That's not nearly enough to compete with today's mining ASICs.
Thats a very general number and FWIW, applies to a 10 year old process without even mentioning what FPGA they are comparing to. Performance improvements from FPGA to structured asic or even asic ranges enormously depending on application. Ive seen numbers from 2x to 100x, so I wouldnt read much in to that. 16 GH per chip is what they claim, as well as ~1GH/J, Im sure eASIC didnt just come up with those numbers based on nothing. What remains to be seen is how big that chip is, but to be economically unprofitable in the coming months, it would have to be frigging huge. Considering the stated power efficiency, that seems unlikely.
Anyway, at this point I cant draw conclusions. If my assumption is correct, then it all depends on how fast eASIC can make nextreme 3 work and produce these wafers. That could be weeks or months from here, I have no idea. Ken probably does have an idea, but Im sure he is not allowed to talk. Whats left is waiting I guess.
Well sure, a hypothetical could explain away almost everything. But we can't both say that the numbers in the publicity blurb are meaningless, and then use those numbers as the basis of our assumptions. Also, why assume that the numbers in the press release (also done by marketing) are any more credible?
Either these people know their numbers, or they don't. If their projections are realistic, and Ken has truthfully passed them on, where are these first-to-market 16GH chips?
Obviously either eAsic or Ken fudged the numbers. If eAsic, that's regrettable, but why has not Ken mentioned the blown projections until a week before shipping deadline?
I realise that you are arguing a hypothetical, and that's fine. The problems creep in when the rubber meets the road, when you factor in all the lies and half-truths made by Ken & Co., when there is exactly zero evidence of any work having been done, when the promised weekly announcements focus on predictions that Bitcoin price will be $10,000, when you read the horrendous grammar and language mangling by the CEO, when you consider that the stock, promised to be tradable a month ago, is still not tradable... An unpleasant picture emerges.