[CanaryInTheMine]

MrTeal,

Did you receive the samples?

my sample chips shipped out  yesterday

[MrTeal]

As a quick update before I post a dedicated thread for the board development back in custom hardware, things are going well. Sample chips are here, and the test PCBs and stencil are in manufacture and should arrive early next week. As well, all the components for the test boards are on the way and should all be here this week.

We should be (as far as I know of) the first group to have a non-BFL reference design up and running, so I'm pretty happy will progress thus far.

[CanaryInTheMine]

We should be (as far as I know of) the first group to have a non-BFL reference design up and running, so I'm pretty happy will progress thus far.

That's awesome!!

[nexus99]

We should be (as far as I know of) the first group to have a non-BFL reference design up and running, so I'm pretty happy will progress thus far.

That's awesome!!

I agree. This is all very cool.

[nexus99]

It should almost be time for these chips!