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Topic: 1GH/s, 20w, $700 (was $500) — Butterflylabs, is it for real? (Part 2) - page 34. (Read 146909 times)

legendary
Activity: 1162
Merit: 1000
DiabloMiner author
Judging by the unmarked heatspreaders, there's no point in removing the heatsinks to find out what chips these are ... there are no markings!

Weirdly they wire brushed the markings off but left JTAG access to the chips.  Boundary scan and ISE software will allow you to identify the chip.  Granted it takes a little more work than visually reading the markings but still is rather trivial.  There are only so many companies which make FPGAs.

They could use different JTAG pinouts though, and the reason to leave them would be to do in-house stuff like programming before shipping or upgrades/repairs etc. I am not saying that this is what they will do/have done.

Or maybe the sand off the chips just now for the first shipment or so and for the pictures to delay competition a bit. Think about it, it may actually be a few months till somebody identifies the units used (if it still takes them weeks to ship), but then it still takes a few months to develop a similar architecture, and after 6 months it's all old news anyway.


It'll take artforz like 5 minutes to identify it. He already owns like one of every FPGA ever.
hero member
Activity: 489
Merit: 500
Immersionist
Judging by the unmarked heatspreaders, there's no point in removing the heatsinks to find out what chips these are ... there are no markings!

Weirdly they wire brushed the markings off but left JTAG access to the chips.  Boundary scan and ISE software will allow you to identify the chip.  Granted it takes a little more work than visually reading the markings but still is rather trivial.  There are only so many companies which make FPGAs.

They could use different JTAG pinouts though, and the reason to leave them would be to do in-house stuff like programming before shipping or upgrades/repairs etc. I am not saying that this is what they will do/have done.

Or maybe the sand off the chips just now for the first shipment or so and for the pictures to delay competition a bit. Think about it, it may actually be a few months till somebody identifies the units used (if it still takes them weeks to ship), but then it still takes a few months to develop a similar architecture, and after 6 months it's all old news anyway.
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1079
Gerald Davis
Judging by the unmarked heatspreaders, there's no point in removing the heatsinks to find out what chips these are ... there are no markings!

Weirdly they wire brushed the markings off but left JTAG access to the chips.  Boundary scan and ISE software will allow you to identify the chip.  Granted it takes a little more work than visually reading the markings but still is rather trivial.  There are only so many companies which make FPGAs.
sr. member
Activity: 266
Merit: 250
The king and the pawn go in the same box @ endgame
looking into it n0ne
hero member
Activity: 2618
Merit: 548
SecureShift.io | Crypto-Exchange
Hey, where did all the da haytaz go?

Looking good! We will never find out the chips being used. lol

Someone build water blocks stat!
sr. member
Activity: 456
Merit: 250
Judging by the unmarked heatspreaders, there's no point in removing the heatsinks to find out what chips these are ... there are no markings!

looks like they wire brushed em off
sr. member
Activity: 349
Merit: 250
Judging by the unmarked heatspreaders, there's no point in removing the heatsinks to find out what chips these are ... there are no markings!
Hopefully, tracking numbers will be coming soon....
legendary
Activity: 922
Merit: 1003
Judging by the unmarked heatspreaders, there's no point in removing the heatsinks to find out what chips these are ... there are no markings!
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
hero member
Activity: 489
Merit: 500
Immersionist
Well. I have some skin in the game. I have two BFL singles ordered.
I also got overly ambitious and put a descent deposit towards a rig; however,
after coming to my senses (that was just too much of my investment money to put in all this bitcoin fun), I had second thoughts and kindly asked Sonny for a refund.
Well, my refund arrived today.

Just wanted to let the community know.
I understand the frustration with all their PR blunders and misrepresentations, but I wish them success and hope they learn from their mistakes.


Can't wait 'till these singles get here! Cool

Sorry for getting back on topic, I am one of the newfgs (to keep the /b/ spirit up) here at bitcointalk.

May I ask how much deposit they took on the rigs and what ETA they promised?

I'd be worried about cooling and stuff too on the Bitforce Singles, because of the enclosure and small physical size. But the promised specs do look interesting I have to admit. On the other hand, if their product turns out to be real, who is to say that they don't release something double the capacity in 6 months after you invest a half fortune with them?

And I suppose any new orders placed for singles are due to be delivered in 4-6 weeks if I place a new order with PayPal now? Wouldn't customers be protected by PayPal's policies if something goes wrong (not delivered within promised time frame)?
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
Five days left. These should already be in the mail. Who has their tracking info?
legendary
Activity: 4592
Merit: 1851
Linux since 1997 RedHat 4
Except that the issue about monitoring the device that I have mentioned has been ignored and unanswered for a few weeks now ...
(directly related to Goat's comment above also)

There is no reason why people interested in these devices (myself included) should shut up.

There is also the issue of the chip inside them.
Is it a "one off" old stock, cheap sale item that means BFL won't be able to meet any new demand at the already increased price point and also will not be able to support their warranty 5/6 months down the road?
If they get an order for 1000 of these when they do finally deliver the first one - will they actually be able to meet that demand (also for the above mentioned reasons)

We should get some of the answers within a week, but why they wont respond to at least the important questions is a worry.
The BFL account does login to bitcointalk regularly ...

Edit: There's a pull request in the bitforce code (in cgminer of course) to read the device temperature ...
So hopefully that resolves that one ...
sr. member
Activity: 266
Merit: 250
The king and the pawn go in the same box @ endgame
It seems that if this is real and does ship they will get 1000 plus orders over night. That will significantly change the mining world in 4 to 6 weeks.

Most will be slow to adopt mr goat. They have their mining rigs and a large investment in those rigs, why switch to something that has way less liquidity on the market in the form of an FPGA, when they can part out a mining rig?
hero member
Activity: 504
Merit: 502
If this turns out to be valid I would order >30units definitely however it doesnt seem to materialise o_0
sr. member
Activity: 352
Merit: 250
Subscribing. Will wait for the reviews and if positive try to buy one of these.
Only need to find the money.
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
I'm pulling this thing off of BitcoinFPGA. They claimed to ship in <=6 weeks on 2011-12-12, and that expired on 2012-01-23,
with no credible updates here or on their website. Will review if/when multiple buyers receive, test, and report success with these units.

-rph


No probs.
rph
full member
Activity: 176
Merit: 100
I'm pulling this thing off of BitcoinFPGA. They claimed to ship in <=6 weeks on 2011-12-12, and that expired on 2012-01-23,
with no credible updates here or on their website. Will review if/when multiple buyers receive, test, and report success with these units.

-rph
full member
Activity: 184
Merit: 100
Feel the coffee, be the coffee.
Well. I have some skin in the game. I have two BFL singles ordered.
I also got overly ambitious and put a descent deposit towards a rig; however,
after coming to my senses (that was just too much of my investment money to put in all this bitcoin fun), I had second thoughts and kindly asked Sonny for a refund.
Well, my refund arrived today.

Just wanted to let the community know.
I understand the frustration with all their PR blunders and misrepresentations, but I wish them success and hope they learn from their mistakes.


Can't wait 'till these singles get here! Cool

I ordered one and I can't wait either. If BFL can get their stuff together and ship a decent product, I will buy a bunch more.
sr. member
Activity: 455
Merit: 250
You Don't Bitcoin 'till You Mint Coin
Well. I have some skin in the game. I have two BFL singles ordered.
I also got overly ambitious and put a descent deposit towards a rig; however,
after coming to my senses (that was just too much of my investment money to put in all this bitcoin fun), I had second thoughts and kindly asked Sonny for a refund.
Well, my refund arrived today.

Just wanted to let the community know.
I understand the frustration with all their PR blunders and misrepresentations, but I wish them success and hope they learn from their mistakes.


Can't wait 'till these singles get here! Cool
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250

The only point that was about to delay the production by 1 to 2 weeks was the Chinese new year holiday!

Oh, I didn't know Chinese New Year lasted four months.

Did you order? or yr here just to S.... Y.... M... F... S..... F..... B....

So whose sock puppet are you?

Also, I have no fucking clue what your string of letters means. Feel free to insult me in long form. I have no qualms about doing the same to you.

I will explain it to you in 4 - 6 weeks

Hopefully by that point you'll be doing it over the hum of your bitforce singles.
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