Black Arrow 28nm 100Ghash Bitcoin ASIC from $0.49/GH/s

[jimsonunique]

what forms of payment do they accept?

[1713281289]

1713281289

[1713281289]

1713281289

[FlappySocks]

what forms of payment do they accept?

Bank transfer,Weston Union, BTC.

[tigerfree]

ii have old FPGA from you how much i will get for them if i return them to you ?

[vs3]

We have released the Preliminary datasheet of the Minion ASIC

After taking a quick look at the specs - I have some questions (and recommendations) for the development team:

Do you HAVE TO use a FCBGA and 700 pins? That's quite a pain for troubleshooting and not to mention much more expensive for in the manufacturing process.

If it isn't too late - could you consider a QFN (or[T]QFP or something else non-BGA)?
There are probably way too many duplicate and unnecessary pins - probably with some optimization it will be possible to pick another packaging?
For example - there are 40 pins that provide IOVDD and IOVSS - do you really have to have 40 pins for that? Do they have to deal with that high currents?
Also - blinky stuff and LEDs don't have to have dedicated pins - the host microcontroller can easily deal with the blinking (if at all necessary).
Unless the temperature detector absolutely must have its own separate GNS - why not share IOVSS for example?
etc

And the other question - heat - what are the plans to deal with that?
Is the silicon going to be exposed (BFL-like) where users can attach a proper heatsink? Or is heat going to be dissipated through the PCB? If the second then bitfury-like packaging with a huge pad underneath the chip (and tons of vias on the pcb) will be better than a bunch of balls/pins.

And my apologies if some of that has already been answered.

[SirWizz]

Does anyone know if these guys have actually taped out? I find it extremely hard to believe that they will deliver anything in February if they have not taped out yet...

[Syke]

Does anyone know if these guys have actually taped out? I find it extremely hard to believe that they will deliver anything in February if they have not taped out yet...

Not yet. They do need to tape out asap if they want to hit a Feb date.

[Gator-hex]

Black Arrow, I PMed you, waiting for a reply.
In addition, you mentioned that you would allow PayPal when it has gotten closer to shipment time. If you do intend on making your end of February goal, then you are within the 90 PayPal limit. So, a PayPal payment option should be available now, right?

PayPal refund window is 45 days for you to file a claim + 20 days for the seller to resolver the dispute.

[merv77]

Black Arrow, I PMed you, waiting for a reply.
In addition, you mentioned that you would allow PayPal when it has gotten closer to shipment time. If you do intend on making your end of February goal, then you are within the 90 PayPal limit. So, a PayPal payment option should be available now, right?

PayPal refund window is 45 days for you to file a claim + 20 days for the seller to resolver the dispute.

paypal wont allow payment's that cannot be delivered before 30 days, so I guess no Paypal yet.

[Carlton Banks]

And the other question - heat - what are the plans to deal with that?
Is the silicon going to be exposed (BFL-like) where users can attach a proper heatsink? Or is heat going to be dissipated through the PCB? If the second then bitfury-like packaging with a huge pad underneath the chip (and tons of vias on the pcb) will be better than a bunch of balls/pins.

And my apologies if some of that has already been answered.

The designs for the heatsink appear well advanced, they have samples in what looks like aluminum and copper from last week. I think they still haven't decided on whether to house all the chips in a single 19 inch Prospero-3 (with two rows of boards and heatsinks) or to split this into 2 units with one row in each. I would assume the Prospero 1 heatsink will be identical to that of the Prospero 3, so you will be getting a little Jalapeno/Little Single style unit (due to the size of the heatsink). 

[WynX]

For example - there are 40 pins that provide IOVDD and IOVSS - do you really have to have 40 pins for that? Do they have to deal with that high currents?

Well, they do need quite some lines I think... Rough estimation is that @0.85V and 0.5W/Ghs they would need to have ~59 amps (100ghs*.5W / 0.85V) per chip (not including losses and such and assuming 1 chip per 100ghs device).

And the other question - heat - what are the plans to deal with that?
Is the silicon going to be exposed (BFL-like) where users can attach a proper heatsink? Or is heat going to be dissipated through the PCB? If the second then bitfury-like packaging with a huge pad underneath the chip (and tons of vias on the pcb) will be better than a bunch of balls/pins.

Yes, heat is going to be substantial, but 50W is not too crazy for a chip with a large heatsink. Pictures of testing heatsinks have been posted as Carlton is mentioning.

[bobsag3]

Black Arrow, I PMed you, waiting for a reply.
In addition, you mentioned that you would allow PayPal when it has gotten closer to shipment time. If you do intend on making your end of February goal, then you are within the 90 PayPal limit. So, a PayPal payment option should be available now, right?

PayPal refund window is 45 days for you to file a claim + 20 days for the seller to resolver the dispute.

paypal wont allow payment's that cannot be delivered before 30 days, so I guess no Paypal yet.

This is what Blackarrow said previously:

"After consulting with one of our prospective resellers, who have had more interaction with PayPal than we have, we understood that PayPal’s business model does not fit very well with pre-orders. Because our delivery date is over Paypal’s 90 days delivery threshold, we risk having our PayPal account blocked with all customers’ money in it. If such a thing were to happen this might cause huge delays in deliveries and we want to avoid this at all costs.

Our merchant account with PayPal is currently working but we have decided to suspend all future PayPal transactions for items that are not in stock (pre-orders). We have contacted and are currently talking with PayPal to ensure that they understand our pre-sales agreement and to obtain the guarantee that everything is ok, all security checks are done and our account will remain open.

We will reactivate PayPal payments as soon as we get PayPal’s approval in writing or as soon as we will be able to meet 90 days delivery condition, which means closer to the release date of the Product."

Bolded for emphasis.

And them, as well as I have since then given up on paypal. They closed my account without notice, and last I heard same thing for BA

[bobsag3]

Since BA hasn't responded to my PM yet and he's been online multiple times since I sent it, I'm gonna post it here and hopefully get a reply from others who may know:

Is there a return policy/cancellation policy during the pre-order period? Like if someone changes their mind and wants their money back before the items have shipped, is that possible?
Also, what happens if the February 24, 2014 goal is not met? Will buyers be compensated? I'm sure everyone is familiar with the Butterfly Labs debacle so I want to protect against that.

In addition, this is for the US reseller:
What conversion do you use for converting USD to BTC? Currently, Mt Gox's price is $1150 per BTC.

I cant answer on the refunds for them, but as for USB>BTC, I use:
https://bitcoinaverage.com/#USD

[BlackArrow Matt]

I made the mistake of not being around yesterday and now I'm digging out. I'll try to answer as much as I can. If I miss your question, please let me know.

1). I'll pass the technical questions regarding our data sheet to our engineers.
2). Paypal is out because they could close our account at any time. If that were to happen assets would be frozen which would have a profound impact on our development. At this time it's not a possibility to pay via paypal. We'll revisit the idea down the road.

3). regarding Black Arrow's support system, we're swamped. We're processing payment information first since it's important to get the totals out to you as quickly as possible. After that we're working on questions. Unfortunately, a lot of the questions have been answered before. If your question has not been answered within a 2-3 day period, please message me your ticket number. I'm really sorry that it's taking some time before your questions are answered.

4). The Prospero X-1 will have a different heatsync but it'll be just as effective.

5). Tigerfree, are you the original owner? Did you get our email? Reply via personal message please so we can get this sorted out.

[The Ghola]

hi matt

Any news on a UK reseller please?

[bobsag3]

Since BA hasn't responded to my PM yet and he's been online multiple times since I sent it, I'm gonna post it here and hopefully get a reply from others who may know:

Is there a return policy/cancellation policy during the pre-order period? Like if someone changes their mind and wants their money back before the items have shipped, is that possible?
Also, what happens if the February 24, 2014 goal is not met? Will buyers be compensated? I'm sure everyone is familiar with the Butterfly Labs debacle so I want to protect against that.

In addition, this is for the US reseller:
What conversion do you use for converting USD to BTC? Currently, Mt Gox's price is $1150 per BTC.

I cant answer on the refunds for them, but as for USB>BTC, I use:
https://bitcoinaverage.com/#USD

Oh, you're the US reseller? I had sent you two emails but you never replied. Thanks for the response here though.
Do you offer cancellation of pre-orders or no? And what about late shipments?

My email has been swamped... as well as tickets. Good chance it got lost.
I will be offering as much of a refund policy as possible, If the order has not been sent off to BA yet, I offer 100% refunds. As far as late shipments, that is something that I will have to think about as we get closer to release date.

[BlackArrow Matt]

hi matt

Any news on a UK reseller please?

Hopefully soon

[The Ghola]

hi matt

Any news on a UK reseller please?

Hopefully soon

Brilliant, thanks

[FlappySocks]

5). Tigerfree, are you the original owner? Did you get our email? Reply via personal message please so we can get this sorted out.

I got the e-mail, as I purchased 10 Lancelot's, but I thought I had missed the boat on getting any discounts.  Can I still get a discount?

[wmmail07]

BlackArrow Matt,
i create Ticket: #VRN-839-94850, answer me please

[FlappySocks]

hi matt

Any news on a UK reseller please?

Hopefully soon

If your looking for a UK reseller, I might be interested. I have a Ltd VAT registered company.