Announcement - ASIC mining processor by Butterfly Labs

[PuertoLibre]

By now, BFL should have a very good idea of how many of each type of unit they're going to assemble from batch 1.  I suspect they know damned well that however they choose to allocate those first 6,000 chips is going to be controversial and that they'll hold off letting customers know how many of each unit will be shipping in Batch 1 until the last possible moment.

A wise man has spoken.

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[PuertoLibre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewx-M5xukAo

[Phinnaeus Gage]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewx-M5xukAo

I just called Goat, for if I'm not mistaken he has a friend in KC that works directly across from JJ's restaurant, and perhaps his friend can grab a camera and take some pics for us, thus proving for sure this is real and not some scam being pulled by CNN.

[Inaba]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewx-M5xukAo

I just called Goat, for if I'm not mistaken he has a friend in KC that works directly across from JJ's restaurant, and perhaps his friend can grab a camera and take some pics for us, thus proving for sure this is real and not some scam being pulled by CNN.

It's real... explosion took out power to one of the DC's I have equipment in.  Generator kicked in after the UPSs and all was well, but the black cloud of smoke was epic.

my word for it. Here's what Josh had to say:

We paid a company out of California quite a bit of money to run a run of simulations under different scenarios on our boards

When BFL really does have a working chip, you'll hear about it.

There's my good old Skye, the Liar!  Lying again, I see you haven't corrected your lack of intelligence.

What Syke so conveniently "forgot" to include was that the quote was in reference to THERMAL simulations of how heat propagates throughout the board.  If Syke wasn't a liar, he would have included that information.  But since he IS, in fact, a liar (this time by omission)... you get the half quote you see there.

[ChipGeek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewx-M5xukAo

I just called Goat, for if I'm not mistaken he has a friend in KC that works directly across from JJ's restaurant, and perhaps his friend can grab a camera and take some pics for us, thus proving for sure this is real and not some scam being pulled by CNN.

It's real... explosion took out power to one of the DC's I have equipment in.  Generator kicked in after the UPSs and all was well, but the black cloud of smoke was epic.

So I guess we know the exact location where kano and Luke-Jr first came in contact with each other then?   

[PuertoLibre]

Code:

[12:02 AM]   _X_ : avalon and asicminer have units out
[12:02 AM]  BFL_Josh : I'm not going to tell you bad news. I just don't have any solid information at the moment.
[12:03 AM]   Fuzzy : I hope Josh's news isn't another delay...
[12:03 AM]   polrpaul : bah
[12:03 AM]   _X_ : :/
[12:03 AM]   SuperTaranta : Josh, may i ask a simple question.
[12:03 AM]   Fuzzy : That's ok, solid info is over-rated
[12:03 AM]   BFL_Josh : Sure
[12:03 AM]   Fuzzy : Just give us something juicy to tide us over....
[12:04 AM]   Luke-Jr : ASICMINER doesn't sell units yet
[12:04 AM]   BFL_Josh : I don't have anything juicy or otherwise.
[12:04 AM]   SuperTaranta : Why take pre orders so early? Why not start taking them when the product is tested and ready, yes I 

understand that that you require money to get everything done, but wouldnt Kickstarter be a better option? For a much Smoother 

transaction?
[12:04 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : hmm.... photos?
[12:04 AM]   Fuzzy : Something with killer robots, and aliens if possible
[12:04 AM]   Luke-Jr : Hey Inaba
[12:04 AM]   Bogart : Why aren't you at the bumping facility looking over their shoulders?
[12:04 AM]   BFL_Josh : That is not a simple question.
[12:04 AM]   BFL_Josh : Hi Luke
[12:04 AM]   Bogart : Like with the fab
[12:05 AM]   SuperTaranta : Its not a difficult question either.
[12:05 AM]   BFL_Josh : @Bogart: I was just discussing that with people tonight. We are going to finish that disucssion tomorrow 

morning and I may end up heading out there
[12:05 AM]   _X_ : josh will the chips just now just meet the june supply?
[12:05 AM]   BFL_Josh : @supertaranta: It's actually a very difficult and complex question.
[12:05 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : supertaranta, ever done any project management on large scale projects?
[12:05 AM]   Fuzzy : Like squeezing HL3 info out of Gabe here  
[12:05 AM]   SuperTaranta : Yes i have.
[12:06 AM]   Bowjob : Hey Josh
[12:06 AM]   Bowjob : http://bitbet.us/bet/7/bfl-will-deli...ore-march-1st/
[12:06 AM]   Bowjob : What is the answer to it?
[12:06 AM]   Bowjob : I just want to make a quick BTC, just be honest.
[12:06 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : then you should know about how long something takes to go from capex approval to finished product
[12:06 AM]   Fuzzy : Josh, are you still on schedule?
[12:07 AM]   SuperTaranta : Yes I do know that thing take long, arent perfect and what tons of issues. But my question is about 

preorders.
[12:07 AM]   Bowjob : Tempted to vote No, now that its almost ending
[12:07 AM]   BFL_Josh : I am doing everything I can to beat that bet. I don't have any money in it, but I would like to see Mireu the 

douchebag lose his ass on that one.
[12:08 AM]   BFL_Josh : But it's going to be a close bet.
[12:08 AM]   _X_ : we went from feb 10th to now feb 20th and not a single chip shipped i honestly just want my machine here 

already
[12:08 AM]   Fuzzy : That's doucheNOZZLE to you sir
[12:08 AM]   BFL_Josh : I will hopefully know which way it falls tomorrow.
[12:08 AM]   Bogart : That's a lot of BTCz riding on that.\
[12:08 AM]   polrpaul : Josh, doing everything you can might include getting an update from bumping and relaying that info to us?
[12:08 AM]   BFL_Josh : Ah sorry Fuzzy, I get that mixed up!
[12:08 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : heh, josh... if it came to it would you hand deliver to local customers just to beat that bet?
[12:08 AM]   Fuzzy : I'm sure he gets is a lot
[12:09 AM]   BFL_Josh : @polpaul: As soon as I have something solid I will post it.
[12:09 AM]   Bowjob : Okay if tomorrow you say another delay, we know you wont ship it on March
[12:09 AM]   Bowjob : but if theres no delay.. then its uncertain and I wont bet
[12:09 AM]   BFL_Josh : Red_Wolf_2: Hell yes I would.
[12:09 AM]   _X_ : josh we are still waiting on the bumping?
[12:09 AM]   polrpaul : he won't give us bad news
[12:09 AM]   SuperTaranta : @Josh, what is "Solid" information for you?
[12:09 AM]   SuperTaranta : Just curious is all.
[12:09 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : i'd be amused to see that
[12:10 AM]   Fuzzy : Josh, what's the weather gonna be like this weekend?
[12:10 AM]   BFL_Josh : _X_: I don't know, that's the problem. I don't know if the bumping is done or just partially done. It's very 

frustrating not being able to get a comprehensive answer out of people. Which is why we were discussing going to the facility and 

standing tehre until we get a #!@$#@ answer.
[12:10 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : meh, good news, bad news.... doesnt matter so long as in the end i get my two jalapeno units
[12:10 AM]   Bogart : They've said they've begun bumping?
[12:11 AM]   wxp666666 : what is a estimate shipping for people who ordered september-december?
[12:11 AM]   vantheman169 : What facility is doing the work? Amkor?
[12:11 AM]   SuperTaranta : @Josh last question. How is the order number/account update for us to view our new numbers coming 

along?
*   Phraust  knows that feel.* [12:11 AM]
[12:11 AM]   polrpaul : who cares...
[12:11 AM]   BFL_Josh : The problem is, the companies nad people we are dealing with do not have the same sense of urgency or 

investment into hte project we have. They are used to doing things on time scales that are positively geological comparitively 

speaking. So when we come in with accelerated time lines and throwing bonuses around, they get confused like deer in headlights 

or something I don't know.
[12:12 AM]   _X_ : bitcoin has brung this odd group of people together and i think only because of bitcoin we wait
[12:13 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : bowjob, has anyone other than the two or three units out there actually got one?
[12:13 AM]   vantheman169 : Have they even shipped #1 ? cuz hashrate of the network is not much different.
[12:13 AM]   polrpaul : Josh, simple answer: you sent chips to be bumped and you estimated their completion date - did the fab not 

lock into a delivery schedule with you??
[12:13 AM]   Bowjob : I know for sure 2 exists, I saw some chinese guy posts his
[12:13 AM]   BFL_Josh : polrpaul: The fab delivered. The chips have been at the bumping facility since like last Thursday.
[12:13 AM]   Bowjob : Yifu started shipping them again after CNY
[12:13 AM]   SuperTaranta : @Josh, thank you.
*   SuperTaranta  has reached 450 shouts!* [12:13 AM]
[12:14 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : hmm
[12:14 AM]   Fuzzy : Would't it suck if all this pressure caused the facility to F up?
[12:14 AM]   polrpaul : sorry bad question, did the bumping facility commit to a delivery schedule?
[12:14 AM]   SuperTaranta : @Josh, after this "Bumping" are you planning to choose a different facility in order for this not to 

happen again? Or are you sticking with it, hoping for the best 
[12:14 AM]   Fuzzy : 3 month delay...
[12:14 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : if i can divert away from bumping and shipping... is there anyone at bfl who can talk about overclocking?
[12:14 AM]   BFL_Josh : Well, actually ,that's one of the reasons for the delay I think.
[12:14 AM]   _X_ : you guys have to hire some people from new york seriously.
[12:14 AM]   BFL_Josh : Since we switched from QFN to BGA, we do not have a blank alignment wafer available...
[12:15 AM]   Bowjob : It would be nice if you could come clean tomorrow if BFL ships by March or not.. you can tell the guys here 

the answer
[12:15 AM]   SuperTaranta : /agreed, we new yorkers dont ever stop xD
[12:15 AM]   Bowjob : to win free BTC over bitbet
[12:15 AM]   BFL_Josh : So I think the bumping facility is going very slowly to be sure they get it right on the first go... if we lose 1 

wafer, that's over 1000 chips and that would be very very bad.
[12:15 AM]   SuperTaranta : I completly understand, that would suck.
[12:16 AM]   BFL_Josh : This is definitely one situation we never anticipated
[12:16 AM]   polrpaul : I'm going to infer the answer is NO, the bumping facility never committed to a delivery date, period.
[12:16 AM]   Fuzzy : The geeks will sense that
[12:16 AM]   BFL_Josh : Hell, I never even knew about the blank wafer thing to begin with... just learned about it today.
[12:16 AM]   SuperTaranta : Not sure if you will answer, but curious as how much the cost has come out to for this first batch, for 

making everything and shipping ect.
[12:16 AM]   vantheman169 : crazy how chips are even made, that shit is complicated and I commend you guys for doing what your 

doing.
[12:16 AM]   Bogart : Chips are made from sand...
[12:17 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : or potatos
[12:17 AM]   Bogart : and a few other bits
[12:17 AM]   _X_ : quick question josh this is a hypothetical say all 6 wafers are good how many orders if you had to take a guess 

would be filled?
[12:17 AM]   vantheman169 : lol
[12:17 AM]   Fuzzy : how many mh/s per potato?
[12:17 AM]   BFL_Josh : @SuperTaranta: I don't know specific numbers. Quite a bit though.
[12:17 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : you'd get more mh/s with different plants... say pot
[12:18 AM]   vantheman169 : LOL
[12:18 AM]   vantheman169 : Get a Sativa
[12:18 AM]   BFL_Josh : _X_: As I've said, it depends on if they are jalapenos, LS, S or MR's ... How we are going to split that up is 

going to be determined by how many good chips we end up wtih. If we end up with all 6600, then quite a bit, if we end up with 

5200, then less and the numbers won't be linear, since each line uses a different amount of chips.
[12:19 AM]   Bogart : 6 wafers at 1000 chips per would be like 2500 Singles.
[12:19 AM]   Bowjob : Guys ASICs have arrived in China at least
[12:19 AM]   SysRun : Thanks for showing up in chat Josh, Why don't you arrange a daily or twice daily AMA here until you ship?
*   SysRun  has reached 1750 shouts!* [12:19 AM]
[12:19 AM]   polrpaul : Josh - thanks for stopping by man
[12:20 AM]   polrpaul : keep us posted with something
[12:20 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : hmm
[12:20 AM]   BFL_Josh : SysRun: I literally just got home and sat down at the computer.. I don't have any specific time I can show up, 

I just work until it's time to be done for the day. And like today, I simply don't have any good information to share.
[12:20 AM]   BFL_Josh : It's 23:00 here in KC right now.
[12:20 AM]   Fuzzy : Yeah, props dude
[12:20 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : would you favor number of devices over processing power of devices?
[12:20 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : ie more jalapenos, little singles, etc over minirigs?
[12:20 AM]   BFL_Josh : We are going to try to split it up as best as possible, so there's a good mix of all the product lines.
[12:21 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : fair enough
[12:21 AM]   _X_ : i think it would help everyone if they knew what order number of the specific item they ordered they are in.. EX:
[12:22 AM]   SysRun : the next set of wafers?
[12:23 AM]   Bogart : I assume the other 6 wafers are gonna wait until the first 6 are proven.
[12:23 AM]   KrLos : BFL_Josh! man can you do me a favor?
[12:23 AM]   BFL_Josh : Yes, they are about 1.5 weeks away from completion and holding.
[12:23 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : ah
[12:23 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : are the various boards for the chips all done?
[12:23 AM]   BFL_Josh : The bulk are about 4 weeks from completion I think, slightly less.
[12:23 AM]   crap : is that 1.5 weeks include shipping to bumping?
[12:23 AM]   crap : for the "second batch"
[12:24 AM]   BFL_Josh : Yes, we are on revision E... and we just moved to a 10 layer board (from 8) to make the minirig and inter 

board communication much more robust and able to handle more devices. I bought up adding the ability to XLink singles.
[12:24 AM]   BFL_Josh : It was well received, so I think we are going to make an XLinkable single at some point.
[12:24 AM]   BFL_Josh : That will be pretty awesome in my opinion.
[12:24 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : oh nice!
[12:24 AM]   _X_ : 10 mini rig's 2000 chips 400 sc's 3,200 chips ;; something like this then the break out for the jap and the little
[12:24 AM]   SysRun : does the bumping facility have a latest completion date in your contract?
[12:25 AM]   Jerry Mckenzie : SO NO LATER THAN MAY/
[12:25 AM]   BFL_Josh : SysRun: No, we contracted with the packager and the packager handles the bumping. The fac tthat we are 

intimately involved in the bumping process is not normal.
*   BFL_Josh  has reached 1050 shouts!* [12:25 AM]
[12:25 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : any photos of the rev e board out there? last I saw was rev c on a fuzzy photo
[12:25 AM]   BFL_Josh : Umm... yeah I can take one, but visually it's the same as the earlier boards.
[12:25 AM]   BFL_Josh : The additional 2 layers are all internal.
[12:26 AM]   Jerry Mckenzie : so 3 months?
[12:26 AM]   BFL_Josh : 3 months what?
[12:26 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : less fuzzy or on a macro shot? id love to get an idea of how some of the non asic components are 

handled
[12:26 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : it might save me taking the case off my units the instant they arrive too 
[12:26 AM]   BFL_Josh : Yeah, I will try to remember to bring a board home and take a pictures with the SLR
[12:26 AM]   BFL_Josh : In my lightbox
[12:27 AM]   Red_Wolf_2 : sweet, thanks!\
[12:27 AM]   dps123 : Josh, do you think any cards will be completed before the end of the month?
[12:27 AM]   Jerry Mckenzie : maybe this fall
[12:27 AM]   KrLos : JOSH! man Can I use photos of the BFL gallery for the weekly contest?
[12:27 AM]   crap : Jerry you being scarcasitc?
[12:27 AM]   BFL_Josh : dps123: I am going to do everything possible to get at least 5 units out to customers as soon as humanly 

possible.
[12:27 AM]   Jerry Mckenzie : no
[12:27 AM]   discokruse : is the order status page up yet?
[12:28 AM]   Jerry Mckenzie : it take time and just have to learn not to wait
[12:28 AM]   KrLos : i want to use this picture for the weekly contest https://forums.butterflylabs.com/dbt...lery&type=full can i use 

it?
[12:28 AM]   polrpaul : because 5 is better than 2 ?
[12:29 AM]   monkey : i volunteer to be one of the 5 
[12:29 AM]   dps123 : Wonderful Josh, highly anticipating my single and little single! if 5 come out, surely 5000 will come out just as 

quick
[12:29 AM]   BFL_Josh : KRLos: Oh, yeah sure no problem.
[12:29 AM]   _X_ : this is funny http://www.sfgate.com/business/prweb...IC-4243752.php
[12:29 AM]   KrLos : Super taranta, I set up now the litecoin mining with stratum.. and now i'm getting like 250 k/hs ~ 300 hh/s
[12:29 AM]   KrLos : Thanks Josh
[12:30 AM]   Jerry Mckenzie : try a ps3
[12:31 AM]   Bogart : I ordered be some casascius coins last night.
[12:32 AM]   Bogart : Can;t wait to see 'em.
[12:32 AM]   crap : o.O wth are those?
*   crap  has reached 50 shouts!* [12:32 AM]
[12:32 AM]   Bogart : https://www.casascius.com/
[12:32 AM]   Bogart : Physical bitcoins.
[12:32 AM]   crap : ooo okk ok
*   grnbrg  waves to Josh. Wish it was better news, but thanks for the update.* [12:32 AM]
[12:33 AM]   Bogart : https://www.casascius.com/photos.aspx

Edit: Posted under the FAIR USE ACT for the purposes of education and discussion.

Latest updates posted.

Summary:
"We don't know" (paraphrased)
"Didn't know we needed a blank wafer mask until recently for the bumping facility" (paraphrased)

etc

Expect some delays.

[Inaba]

Ah yes, PuerotLibre lying again as well!  Good work, thanks for not disappointing me.  Now, why don't you try posting an honest paraphrase instead of your bullshit spin?

At no time did I say we need a blank wafer.  I said I wasn't aware blank wafers even existed.  You are a piece of shit, Yajaira... are you so angry all the time because you live in a shithole, or what's the reason?  

I honestly can't figure out why you lie about BFL all the time?  Do you sit in your basement cackling over your manifesto about how the evil BFL Empire is oppressing you?

[PuertoLibre]

What are you talking about, you said it yourself in the log!

Literally, moments ago.

Edit: And yes, your timeline is shifting. You mentioned/implied that in your chat log.



This is what one of your customers posted on the BFL forum. It looks to me like you and he are both in agreement on the shipping starting closer to the end of Feb.

Link: https://forums.butterflylabs.com/bfl-forum-miscellaneous/1034-february-14th-2012-update-discussion-thread-5.html#post15077

Edit: Posted under the FAIR USE ACT for the purposes of education and discussion.

Don't cry wolf so many times because eventually people will stop believing you.

[Syke]

We paid a company out of California quite a bit of money to run a run of simulations under different scenarios on our boards

What Syke so conveniently "forgot" to include was that the quote was in reference to THERMAL simulations of how heat propagates throughout the board.  If Syke wasn't a liar, he would have included that information.  But since he IS, in fact, a liar (this time by omission)... you get the half quote you see there.

If you had actual working chips, you wouldn't have needed to run "simulations" on thermal propagation, you would have tested the *actual* thermal propagation.

[repentance]

I thought Jody's "you'll get your units by June" post sounded a bit testy.  No matter how overwhelmed customer service is right now, she's the General Manager and her comments should be calm and reassuring.  The order management software, the updated shipping options, the shipping cartons all should have been in place already because they were supposed to start shipping this week. 

What kind of clusterfuck would it have been if the assembled units had arrived at BFL this week and the order management software and updated shipping options weren't online and no-one had been told to send back their FPGAs?  While they may be dependent on outside contractors for the technical stuff, there's no excuse for their internal administrative stuff not being ready to go.

[PuertoLibre]

I thought Jody's "you'll get your units by June" post sounded a bit testy.  No matter how overwhelmed customer service is right now, she's the General Manager and her comments should be calm and reassuring.  The order management software, the updated shipping options, the shipping cartons all should have been in place already because they were supposed to start shipping this week. 

What kind of clusterfuck would it have been if the assembled units had arrived at BFL this week and the order management software and updated shipping options weren't online and no-one had been told to send back their FPGAs?  While they may be dependent on outside contractors for the technical stuff, there's no excuse for their internal administrative stuff not being ready to go.

[Micon]

Pretty cute that every post of mine here gets deleted.  Sick censorship.  Gmaxwell, I presume.

I suppose it's bitcointalk policy not to speak ill of BFL, a company with $10M in btc community monies that haven't shipped an ASIC yet.

[repentance]

I suppose it's bitcointalk policy not to speak ill of BFL, a company with $10M in btc community monies that haven't shipped an ASIC yet.

Really?  There are plenty of posts critical of BFL in these threads.

[organofcorti]

Pretty cute that every post of mine here gets deleted.  Sick censorship.  Gmaxwell, I presume.

I suppose it's bitcointalk policy not to speak ill of BFL, a company with $10M in btc community monies that haven't shipped an ASIC yet.

Plenty of mine get deleted as well - none of them were on topic. I assume the same goes for yours.

[Puppet]

Quite frankly, Im astounded by the level of amateurism shown here.

Josh, your project management skills seem to be limited to relaying time estimates you get from your suppliers, whom you are clearly pressuring to fastrack what is a minuscule order for them,  and then passing on that  information unprocessed and with no contingency provisions whatsoever as firm promises to your customers. Big surprise you keep missing deadlines.

I also cant believe you still  think you are  days away from mass shipping when you havent had a single prototype chip to test yet. How do you plan in a few days to do functional tests, do proper chip characterization, test the chip, package and underfill for thermal and mechanical stress, verify BGA alignment, check impact of voltage fluctuation and what not? And Im just talking about the chip here, not even the rest of the PCB. This typically takes weeks, and more often than not is an iterative process as you rarely get everything right on the first try.

One would have thought that BFL had learned some lessons from their first product launch disaster, but I guess not. Anyone who thinks BFL will ship more than a few untested prototypes this month, I got a bridge to sell.

[greyhawk]

Now, now, I wouldn't worry. Just last week BFL_Steven was posting in the BFL shoutbox for three days straight that he's trying to figure out how their boundary scan tester works, so I'm sure testing will go just fine without any hitch at all.

[Jaw3bmasters]

Quite frankly, Im astounded by the level of amateurism shown here.

Josh, your project management skills seem to be limited to relaying time estimates you get from your suppliers, whom you are clearly pressuring to fastrack what is a minuscule order for them,  and then passing on that  information unprocessed and with no contingency provisions whatsoever as firm promises to your customers. Big surprise you keep missing deadlines.

I also cant believe you still  think you are  days away from mass shipping when you havent had a single prototype chip to test yet. How do you plan in a few days to do functional tests, do proper chip characterization, test the chip, package and underfill for thermal and mechanical stress, verify BGA alignment, check impact of voltage fluctuation and what not? And Im just talking about the chip here, not even the rest of the PCB. This typically takes weeks, and more often than not is an iterative process as you rarely get everything right on the first try.

One would have thought that BFL had learned some lessons from their first product launch disaster, but I guess not. Anyone who thinks BFL will ship more than a few untested prototypes this month, I got a bridge to sell.

But they need the pre-order funds to continue......I'll support if someone knows what they're doing.

[Korbman]

But they need the pre-order funds to continue......I'll support if someone knows what they're doing.

You realize this is the BFL thread and not the Avalon one, right?

[MrTeal]

my word for it. Here's what Josh had to say:

We paid a company out of California quite a bit of money to run a run of simulations under different scenarios on our boards

When BFL really does have a working chip, you'll hear about it.

There's my good old Skye, the Liar!  Lying again, I see you haven't corrected your lack of intelligence.

What Syke so conveniently "forgot" to include was that the quote was in reference to THERMAL simulations of how heat propagates throughout the board.  If Syke wasn't a liar, he would have included that information.  But since he IS, in fact, a liar (this time by omission)... you get the half quote you see there.

He might have embellished a little bit, but can you answer the jist of his question? Way back when you made that quote you also said.

We made the decision to go with QFN in December. I can't really talk about our development process itself, but we have gone through extensive design and testing phases... at one point in early December we decided to look at a worst case scenario if the chips were in a really hot environment (you can see the bubbled chip in one of the pictures, I think someone pointed it out.).

That kind of implies the chips that were on the pictured boards were early ASICs that were damaged by heat. Other statements made seem to indicate that there's never been an actual hashing prototype of the chip though.

Has BFL ever had an ASIC (in any package) that actually communicated and hashed? If the QFN chips soldered onto the SC rev 1 board weren't ASICs, what were they?

[crazyates]

Pics from Kano's trip: http://198.245.60.111/Pix/