at this point in time AM are quite a way behind in the race.
Having the most efficient and powerful asic currently in existence puts you behind the race? You learn something new every day.
jimmothy -
first, that assumes asicminer's chip is the most efficient and powerful chip in existence. that assumption is now likely to be incorrect (says rock miner who has tested it as using twice as much power as it was intended,which means it costs twice as much to run)
second, asicminer is at the samples stage and is not yet in production nor has anyone built nor shipped any systems incorporating the chip.
third, getting systems into production takes time. there's supply chain issues (ordering parts, manufacturing, shipping etc). more goes into a bitcoin miner than hashing chips (there's power and control circuitry too)
fourth, asicminer's new business plan assumes most of those chips are bought by other systems builders, and the public and are not intended for asicminer to use in their own mines. thats a big assumption when bitcoin is at the current price... as sales of new bitcoin mining equipment has somewhat slowed and may not pick up til prices are higher.
if rockminer's claims are true (and certainly need validating) then asicminers new chip isn't the leap in performance or power that was promised. its a perfectly ok chip but breaks no new ground and hasn't beaten other chips in systems that are already in production. as others have said, it isn't any better than spondoolies last chip that is already being shipped to customers (and they're working on a better one for the summer) and of course, bitfury has recently released a pretty good V2 55nm chip and has promised to follow that up with further developments soon. And thats ignoring all the other big players, who are also working on their next systems.