I think this groupbuy is dead without some reverse engineering. After speaking with Bitmain, they made it apparent they they never intend to release the protocol. If we want to use the BM1380, we must buy their control board.
Our options at this point are to buy their proprietary equipment, sniff the BM1380 protocol... or just buy Bitfury's now that they're back in production. I know which direction I'm going to choose.
+1
I don't feel like using or even worse reselling someone's black box either.
If they want other people to develop miners using their chips - they must release the entire documentation.
If they just want to keep the monopoly on their chip's usage - they may as well just continue making their own stuff.
I'm perfectly happy with bitfury and A1 for now.