[ANN]ASICMiner Publicly Looking for Potential Customers/Partners for New Chips

[Gator-hex]

Interesting news, and I have to admit I'm rather puzzled why a company that makes no secret of it's mining activities wants to make it's hardware publicly available? Is it altruism or something else? In the commercial world, despite what is said in public, companies do not 'welcome' competition - they hate it and will do almost anything to eliminate it. Anyone who thinks or believes otherwise is an idiot.

While this is true, see how many times JP Morgan has tried to patent e-currency to capture it through the law, I think most of us who believe in Bitcoin do it for more altruistic reasons. I know I do. Like Tyler Winklevoss recently said in the NY regulatory hearings, "Bitcoin is freedom. It’s very American.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-15/jpmorgans-bitcoin-alternative-patent-rejected-175-times
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/in-praise-of-bitcoin-with-little-regard-for-banks/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

[Lloydie]

Interesting news, and I have to admit I'm rather puzzled why a company that makes no secret of it's mining activities wants to make it's hardware publicly available? Is it altruism or something else? In the commercial world, despite what is said in public, companies do not 'welcome' competition - they hate it and will do almost anything to eliminate it. Anyone who thinks or believes otherwise is an idiot.

I'm also concerned that many, many miners reading this information will only see the headline $/GH figures of '0.5 to 1' and imagine that you're going to be purchasing hardware at anywhere near those figures - you're not, as the chip cost is only a part of total rig cost and unless you're going to be buying the chips and their associated pcb's, psu's and controllers in volume then the figures you more likely to be looking at are $2.0 - $2.5/GH. Yes, I know it's much better that what's available right now, but that will change soon.

Got to hand it to Asicminer though. Nice pitch and nice to see that someone has finally paid some real attention to their sha256 silicon implementation rather than just using the standard blocks and recognised that you don't need 28 or 20nm to make a very efficient hashing chip.

No altruism I can detect. AM is just saying they have the best chip and realises they are chip experts. Why mess with the other stuff where they have no competitive edge. Best to sell chips to maximise ROI. Also AM has learnt that dominating hash is not good for bitcoin, so by distributing their chip widely they are protecting themselves by protecting bitcoin. AM has done the maths and this is a calculated move.

[NanoAkron]

No altruism I can detect. AM is just saying they have the best chip and realises they are chip experts. Why mess with the other stuff where they have no competitive edge. Best to sell chips to maximise ROI. Also AM has learnt that dominating hash is not good for bitcoin, so by distributing their chip widely they are protecting themselves by protecting bitcoin. AM has done the maths and this is a calculated move.

They can also start generating revenue as soon as they get the chips in hand. Just send them out to buyers with a good datasheet containing a reference PCB design and voila! This is what linear, microchip, TI, analog all do.

[grumpy619]

Nice... At least there is some movement

[DPoS]

The cat delivers..  he now owns the floor

[LGV]

Hi Friedcat,

Can you sell the sample chip in small batch? We have factory in Shenzhen, have numerous customers and we are keen to arrange early access so that we can lockdown our reference design.

We are considering Avalon next Gen but we really would like to see your PCB design much earlier.

Thanks

LGV

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Declaration: Before physical chips are out and fully tested, all specs/dates/data are for reference only and subject to change.

Although with unexpected obstacles, timing rearrangements and delays, our chips are still on track of delivery in March. This thread for releasing information of chips to public, with the intention of getting enough (direct) customers or (indirect) resellers aware before actual chips are produced.

The information will be updated to be more and more accurate, as we are updated with our fab, engineers, as well as the mining market.

Specification
Process node: 40nm
Package type: QFN64 8mmx8mm (with another option of QFN64 7mmx7mm possible)
I/O: Standard SPI protocol with clk, in, out and cs.
Rated Hashrate: 12.8GHash/s per chip, with a wide range of overclock/downclock options
Rated Voltage: 0.72V, recommended voltage range is 0.55V-1V
Power Consumption: 0.2J/GHash low voltage, 0.35J/GHash rated voltage

What to expect with the chips
Datasheets and reference PCB design are going to be released as soon as they are ready.

Chips will be available for ordering once the functionality and yield rate are confirmed with testing on actual chips.

There will be three modes of orders: Immediate delivery, 2-month delivery and 3-month delivery, with the price getting lower one by one. For 2-month and 3-month delivery, premium + balance payment may be supported to enhance liquidity and enable larger orders.

Both USD and Bitcoin payments are supported, but the nominal price will be based on USD.

Full devices from ASICMiner are definitely going to exist on the form of samples and small batches. ASICMiner may also build new mining farms based on new chips. Unsliced wafers may also be available for sale. But the main business direction is to provide packaged chips.

Price range
0.49$/G-0.99$/G, depending on order size and delivery speed of choice.

Please bear in mind that when choosing brands of Bitcoin mining chips, the cost of making whole working mining devices, including PSUs, DC/DC, heatsinks, fans, and room cooling facilities, needs to be taken into account. With our relatively low power consumption, the customer can save more money on the devices' side.

Partners
We are especially interested in the following types of business partners:

1. Large mining operation owners who can also do massive PCB production of their own.
2. Mining device manufacturers who can improve our open-source design or make new designs from scratch.
3. Resellers with various channels and abundant liquidity in cash or Bitcoins.

Contact
Please PM to (friedcat) on bitcointalk, or mail to (cat@bitquan.com)/(fnnirvana@gmail.com) for future partnership discussions. Please do not use them for information inquiry, because all info about chips will be published here.

[duncangray]

Same question, what is the smallest purchase size/quantity?

[antirack]

Same question, what is the smallest purchase size/quantity?

You are asking the wrong question. Read the post:

We are especially interested in the following types of business partners:

1. Large mining operation owners who can also do massive PCB production of their own.
3. Resellers with various channels and abundant liquidity in cash or Bitcoins.

If you check the boxes on these, fine. If not, you may need to wait for a reseller.

[empoweoqwj]

Same question, what is the smallest purchase size/quantity?

You are asking the wrong question. Read the post:

We are especially interested in the following types of business partners:

1. Large mining operation owners who can also do massive PCB production of their own.
3. Resellers with various channels and abundant liquidity in cash or Bitcoins.

If you check the boxes on these, fine. If not, you may need to wait for a reseller.

Also, FC asked for PMs or emails, not questions in this thread

[topminingcontracts]

May be he changed of mind or someone provided already all the required money he needs.

:-)

[Lohoris]

Also, FC asked for PMs or emails, not questions in this thread

May be he changed of mind or someone provided already all the required money he needs.

:-)

Well, we might say that if someone can't even follow this simple instruction, it's not someone you want as a partner when huge sums of money are involved...

[CoinChex]

We are very interested in a partnership going forward.  We run an institutional mine and have quite a bit of capital to invest into a wholesale relationship for chips.

Please consider us. Thanks.

[empoweoqwj]

We are very interested in a partnership going forward.  We run an institutional mine and have quite a bit of capital to invest into a wholesale relationship for chips.

Please consider us. Thanks.

To repeat again:

"FC asked for PMs or emails, not questions in this thread"

[minerpumpkin]

For those who haven't seen this yet:
There has been a board meeting and friedcat answered questions we collected and submitted to him. Also a big thank you to Jutarul, who helped us getting them through and inform us about the other topics discussed during the meeting.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99497.msg5025133#msg5025133

[philipma1957]

next usb miner coming yay

yeah if a 5gh bitfury chip hashes at 2.6gh in an ice fury or red fury    these should hash at 5gh-6gh

[Lohoris]

We are very interested in a partnership going forward.  We run an institutional mine and have quite a bit of capital to invest into a wholesale relationship for chips.

Please consider us. Thanks.

To repeat again:

"FC asked for PMs or emails, not questions in this thread"

And people who can't even read simple instructions, won't likely be good partners for anything.

[vs3]

next usb miner coming yay

yeah if a 5gh bitfury chip hashes at 2.6gh in an ice fury or red fury    these should hash at 5gh-6gh

Out of curiosity - what makes you think that the bitfury chip should hash at 5-6GH?

[papamoi]

next usb miner coming yay

yeah if a 5gh bitfury chip hashes at 2.6gh in an ice fury or red fury    these should hash at 5gh-6gh

Out of curiosity - what makes you think that the bitfury chip should hash at 5-6GH?

it was his initial plan but it seems his chips can go more than 2.5 ghas,you can see also that he has printed 5ghs on his first packaged chip

there is some pictures available here an there

[ujka]

next usb miner coming yay

yeah if a 5gh bitfury chip hashes at 2.6gh in an ice fury or red fury    these should hash at 5gh-6gh

Out of curiosity - what makes you think that the bitfury chip should hash at 5-6GH?

First post in bitfury thread     
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=228677.0

Preliminary specs - each chip would give roughly 5 GH/s performance.

[punin]

Just you wait