[UPDATE] Butterfly Labs - June 22 2013

[jayeeyee]

Original Post: https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/692-bfl-asic-status-3.html#post43041

 BFL_Josh

I haven't updated in awhile because I thought the shipping was self explanatory, but people seem to be clamoring for an update, so here we are.

We have been working our way through the backlog of orders over the past month. Production is slowly ramping up and we are easily able to manufacture 200 units a day currently - there will be no problem hitting 400 units a day once things are in full production. Right now, we are stymied by the inflow of chips. However, the inflow rate of chips is increasing and we expect it to be quite high within the next week or two. It's been a long road to smoothing out these bottlenecks here and there.

Lots of Jalapeno's have been sent out the door, as well as some singles and minirigs. Production on the longoard lines are really going to start to ramp up next week and the following weeks.

We have been refining the firmware for both the short board but mostly for the longboard. One of the primary changes has been to switch from a one job per board method to a one job per chip method. This has fixed a lot of the latency issues we were experiencing with the early firmware and what held up production on some of the 60 GH/s units. We have not yet finished the XLINK portion of the firmware to be operating at 100% yet, so the first few minirigs that are going out the door are shipping as individual USB devices (8 per box) instead of 1 big USB device. Going forward, once the XLINK stuff is finalized, minirigs will be shipped out as XLINK equipped.

We will continue to refine the firmware as we go along. With the current firmware, we are seeing between 260w to 280w per 60 GH/s unit, or 4.3w - 4.6w per GH at the wall on 120v. Actual chip wattage is just under 3w per GH.

In other news, we have released all the documentation necessary for people to begin creating their own boards to house our chips and we have begun selling our chips in bulk. The first deliveries of our chips are expected in roughly 100 days from the time of order. We still expect the current back order backlog to be cleared by the middle of September or so, although given what we can likely achieve with our production rate, I suspect it may be sooner than that. No guarantees on that either way, though.

[whitefeather]

Original Post: https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/692-bfl-asic-status-3.html#post43041

 BFL_Josh

...We still expect the current back order backlog to be cleared by the middle of September or so...

The implication of this statement is that by "middle of September or so" a customer could order a device on BFL's site, and the product presumably could be in said customer's hands in a few days, depending on shipping method. That's what I am reading here, if in fact the "current back order backlog" is cleared by then. Is this what Josh is saying?

[dogie]

No. He is saying he might be able to start shipping chip orders by then. Ie February.

[logicbomb666]

Original Post: https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/692-bfl-asic-status-3.html#post43041

 BFL_Josh

...We still expect the current back order backlog to be cleared by the middle of September or so...

The implication of this statement is that by "middle of September or so" a customer could order a device on BFL's site, and the product presumably could be in said customer's hands in a few days, depending on shipping method. That's what I am reading here, if in fact the "current back order backlog" is cleared by then. Is this what Josh is saying?

The way I read it, yes. 

[polrpaul]

That is assuming the backlog doesn't keep growing, right? 

[kendog77]

I don't believe for a second that their current backlog will be cleared in September. For a while, they were shipping a decent number of Jalapeno's, but even those have slowed down to a trickle in the last week or two so I cancelled all of my BFL orders.

It seems like they are having trouble keeping all the parts they need in stock to assemble and ship units.

I strongly suspect there will be much better options available from other companies by the time BFL clears their current backlog. 

[k9quaint]

I don't believe for a second that their current backlog will be cleared in September. For a while, they were shipping a decent number of Jalapeno's, but even those have slowed down to a trickle in the last week or two so I cancelled all of my BFL orders.

It seems like they are having trouble keeping all the parts they need in stock to assemble and ship units.

I strongly suspect there will be much better options available from other companies by the time BFL clears their current backlog. 

Just think. BFL could have had Foxconn or Quanta assemble these things and they all would have been done in a day. 
Oops.

[kendog77]

I don't believe for a second that their current backlog will be cleared in September. For a while, they were shipping a decent number of Jalapeno's, but even those have slowed down to a trickle in the last week or two so I cancelled all of my BFL orders.

It seems like they are having trouble keeping all the parts they need in stock to assemble and ship units.

I strongly suspect there will be much better options available from other companies by the time BFL clears their current backlog.  

Just think. BFL could have had Foxconn or Quanta assemble these things and they all would have been done in a day.  
Oops.

I agree. BFL does seem like a amateur manufacturing company that is learning as they go along. I seriously doubt they can sustain any sort of production output.

[titomane]

I don't believe for a second that their current backlog will be cleared in September. For a while, they were shipping a decent number of Jalapeno's, but even those have slowed down to a trickle in the last week or two so I cancelled all of my BFL orders.

It seems like they are having trouble keeping all the parts they need in stock to assemble and ship units.

I strongly suspect there will be much better options available from other companies by the time BFL clears their current backlog. 

Why not visit someone to check that the mounting cedena works 100%?
Openday as other companies have done, would give a vote of confidence.

[ninjarobot]

Tomorrow will mark the full 1-year wait point for me. Ordered 3 jalapenos (upgraded to 1 LS) on June 24th 2012 with 76 BTC. Sigh.

...Maybe in 2 weeks?





(Now please excuse me while I *punch a dolphin in the FACE!*)

[Bitcoinorama]

Umm...what kind of deal do they have with a chip foundry that is as flakey as they are at shipping?!?

How is it possible that a major chip manufacturer ships incomplete orders of small volume when they won't deal with you unless it's in the hundreds of thousands, or millions...!!

Not buying this I'm afraid.

Both BFL and Avalon seem to have magically kicked their own asses into gear, updating in the precise same week,  at the exact same time genuine competition has been proven to exist. That's no extraordinary coincidence. It's also weird Mini-Rigs suddenly debuted without any prior progressive updates, meaning they existed longer than you think they have.

This means one thing, they've both been sitting around doing something other than what's been claimed...

[ultrix]

Umm...what kind of deal do they have with a chip foundry that is as flakey as they are at shipping?!?

How is it possible that a major chip manufacturer ships incomplete orders of small volume when they won't deal with you unless it's in the hundreds of thousands, or millions...!!

Possibly low yield after inspection, ie: bad start.  Although it would seem unlikely as typically the contracts I've had/seen with foundries have a guaranteed delivery volume.

[klintay]

what a bunch of idiots, they took millions in pre-order money over a year ago and they are still having supply problems 12 months on???
Are you bloody kidding me?

[mezzomix]

Tomorrow will mark the full 1-year wait point for me. Ordered 3 jalapenos (upgraded to 1 LS) on June 24th 2012 with 76 BTC. Sigh.

Bad for you. BFL started a few weeks ago to manufacture Jalapenos. Now the first Single and MiniRig prototypes are made. Nobody knows how long it will take until BFL starts to manufacture little singles.

[PuertoLibre]

I don't believe for a second that their current backlog will be cleared in September. For a while, they were shipping a decent number of Jalapeno's, but even those have slowed down to a trickle in the last week or two so I cancelled all of my BFL orders.

It seems like they are having trouble keeping all the parts they need in stock to assemble and ship units.

I strongly suspect there will be much better options available from other companies by the time BFL clears their current backlog.  

You will be greatly rewarded by your insights. (says my fortune cookie)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=troxvPRmZm8

Don't click this link.

[ninjarobot]

Tomorrow will mark the full 1-year wait point for me. Ordered 3 jalapenos (upgraded to 1 LS) on June 24th 2012 with 76 BTC. Sigh.

Bad for you. BFL started a few weeks ago to manufacture Jalapenos. Now the first Single and MiniRig prototypes are made. Nobody knows how long it will take until BFL starts to manufacture little singles.

No shit. Well, at least BFL will be shipping something (if they don't fold before they ship little singles). Sure beats Bitcoinica. Those bastards took 1993 BTC from me in May of last year and have not refunded customers yet, and perhaps never will. Now there is a real scandal.

[joeventura]

When there is real news you will hear it.

Posting stuff like this is not doing anyone any good.

Bottom line is when BFL is shipping 400-600 units out the door a day they will be crowing about it.

Until then, just assume nothing has changed.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

This has fixed a lot of the latency issues we were experiencing with the early firmware and what held up production on some of the 60 GH/s units.

Finally, some good news. The return of the 60 GH/s. Would somebody be so kind as to point out which one of the units depicted on this page is said unit?: https://products.butterflylabs.com/

Thought not. I contend that Josh has officially lost his fuckin' mind. How could the guy in charge of production not be aware that the 60 GH/s miner has been discontinued?

Maybe it was a typo.

With the current firmware, we are seeing between 260w to 280w per 60 GH/s unit, or 4.3w - 4.6w per GH at the wall on 120v.

Twice!

Also, for only $43,000, one can get a 1000 GH/s, of which is only a $13,000 increase from the last time I saw the unit priced. Maybe that's to cover the FCC certification fees.

Or maybe it's to buy a tombstone for Sonny K.'s grave.

Or maybe it's to help cover the 1000 BTC guarantee that HE owes (not the BFL one).

[Bitcoinorama]

This has fixed a lot of the latency issues we were experiencing with the early firmware and what held up production on some of the 60 GH/s units.

Finally, some good news. The return of the 60 GH/s. Would somebody be so kind as to point out which one of the units depicted on this page is said unit?: https://products.butterflylabs.com/

Thought not. I contend that Josh has officially lost his fuckin' mind. How could the guy in charge of production not be aware that the 60 GH/s miner has been discontinued?

Maybe it was a typo.

With the current firmware, we are seeing between 260w to 280w per 60 GH/s unit, or 4.3w - 4.6w per GH at the wall on 120v.

Twice!

Also, for only $43,000, one can get a 1000 GH/s, of which is only a $13,000 increase from the last time I saw the unit priced. Maybe that's to cover the FCC certification fees.

Or maybe it's to buy a tombstone for Sonny K.'s grave.

Or maybe it's to help cover the 1000 BTC guarantee that HE owes (not the BFL one).

Unit used to be 1,500 Gh/s for $30k, not 1,000 Gh/s!

[PaperClip]

Thought not. I contend that Josh has officially lost his fuckin' mind. How could the guy in charge of production not be aware that the 60 GH/s miner has been discontinued?

Its sort of a bonus. You can order 50 GH/s unit, and after some time you should receive mail asking to pay additional 500USD for upgrade to 60 GH/s (this is optional).
I would like to know if those who ordered 60 GH/s units year ago must pay additional price too.