The Bitcoin ASIC Arms Race

[jimmothy]

We are currently in the middle of an asic technological arms race.

Companies are fighting to have the most efficient miners for the best price while shipping the soonest with the least bullshit.

As of writing this, bitmain has the biggest gun in the fight with the antminers. Bitfury, knc, avalon, and the secondary companies (HF/CT/BA/BM/ActM)* have chips that will compete with bitmain antminers but they cannot produce them at the same rate and low price like bitmain do. *have yet to ship or prove themselves

Future asics include but are definitely not limited to kncminer neptune and asicminer which will destroy any and all current tech asics. Chip estimates are 0.6gh/w for asicminer* and 0.7gh/s for knc compared to bitmain antminers at 1.6gh/w.      *rumor

Can't forget about avalon and bitfury. Avalon will surely release a next gen chip but I have not heard anything about either. Seriously where do they post their news?

And then theres BFL who will (imo) still be there in the end pumping out the same crap and selling to the never ending waves of bitcoin noobs.

Vote if you think.

[Biomech]

I voted Bitmain and Bitfury.

Both have mostly delivered on time and on spec. Both work well. I think Bitmain will be top dog, as they have the most sustainable business model, but bitfury has a loyal following, me included. (My miner is bitfury based, and it works great).

I'm also doing so as kind of an act of pennance. I thought both were a scam in their early development. They turned out to be the best or close to it.

[Fireblade]

I voted Asicminer. AM have been proven that they can take a large share of the market. In the end all will be depend on timing.

[jimmothy]

I voted Asicminer. AM have been proven that they can take a large share of the market. In the end all will be depend on timing.

I agree with asicminer and here's why: If they can make a 40nm chip that is equal or more efficient than knc 20nm, how much better will an asicminer 20nm chip be?

[AndrewGucci]

I hope that it will be KNC, they are a good company in my opinion

[Fireblade]

I voted Asicminer. AM have been proven that they can take a large share of the market. In the end all will be depend on timing.

I agree with asicminer and here's why: If they can make a 40nm chip that is equal or more efficient than knc 20nm, how much better will an asicminer 20nm chip be?

Bitfury did preform for a 55nm good results, almost equal the power efficient of today's 28nm technology. Why invest now a lot more money in a 20nm chip, when you can achieve very competitive specs of a cheaper technology. 

[ChuckBuck]

Voted AsicMiner and Bitmain, because they only ship miners "In Hand" and their resellers, customer service, support are pretty much the best in the industry.

Bought AsicMiner blades last year then bought Bitmain Antminers this year.  Could not be a better experience as a small time miner.

Pre-ordered Black Arrow X-1s, what a f#cking mistake...

[Puppet]

The ones with the most efficient chips. Too early to call those, few companies have seriously tried to maximize power efficiency, time to market is still king today. Based on current (paper) specs, AM will be head and shoulders above the rest, but Id very surprised if that remained so.

[Korbman]

To me, the question "Who will be left after all the dust settles?" implies that the remaining companies will have the reputation, knowledge, dedication, and financial capacity to last seemingly indefinitely (under the best circumstances of course).

With that in mind, I'd say my primary pick is ASICMiner, solely based on how far they've come already...and assuming they continue to develop chips that outpace competitors.
Choosing a second company is difficult though. I'm not sure any of the other options truly fit the bill, but KnC, CoinTerra, Bitmain, and BitFury are close.

And then there's BFL, a Bitcoin-parasite who will be around so long as their lawyers don't leave any loopholes for them to be sued by, all while slowly draining the wallets of any newbie who can't use a 'search' function. 

[rograz]

Bitfury did preform for a 55nm good results, almost equal the power efficient of today's 28nm technology.

One of the reasons for this is that the focus has been absolute performance instead of optimizing for efficiency for most (all?) 28nm products so far. I bet most of the 28nm products out today are capable of performing at/under 0.5-0.75W@wall with the right tuning, the question is how much performance you lose getting there.