Topic: Alpha Technology Litecoin (Scrypt) ASIC Miner Order Batch 1 Now! - page 180. (Read 529056 times)

I was thinking that most people placed their orders early on. Wasn't even considering refund cutoff dates.
But like I said, if AT wants this to work, then they might have to do what they can to make people stick around. All or nothing so to speak.
So, for those who fall under a refund cutoff date, AT would have to then extend it out accordingly.

I also posted this on the next page:

"We started tape-out just under a month ago, along with our tape-out we have paid extra for 'risk lots' which are early wafers in bulk, we will get a huge amount of chips as soon as tape-out finishes which means we will be shipping sooner rather later so not to worry."

As has been pointed out before. Alpha are paying extra for "risk lot" chips these are first run sample wafers which have not undergone the normal amount of testing, refinement and quality control. This means they will ship quicker but it throws reliability into question. The chips could be absolutely fine or they could be complete rubbish. Not only that, Alpha are also cutting testing time which was supposed to be a standard 20 days. This leaves long term reliability testing down to the end user.

After reading the Alpha update there were a few issues that spring to mind.

1) Where are they in the chip manufacturing process? This nebulous time scale of a few days doesn't help anyone. There are clear steps in the chip manufacturing process and you can accurately gauge chip delivery by how far along you are. Have they finished tapeout? Do they have the masks? Do they have the wafers? Have they finished fabout or bumpout? Are they in the packing house? An answer to any one of those questions will tell you when they will get their chips.

2)The case design. Removing the PSUs was their only option (apart from a larger case) but this and the case design means the units will no longer be rack mountable. This may not be an issue for some but for others it will be. In fact there is a thread on the Alpha forums where Fiaz is dodging this very issue. Also there still doesn't seem to be enough room for decent sized heatsinks in that design. Dissipating 1900 watts of heat will not be an easy task with just fans moving ambient air around. An Alpha supporter (Freejack) posted on this on their forum:

"As for cooling, these systems are going to have to be used with a room cooling/heat dissipation strategy the way any high density servers would. You can't get away with just fans...the ambient heat that you're circulating into the systems will cause them to get hotter and hotter".

I'm sure this is not acceptable to most of Alpha's customers.

3)Do they have their PCBs?  Its a little late in the day to still be designing your PCBs. If your chips are arriving any day that is. KNC had their Neptune PCBs a month ago. Cointerra started manufacturing their PCBs (and enclosures) while their wafers were in fabout. If the chips arrive next week what will they put them in? They have no cases, PCBs or powersupplys.

4)Power supplies. If they are buying off the shelf power supplies. Who are the manufacturers and what is the energy efficiency rating. This is pretty critical as cheap power supplies can and do burst into flames.  An inefficient power supply means more power draw at the wall as well as more heat. I wouldn't want anything less than an 80+ Gold from a reliable manufacturer if I was running it 24/7

I would suggest the customers here that still have access to their forums put these issues/questions directly to Alpha and see what the response is. Personally I would wait until after the payment processor is up and they publish a more comprehensive update before paying a penny more. Apparently you will have 2 weeks after the processor is on board to pay. If Alpha are on target they should be able to show a working test unit in that time. If not, you should walk away.

Is that a strategy that runs the risk of encouraging people to defer asking for refunds until after the refund cutoff date ?

I think confidence of the users reading here is what is totally destroyed.
We still have at least a month for things to work out.

TBH my confidence is much lower, and as I said a few pages back, I may not go through with things.
I don't deny or ignore the dodging of questions and that is mostly what got me alarmed, not what
People here said. Though again, great questions and points were brought up (and specifically by Retro
And Vesper). I just didn't want things to spiral worse and so just spoke up about the personal attacks.
That said, perhaps I would be not so centered if I had more at stake.

AT needs to show us something to bring back the confidence. And I have a great idea.
Maybe we can hold off on paying what we owe until they have a working model? If they are on schedule, and since they said they don't need the funds yet for production, all parties might then succeed.
They did mention something on their forum about late payments. I forget exactly.

Anyway, since confidence is low, a solution emniable to all parties might relieve the
Pressure here.

IAS it looks like it has already gone over the cliff.

The biggest tell is Fiaz's recent appearance here not to answer the large number of reasonable questions and concerns posted by many, but to dispute the Moss Side allegation.

Really … do these guys make you feel confident that they will deliver on their promises on schedule ?

QC. I was thinking 'quality assurance' when I wrote that. Thanks.

This is from May 26th. I'd like to know when AT started the tape out. Taken from: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=2859.msg175063#msg175063
I bolded a few key points.


ps - You don't have to try rubbing the "speaking of facts" thing in. I'm just trying to not let this go over a cliff. I think it is clear what many think of AT, but reading this thread has become a bunch of name calling, hateful posts, etc. and it makes a real discussion difficult. I'm not siding with anyone but I'd like to be able to discuss the situation as we get closer to a shipping date.

Well speaking of facts, they didn't pay extra for quicker shipping, they paid for extra chips and to bypass the Q&A testing. This way they get more chips, but they're of unknown quality. This cuts out fab time so it seems like there's a quicker delivery, but the specification will have variance from the design yield.

This means what one chip will do, another may not. Which is just another big red flag. If there's one thing you don't do, it's rush chips out the door skipping Q&A.

Here is the first part of the recent update:


Well, it is June 21st and the stated delivery date is between July 15-31 (app.) We have around a month and then some.
The chips are hopefully received sometime in early July. I think we are getting close to the delivery date as the mentioned they paid extra for a quicker delivery.
Let's hope the chips are working ok. These are ASIC's and not complicated CPU's or the like so I hope they got them right.
I think the difficult part will be tuning the ASIC's to get the expected hash rate. The last Group Buy I was involved in took a few days here I believe.
 
Is it not feasible to fabricate a basic case and have it ready within a couple to three weeks? And have the innards ready by mid July? Then assembly.
This is not my area of expertise. (Please someone jump in here that knows the process better.)
I know KNC set the bar with delivery (at least in the past), but it seems reasonable for Dexcel (with years of experience) to be able to have these things ready sometime in mid to late July
if they have the innards by then. I don't think the case is a big worry.

To be conservative I'd say we are looking at late July. But lets see how the end of this month goes.
As I said before I don't think the personal attacks helped but the pressure on the company is heavy and hopefully they are in high gear now. Lets just hope things outside their control
are on our side.

Its about sharing

What we have learned from the last update is that there is no case manufactured, no chip boards, no PSUs, no heatsinks. PSU, included in the price, is now out of the case. As we know chips are not produced as well. So what's left?

I have been very clear that sharing the information is good. I'm simply saying not to change the "attack" to a personal one.
Don't now change this into me blaming messengers. Just go back a few pages and look at my comments to Alpha (which actually got a reply as I stated I might not now go through with
the purchase unless something changes majorly.)

But my "Don't make it personal" comments seem to actually have been taken personally, judging by the replies and continued personal attacks. (And they continue here).

Now you compare the potential deaths of people in a burning theatre with my not wanting personal attacks is doing exactly what you accused me of. Another logical fallacy to the list, take your pick at how many you just covered.

Emotion, is more concerned with being right than finding truth.  I just hope we have not cut off our nose to spite our face here.

IAS, lets not blame the messengers.

You sound like the guy who told people not to shout fire in the theatre after the curtains started smoking.

Ah yes, just the response I expected from this crowd lol

Please PM me your BSB & bank account number so I can make sure you don't miss out! 

Can you promise delivery time before KNC? You must have some inside knowledge, right!
I heard LTC was going to be added to MTGOX Coinbase next month! Bobby Lee works there!








 

Shoot, Alpha didn't even offer steak knives. That's a deal.

At least he communicates with folks right?

You seem trustworthy...

For those of you that got burnt by these guys despite all the warnings given by other forum members and photos of the said workshop, fear not, for I too am releasing my own 1000Mh/s miner in a couple of months, and am accepting pre-orders. Just send 2BTC to 1JFm3AuzB7HB56ZvycEd1KKiFRKEG8WeZt and I'll do you a special deal! I'll even throw in a set of free steak knives for the first 100 orders.

Point taken. I'll stick to the facts.  

The fact is Fiaz is spineless:
Deleting Posts
Banning people
Dodging important questions
Hiding in his forum

The fact is Fiaz is a buffoon:
Does not know the Distance selling regulations (even though he tried to use it to steal your money)
Does not know UK tax law (even though he tried to use it to steal your money)
Does not know an IP ban is useless
Guarantees a payment processor before July, even though it's "out of his hands"
Tells easily verifiable lies and thinks no one will check.

I could go on but I'm sure you get the point. But i'll just stick to the facts about Alpha in the future, to avoid making this personal.

You are right, let's just stick with the facts....

So, now it is guilt through association? Neighborhood no less?
How about the families nice standing in the community, business wise?
If you are going to judge an issue, look at all sides. Don't collect select data.

I'm not against the facts presented as I just stated in my last post here (and in other places in this thread), but when the energy of the thread is just falling apart and becoming personal, conjecture, fallacy based, purely negative, etc. then it is time for everyone to take a breath and step back. No good can come from a factual argument becoming emotional. It is the proverbial snowball headed down the mountain. Things may not look great, but judging by this thread one would think we are 3 months behind schedule.
Emotion, especially when it gets to the before mentioned level, seems to be more concerned with being right than finding truth and that is a dangerous place to be.
No harm can come from just sticking to what we know and trying to be a bit more factual and less personal. (like in the recent past actually).