Topic: ASICMINER: Entering the Future of ASIC Mining by Inventing It - page 1301. (Read 3917515 times)

What do you mean recover some confidence? The chips are at the foundry.... how fast or slow they are being produced says nothing about the confidence in the project....

Thanks for your reply, but that's all speculation. Hard facts would help all of us to recover some confidence in this project. And btw friedcat said it's not even half completed (13 layers out of the total 29). Let's not even euphemize the litte solid info we have.

Typically at a fab you have multiple customers having their orders processed simultaneously. Some stages of the process do not require immediate processing after the previous stage, some stages can be processed in parallel.

Also, some customers pay for faster service and cut ahead of you in line.

As far as I can tell, Friedcat is basically saying his order is getting more processing time than it was previously because its nearing completion and there are no high priority jobs ahead of him.

Friedcat, any updates? What does "had become quicker" mean? I know, you can also just rely on info provided by the foundry, but is "had become quicker" really it?? Seems similar to Nefario's schedule of providing share holder lists

Anyway, so how I see it we have this very unpredictable foundry process which will hopefully be finalized in december. What happens after that? Can you give us an estimate of how long it will take after the foundry till you can start mining?

They are at the stage of wafer-process, which is the last one before slicing and packaging, and is the most time-consuming. They have finished 13 layers out of the total 29, and there are 16 layers to go. The speed was originally very low (1-2 layers a week), and had become quicker in recent weeks.

Sometimes I wonder if you actually live on this planet. They should make a reality show based on your everyday life, I'd watch.

Layers is something entirely different to quantity.  Think of each IC as being made up by printing 29 seperate layers of circuits on top of each other (yeah, I know that's a crude description of it) - so 29 seperate runs of a manufacturing process.  By the sounds of it the runs for ASICMINER are being done in between other jobs that the foundry rates as more important to them (likely because they're much bigger and/or regular customers).

If the 29 referred to completed ICs then there'd already be half finished and usable.

But it looks like bfl will beat asicminer with the time of having asics ready to work.
[...]
bfl get their asics on decembre the 11th.

By the way... when asicminer has ordered 29 layers, that means 29 asics at the end right? So you run 29 asics shortly after you received it. But how many asics does bfl get with their first batch?

Nefario is not in contact as usual, but one of his friends is.

Update

They are at the stage of wafer-process, which is the last one before slicing and packaging, and is the most time-consuming. They have finished 13 layers out of the total 29, and there are 16 layers to go. The speed was originally very low (1-2 layers a week), and had become quicker in recent weeks.

While the foundry haven't not give out the estimated time, our foundry agent did. The person in charge gave us the oral promise of December, but not as an extra formal deadline in the contract.

A mail to the board has also been sent to reply and discuss the revising of the business plan. Board members please post your advices if you have some time. Thanks.

He already gave out a couple of lists worth some days. Taking out the last weekend he isnt way too behind his plans. I hope its this way... at least he is still in contact.

@friedcat: you mentioned that the foundry provides a detailed status update on the processing of the chips. At which stage are the chips right now?

Unless we suffer from similar issues, which is not unlikely. I am sure our engineering team did their best, but so did the competitors - and yet mistakes happen. Building ASICs is a complex project for small entities.

I would like to hear the newest estimated times for shipping from foundry too.

Good news for the ASICMINER project. Another one of the main competitors experiences significant delays.
https://www.btcfpga.com/forum/index.php?topic=125.0

That - and given the reputation of BFL for underestimating the delay times - gives ASICMINER the whole month of december to get the operation started and still be the first with ASICs on the network.

@friedcat: you mentioned that the foundry provides a detailed status update on the processing of the chips. At which stage are the chips right now?

This is exactly why I had to cancel one of my orders. If BFL were an employee calling in late to work, it would be like this.

Work starts at 9:00. Travel time is 30 minutes assuming no traffic. There is some level of traffic 90% of the time. BFL plans to leave at 8:25.

"Announcement - I hope to be at work at 9:00 tomorrow ... assuming nothing goes wrong. I even have a buffer in case there is traffic."

Time is 8:45 and BFL just leaves the house for work.

"Announcement - Everything still hunky dory. Not late to work yet and I'm driving really fast."

Time is 8:55 and BFL hits traffic. BFL reroutes.

"Announcement - I might not be into work at time, but I hope I'll make it."

Time is 9:15 and BFL is now sitting in worse traffic on the new route.

"Announcement - Looks like I'm going to be late for work... probably.   Don't worry though, someone else will probably be late as well so no worries. Oh, by the way, when I come in, you'll get the best darned employee you've ever seen. I'm the reliable Ferrari of employees!"

Time is 9:30 and boss is calling BFL's cell, upset that he's late. BFL doesn't directly answer his questions and seems evasive. Boss asks what time BFL left the house - no answer. Boss asks how often there is traffic - no answer. Boss asks what kind of coffee BFL had that morning - Folgers, 3 sugars, no milk.

"Announcement - I hope to be in at 10:00. I never 'promised' 9:00. I just hoped to be in at 9:00, just like I 'hope' to be in at 10:00. Why so upset?"

Time is 9:59 and the entire factory is furiously waiting on BFL to come because he has one of 3 keys to the lock that shuts everyone else out altogether. He's costing them money because had he simply been more honest about his situation from the get go, when he left his house in the first place, the boss would have called in Thomas or Evelan, because they also have keys, but today was their day off.

"Announcement - Making this announcement with 1 minutes to spare! That's right... Time to spare on this one. No new details other than the fact that I've put premium gas in my car and I'll probably, maybe, hopefully, be in around, nearby, or close to mid, late, probably end of the 10 o'clock hour. My contract says you can't fire me until 11:00 anyway ... so really ... I'm still not even late."

And... scene.

Josh and everyone else at Butterfly Labs ... are you starting to see things from our perspective yet?

This depends on how the size is measured. Is it the total amount invested in the company, or the total amount traded, or the number of shareholders, or the number of shares? Each of these measurements would make a different order.

He said he was going to send the lists starting with the biggest in descending order.

Yet some smaller offerings than ASICMINER have already gotten te list.....

Life would be a lot easier if Nefario did as he said...

He already gave out a couple of lists worth some days. Taking out the last weekend he isnt way too behind his plans. I hope its this way... at least he is still in contact.

Nov 25 / 12:00pm
More lists coming out tomorrow
by James McCarthy

I'll be sending out updated lists by tomorrow afternoon.

Ther will also be some new lists sent out for some issuers.

Got a lot of email over the weekend, if I've not replied please bear with me, I'm a bit snowed under.

It seems BFL now expects to have the chips in hand from the foundry the week of Dec 11th (towards the end)

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

Delays all around !