BFL Monarch More Delays

[Bonio]

Just read this on the BFL forums, hardly surprising I have to say but after lots of moaning by customers it seems there may be some compensation:

04 March 2014 - Monarch Update

Power & Performance better than expected
 The initial power consumption numbers for Monarch are in and they're about 20% better than anticipated, meaning we expect the Monarch to consume 0.45W/GH at the chip level. This translates to about 300W per 600GH at the wall. Chip performance of all systems is as good as or better than predicted. To put this in perspective, this makes the Monarch chip nearly twice as power efficient as compared to our 28nm competition whose products operate between 0.9 and 1.0w per GH at the wall.

Chip Delay
 The initial batch that we currently have in hand is not suitable to ship to customers. This is due to a problem in a top metal layer of the chip that prevents some engines from initializing when the chip is first powered on. (With ASIC design, there are a number of layers to a chip; most of those layers are in silicon, but the last few layers are in a special type of metal. Subsequent batches were held in wait just prior to the metal layers so that we could affect any necessary changes and proceed with chip production from that point, drastically reducing the time it takes to bring a new batch of chips to life.) The problem was positively identified and the fix is already in progress; however it will take approximately 5 weeks before we get packaged chips in hand, meaning the deployment of the Monarch will be delayed about 5 weeks from now. The specific date is still being determined, but I wanted to get an update out as soon as possible.

Refunds & Delay Compensation

 Because of the delay, we're offering several different forms of compensation that vary based on order pricing and order date:

$4680 600GH Monarchs

Free performance upgrades
 All customers who ordered 600GH Monarchs prior to the price decrease on November 28, 2013 will be upgraded to the Imperial Monarch product, which is a new, high performance version of the card. The Imperial Monarch will operate at 1 TH/s (+ / - 20%).

 Six Month Refund or Double Shipment Guarantee
 If you’ve been waiting in queue for six months or more, you qualify for either a full refund in USD, OR double the hardware you ordered. This latter option will come in the form of (a) first shipping you the new Imperial Monarch, giving you an expected 160-175% of your ordered hashrate, and then (b) an additional Standard 600 GH Monarch at the end of the queue, giving you another 100% hashrate boost, totaling an expected 250+% of your ordered hashrate once all products have shipped. (Note: Electing the refund cancels the Imperial Monarch upgrade offer in the first section above.)

50% off Voucher
 If your paid order is less than 6 months old but you paid $4680 for your Monarch, you will instead receive an Imperial Monarch as described above, as well as a 50% off discount on an additional Standard Monarch at the end of the queue.

Full Price 300GH Monarchs
 For 300GH Monarch orders, similar but slightly different offers will be extended. Customers will be contacted with specifics via email soon.

Mining By the GigaHash
 If your Mining By the GH paid order is more than 6 months old, you will receive 2x the hashrate purchased.

Reduced Price Orders
 Individual orders that are less than 6 months old and that paid for the reduced price 600GH or 300GH Monarch will likely not be delayed past the expected delivery date.

. Details specific to each of the above order categories will be communicated to eligible customers via email in the next few days. We hope everyone will remain in the order queue and take delivery of these extremely power-efficient, super-fast miners. But, cognizant of the feedback of our earlier 65nm customers, for those qualified buyers who desire a refund we will gladly issue you one.

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[Bonio]

Just a quick note to the unwary their website still says shipping will start in February, it wont even happen in March. Please don't get caught out:

Shipping Schedule

This is a Pre-Order product which is not yet shipping.  If you're uncomfortable waiting until the development is complete and the product is shipped, do NOT pre-order this product. Perhaps undesirable, but this is a pre-order market.  Customers flatly demand to get in line for the new technology before it's finished development.  This has created a lot of drama for the manufacturers but it's something we simply have to deal with.  All manufacturers in this space have experienced some degree of delay with their first generation ASIC.  Every last one of them, so we're reluctant to give a specific delivery date.  However, this is our second generation, so we have much greater clarity on the process and plan to begin shipments in February 2014.  Orders are shipped in order date priority so any order placed now should be expected to be delivered in April.

[sid7039]

The truth about MONARCH:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bfl

[gmouse138]

I am waiting it for long time. Can we ask for BFL no more delay? KNC is coming again

[Bonio]

They are offering compensation packages, however there is a lot of confusion as to who is entitled to what.

The chips wont be ready for at least 5 weeks but there is no promises they are going to work then the cards need to be built I think its looking like June before those late in the queue receive them.

[smoothie]

lol "compensation" equals  "20% off future purchase".

Oh and the part about exceeding performance expectations? It seems rather disturbing to tout an excess of performance over previous estimates if your product is shipped out later than expected. Meaning the difficulty will rise such to offset that "excess" performance and possibly leave you in the dust.

BFL spin...sales tactic...bullshit.

[jimmothy]

I love it how the monarch will (according to josh) consume literally no extra power beyond the chip level.

I would be willing to bet they don't even beat 1w/gh at the wall.

[billotronic]

The truth about MONARCH:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bfl

I damn near pissed my pants!

You sir, just made my day.

[Maidak]

The truth about MONARCH:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bfl

I damn near pissed my pants!

You sir, just made my day.

I'm going to have to second this whoever submitted this was a genius.

[mruiter]

Oh my GOD.. This is getting better and better......

And you're second monarch at the end of the queue..... which we know is more them 7 months later
Haha, again BFL is shipping the next gen toasters.

Nice to eat some toast when you wath the youtube of the KNC's 16nm 25TH miner.

This is even worse the. getting goxxxed
So glad is sewed bfl's ass and got a full refund on my single.

Josh, don't forget.... If you ever walk in front of my car i will make road pizza of you sucker.
(cant understand nobody else has punched him in the drain already)

[dropt]

I love it how the monarch will (according to josh) consume literally no extra power beyond the chip level.

I would be willing to bet they don't even beat 1w/gh at the wall.

What I'm curious about are the statements surroundin the flaw in the metal layer.  Allegedly whatever the flaw, it prevents some of the cores from initializing on startup and thus the chips are not sufficient for customer sales.  That would imply that the engines can't be initialized post startup.  So, then, if some engines aren't able to initialize on startup, can't be initialized after startup, how can the power figures estimates be accurate?

Further, why was a second test rig needed to verify the power numbers when it was already known that there were design issues with the metal layer? 

Once again, shit doesn't add up when it comes to BFL.

[aquarat]

A bit off topic, but on the subject of BFL being questionable; I love the way on Black Friday they reduced their pricing on their 28nm miners by 25% ( from $4680 to $3510 for a 600) ... and then shortly after that on new year's day slashed the pricing on their 28nm miners again (from $ 3510 to $2100). In other words, if you got on the pre-order train early, you paid 100%, but if you got on the pre-order train later you got a 55% discount. Is that... reasonable ?

[Quix]

Do you remember when they claimed they'd have Monarch's shipped out in October 2013?

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't start shipping until October 2014.

[jimmothy]

Do you remember when they claimed they'd have Monarch's shipped out in October 2013?

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't start shipping until October 2014.

This looks like almost like an exact repeat of last year.

I think we will see 5 monarchs delivered in april (for the press) and a painfully slow delivery through july/august.

[vayvanne]

As we remember 1W/GHs was promised for 1st gen of miners. Anyway no neaty jala which works from USB port.

[tranzsport]

the people I feel bad about the most are those helpless customers in BFL forums who keep asking questions about the release and falsely pretending to be ok with the situation.
I wonder what will happen when there is a bank run of customers demanding refunds from BFL and they cant fulfil those refunds.

[Equate]

Another trick to lure the customers mind.

[rammy2k2]

retards who ordered these from BFL really deserve it ; how stupid can u be to order these when BFL scammed each and every customer they had ?