Alpha Technology Litecoin (Scrypt) ASIC Miner Order Batch 1 Now!

[crazyearner]

Well after getting a pm and watching a video think safe enough to say wont be placing an order here. I'll wait until theirs actually units that people have got. Yes you do indeed have a video of a programming unit with chip on it but means nothing to me and am sure many others can do the same thing. Until theirs more videos of units actually working and or progress being made on them showing hash rate of what you guys are claiming then I wont commit to pre order.

[retro72]

Adjusted???

Ok I'll wait with baited breath to see how you "adjust" it to fit over 2x the amount of boards, an extra PSU and fans. What are you using a TARDIS?

Or are you talking about stacking the PCB's closer together type of adjustment. In which case I wouldn't count on these things running reliably 24/7 and I hope you've all got great home insurance for when your shiny new miner burns your house to the ground.

[sumana]

do u have any indian reseller ? pls give me the details of them

[vesperwillow]

Fiaz, here is a suggestion for your company, which I believe would please everyone.

* Since you know you guys will be shipping in July, which has to mean you'll have a working system in June

* And since most people are losing faith in the company because the timeline doesn't seem to add up

* And since you apparently have a good relationship with the Foundry, and no doubt have lines of credit since you are an established business

--> Why don't you hold off on requiring payment until you have demonstrated both working machines (the lesser and greater). Wouldn't have to be ones ready for shipment, but show that you have the chips in hand, and you're working the specs up. What you could do is provide a slight discount to those who "have faith" to pay by the deadline.

Afterall let's be honest, when no other company in the history of crypto has shipped on time being this late with the tapeout process, would you trust a newcomer with your money? Especially since for many months they claimed to be on target, potentially early, will not be late--and are now making concessions and talking about giving out free hashpower and stuff, "just pay now".

[Its About Sharing]

What is hard to understand about a miner that is expandabe via more cards being plugged in? If you plug more cards in you add another power supply. The cases design allowed for this and Fiaz said as much. You are acting like you uncovered a sinister plot and all you showed is that you don't understand the talked about design.

And to the other poster who edited their reply to me mentioning air flow - air flow is not affected with an expandable design, BUT you need more fans. Another shocking revelation. And if the heat is to much for you, run 1/2 of the cards. 

Well the problem is I don't see how you can get all that extra gear into a 4u rackmount case. I can see how the 18mh/s unit could be expandable to such an extent but not the 90mh/s. Even Alpha said only the 18mh/s unit was expandable.
"We have made the 16Mh/s upgradeable supporting up to 90 Mh/s simply by adding additional cards and a new power supply in case there is demand to upgrade your devices after shipment"

If you look at the case design it looks pretty packed in there. Please show me where they can get 4x as many chips (over 200 in total) another PSU (three in total according to Fiaz) extra heat sinks and fans into that case.



Assuming that design is correct and we have no reason not to. They will have 5 PCB's 15 chips per board. (18mh/s= 1 board 90mh/s=5 boards) how in the hell are they going to get another 8 PCB's into that case? They will have to radically change the PCB design to accommodate these new specs and I don't see how they do that and still be on time.

I'd find this more believable if they were giving you a couple of extra units but I'm not buying the idea that you can stuff all that gear into a 4u case and still have the thing run safely and reliably 24 hours a day.

Now I know you're the king of optimism but here's a fact for you. Most of the companies that have tried to develop mining asics have failed. Either completely and gone out of business or produced sub spec products. But for some reason you seem convinced that Alpha will buck this trend. I see now evidence to support this and I grow more sceptical by the day.

I'm not sure on the 90Mh/s, I was commenting on the 50Mh/s. Fiaz just mentioned they will adjust the cases. I'm not sure this is that big of a deal. Making a case or the base board larger doesn't seem like a huge deal to me, but I'm not expert here. I hope they are being honest.

I'm not so much the king of optimism, I've been bitten before, albeit not terribly. What I find problematic here is the extreme negativity with no reason. No one seems to be in the middle, and I'm trying to see both sides of things. I've tried not letting emotions go to my head.

At this point, considering our limited knowledge, I only hope Fiaz and company are being honest.

[vesperwillow]

I'm not sure on the 90Mh/s, I was commenting on the 50Mh/s. Fiaz just mentioned they will adjust the cases. I'm not sure this is that big of a deal. Making a case or the base board larger doesn't seem like a huge deal to me, but I'm not expert here. I hope they are being honest.

I'm not so much the king of optimism, I've been bitten before, albeit not terribly. What I find problematic here is the extreme negativity with no reason. No one seems to be in the middle, and I'm trying to see both sides of things. I've tried not letting emotions go to my head.

At this point, considering our limited knowledge, I only hope Fiaz and company are being honest.

The concern is that they have to purchase the cases in bulk, which means lead time, which means the design was already agreed on. Or they have to buy the materials in bulk to build the cases themselves, which again means lead time and/or manpower changes at the last minute.

[allcoinminer]

Too much negatives, everyone attacks.
May be a planned publicity stunt and hope they will suddenly start delivering on time.
These days marketing guys are genius.

Otherwise,
The flaw was when they released the news that they are reducing features and pumping hash in response to a couple of messages in this thread.
Seems like their PR is unprofessional.

But I still have faith in this company.

[Its About Sharing]

I'm not sure on the 90Mh/s, I was commenting on the 50Mh/s. Fiaz just mentioned they will adjust the cases. I'm not sure this is that big of a deal. Making a case or the base board larger doesn't seem like a huge deal to me, but I'm not expert here. I hope they are being honest.

I'm not so much the king of optimism, I've been bitten before, albeit not terribly. What I find problematic here is the extreme negativity with no reason. No one seems to be in the middle, and I'm trying to see both sides of things. I've tried not letting emotions go to my head.

At this point, considering our limited knowledge, I only hope Fiaz and company are being honest.

The concern is that they have to purchase the cases in bulk, which means lead time, which means the design was already agreed on. Or they have to buy the materials in bulk to build the cases themselves, which again means lead time and/or manpower changes at the last minute.

I don't see cases as needing much lead time. The main boards some, but they are not so complex. The main hashing chips are another story, but those are being produced now.

[barruka]

Fiaz I ask you a days ago... we NEED to SEE SOMETHING...

You answer me to see old info I have already seen... but we NEED to SEE something going around today 29th May 2014.

At this moment my "faith level" is going downto 0 so I need to believe... but need something else than words...

[Its About Sharing]

Fiaz I ask you a days ago... we NEED to SEE SOMETHING...

You answer me to see old info I have already seen... but we NEED to SEE something going around today 29th May 2014.

At this moment my "faith level" is going downto 0 so I need to believe... but need something else than words...

The chips are being produced. The whole operation is in progress.
There is nothing yet to see.

[barruka]

No case prototype?

No PSU prototype?

I guess they are already ordered

[Its About Sharing]

No case prototype?

No PSU prototype?

I guess they are already ordered

Case prototype? Are you making this stuff up? A case a relatively simple.
PS's are off the shelf.

[vesperwillow]

The PSU point is noteworthy. They can't legally export a device with a PSU built in or included, until it's got a CE rating, which takes at minimum with bribes, several weeks with a working final product (off the assembly line). This is one of the issues CoinTerra ran into.

So, were they originally including a PSU or not? If not, then no worries.

[retro72]

I'm not sure on the 90Mh/s, I was commenting on the 50Mh/s. Fiaz just mentioned they will adjust the cases. I'm not sure this is that big of a deal. Making a case or the base board larger doesn't seem like a huge deal to me, but I'm not expert here. I hope they are being honest.

I'm not so much the king of optimism, I've been bitten before, albeit not terribly. What I find problematic here is the extreme negativity with no reason. No one seems to be in the middle, and I'm trying to see both sides of things. I've tried not letting emotions go to my head.

At this point, considering our limited knowledge, I only hope Fiaz and company are being honest.

The thing is, I'm not convinced the original case design/layout would work. If you look at every other mining asic they are vastly more heatsink/cooling than chips.

I can't see any space for heatsinks in that design so I don't see how stuffing more boards in there is going to work.

They are either producing the coolest mining asic chips ever designed or they need a vastly bigger case. This is not something an adjustment will fix.

KNC:




Cointerra: They use liquid cooling but it still takes up a vast amount of space


ZeusMiner:



GridSeed:


Avalon:

[Its About Sharing]

The PSU point is noteworthy. They can't legally export a device with a PSU built in or included, until it's got a CE rating, which takes at minimum with bribes, several weeks with a working final product (off the assembly line). This is one of the issues CoinTerra ran into.

So, were they originally including a PSU or not? If not, then no worries.

Just buy an off the shelf approved PS?

Retro72 - great points, hope to find out.

[vesperwillow]

The PSU point is noteworthy. They can't legally export a device with a PSU built in or included, until it's got a CE rating, which takes at minimum with bribes, several weeks with a working final product (off the assembly line). This is one of the issues CoinTerra ran into.

So, were they originally including a PSU or not? If not, then no worries.

Just buy an off the shelf approved PS?

Retro72 - great points, hope to find out.

Well that's my pondering, I can't remember now if they were going to include it when they ship it. Legally they can't include it at all, even if it's an off the shelf device. CE regulations in the UK/EU require the certification if the device is coming with its own power source.

Now, if they aren't including one, then no worries and the customer supplies their own. I was merely wondering what the original plan was, as CE certification would add 2-12 weeks after the units have been assembled and prepped for shipping.

[retro72]

They are including PSUs. 3 in the 250, 1 in the 50

Fiaz from the litecointalk thread

"PSU will be included and it is 40nm."

I made the point about the PSUs a couple of months ago but it fell on deaf ears.

[vesperwillow]

They are including PSUs. 3 in the 250, 1 in the 50

Fiaz from the litecointalk thread

"PSU will be included and it is 40nm."

I made the point about the PSUs a couple of months ago but it fell on deaf ears.

Well you're not alone now.

If they are including the PSU's, and they don't obtain CE certification, the odds are extremely high that equipment will be confiscated by customs. They either have to remove the PSU, risk not having the certification, or will put a fraudulent CE sticker on the cases.

IF they expect to make July shipping.

So in addition to chip foundry timeline, you now have the CE/PSU issue in the timeline. 2 red flags in my mind for a July shipping goal.

[soulcity]

eh, what the hell.  I'm paying the balance tonight after work.    Money I'm willing to risk.

That said, my Zeus miner order shipped today. 

[Phorna]

Retro72 - great points, hope to find out.

What for? You can always use just 1/2 of the chips as you have stated before.