Was there an announcement on when gen 2 devices would roll out?
Come on guys, ASICMINER is still the only company selling gen 1 ASICs in any quantity, let's roll in that dough before we start thinking about gen 2. I hope for the sake of keeping the competition in the dark that friedcat doesn't mention a thing about the next gen devices until they are days away from shipping. Ideally that will be right around the time that BFL figures out how to put together a working device, and/or the companies using the Avalon chips come to market.
I agree that it's commercially prudent for AM to keep their cards close to their chest. However I think the competition knowing in general what AM are up to won't help them much. AM's natural advantages are:
- proven IC design competence
- low cost of manufacture
- low cost of operation
- operational excellence
- strong cashflow and balance sheet
- reputation as a company that meets or exceeds customer expectations
Knowing what AM have in the pipeline won't matter much if you can't match them in those areas, and they are hard to execute or achieve.
BFL are flailing. They are in a death spiral at the moment; which is likely to take a couple of months to complete (either cash flow dries up or legal action puts them out of business). They are not experts in IC design and manufacture and the price for that will be corporate death.
I've been following KnCminer closely for a few weeks. I started off excited at the possibilities (28nm process, 350GH/s flagship product for $7K). However what I've seen in the last few days has persuaded me they're unlikely to even be as much of an annoyance to AM as BFL is today (i.e., nothing much at all). I doubt they will get any ASIC product to market unless they can fund their NRE cost.
100T/H / Metabank may yet provide some competition, but they sound a couple of months away from having any product so it's hard to predict where they will get to. I think even if they get their 65 nm product going AM will be able to match them fairly quickly. But doing so would put a bit of a dent in earnings, so their threat can't be ignored.
Avalon seem to be happy to be the vanguard of the open-source movement. I think it's a smart idea on their part; it means they don't have to try to compete head-to-head with AM in building finished products. They get to grow a market that will sit beside the finished product and mining markets.
AM are the only company of any substance exhibiting *any* professionalism at the moment in building finished products or mining.
But i got bills to pay.
