Topic: Already delays in BFL shipment plans? - page 16. (Read 49596 times)

Contrary to some of the trolls over on Bitcoin Talk, we fully intended to start shipping at the end of October, but with a project as complex as this, ...

There was a flaw in the chip that needed to be addressed and it pushed the date out, plain and simple.

100,000 chips is 7.5*100,000 = 750TH/s.  Unless there's a significant price increase (let's all hope), then that takes just about all incentive out of buying ASICs once those chips are eaten up.  Payback would be around a year at that point... fairly risky in the world of Bitcoin.

I think we can safely say that no ASIC manufacturer will have devices out by then.
This one is the more interesting one, end of 2012.
betsofbitco.in/item?id=446
If you're really pessimistic, you could bet on them not shipping before April.
http://betsofbitco.in/item?id=701

I have been waiting to have more solid information but it's still not available to me at this moment and I'm going to bed soon, so I wanted to put out an update before I hit the sack.

While I can't give a hard date and say "absolutely" this is the date, it looks like the week of the 11th, but that's the "fuzzy" date I have at the moment and I'm waiting on confirmation on a not-fuzzy date from the foundry right now. There was a flaw in the chip that needed to be addressed and it pushed the date out, plain and simple. We are as frustrated with this process as everyone else is and we apologize for the delays. Contrary to some of the trolls over on Bitcoin Talk, we fully intended to start shipping at the end of October, but with a project as complex as this, even our built in padding has proved to be a bit inadequate to deal with all the moving parts, and we will have slipped by ~6 weeks after all is said and done.

The good news is that our shipment of chips will be substantial and we are re-addressing the quantities and compacting the shipment dates. We will have just shy of 100,000 chips available and in our hands before the end of the year, coming in two waves. The first wave will hopefully be the week of the 11th (probably more towards the end I'm guessing) and the second wave will be just before the end of the year. This is enough chips to cover all pre-orders and a lot more besides. This extra time also allows us to make some refinements we wanted to make to a few components, but more importantly, we may have just enough time to get a custom metal or silicon QFN package ready for the rev1 shipments (should know this week), and if that's the case, it will make rev1 boards ridiculously efficient at heat elimination. Originally this was going to be for Rev2 if we didn't go with a flip-chip design (but this would require a lot more work than our custom packaging) - but the extra time we are forced to endure is going to be put to good use.

Once again, we apologize for the delays. We hate them as much as everyone else (probably more), but as the competitors are experiencing as well, sometimes you are at the mercy of other people's schedules and problems. As we said months ago, we are trying to eliminate as many of those points of failure as possible by bringing everything we can in house. Of course, we can't bring a fab in house, so we are at their mercy at the moment. Once we get the chips in our hands, we will have a sufficient enough quantity to see us through until the next order and it should allow us to get up and running in house or at least make good headway into that arena.

Josh just posted an update on the BFL forums.  It's gonna be another couple of weeks if all goes well.

https://forums.butterflylabs.com/bfl-forum-miscellaneous/437-asic-update-26-november-2012-a.html#post6239

I'm kind of horrified that Josh only just found out about the reason for the delay.  A flaw in the chip is something BFL should have been informed of as soon as the problem was detected.

I think we can safely say that no ASIC manufacturer will have devices out by then.
This one is the more interesting one, end of 2012.
betsofbitco.in/item?id=446
If you're really pessimistic, you could bet on them not shipping before April.
http://betsofbitco.in/item?id=701

Well heck, by that criteria BFL is fine, too... since we've always maintained that we would would target October but it would be as late as December (hence the January 1st refund policy, which has been there since day one.)

Thanks for the confirmation that BFL is on target timeframe wise as well, I appreciate it!  

He used to annoy me, back when I thought he was a for realz company rep, but now he cracks me up. The fail volume is off the charts with nearly everything he posts. I should be thanking him, if it weren't for his antics I'd probably be near the back of BFL's waiting list instead of Tom's. Whew, bullet dodged. TY JOSH!

BFL_Josh quote:

Guess it didn't happen.

This whole message surprised me a bit, because I thought we'd settled on 1st week of Dec as the accepted shipping date anyway. Regardless the man said he'd give a definitive shipping date tomorrow, he reiterated his no questions asked refund policy, and dished out a 33% hashing power increase. He's bought till at least tomorrow from me, especially since I didn't even realize he still saw this week as his shipping date.

Hey BFL, how's that visit by Kanoi and yochdog going?

Hello Customers and Friends,

As it is already obvious to everyone, shipping will not begin today as originally planned. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the engineering and layout team and I will give a definitive date of when shipping will begin. I am ready to cancel as many orders and offer refunds to whoever needs them - just send an email with the request to [email protected] and he will forward them on to me. All refunds requested today will be processed today. Although I caution you, we WILL be shipping these units, its just a matter of time and likely will be very soon. Our competition has already given several delays so I just please ask that you give me one day to meet with my team and figure out a realistic new shipping date and if you are not happy with that or if you are ready for a refund now please request it and it will be processed immediately.

thank you

Tom

Of course BFL has a date from the Fab. The fact that they won't admit it just means that it's so far in the future that a bunch of people would cancel their orders. It's all about stringing people along so that they don't cancel their orders.

The obviously knew the shipping date was bad before the announcement and they waited until the
very last moment to say so. How they will or will not be flamed depends on further info that needs
to come out in 48 hours. Otherwise...  pfft. No different then BFL.