https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/692-bfl-asic-status-2.htmlIt's been a long couple days here at the labs! Trying to test the chip in the test rig has been exceptionally trying and it turns out it's due to a bad socket on the tester. Initially we were concerned there might be a problem with the bumping or substrate, but fortunately we had tested the chips prior with the wire bonding technique, so we knew they worked. Getting the test boards made proved to be fortuitous as well, since we were able to bypass the test rig completely and bring the chips up on the board. By doing so, we were able to finally identify that the problem was related directly to the test rig and not any intermediate process or step.
Bringing a chip to life in situ on a board is not the easiest thing, so it has been slow going. The chip was responding properly on the board late this afternoon and we will be picking up the process in the morning. We hope to have a more complete test by Saturday night or Sunday sometime. Meanwhile, we will also be hard soldering a chip into place for use in the test rig and replacing the socket to allow the bulk testing to finish. In some other positive news, we've not found a single bad chip yet, which could mean our yield rate will be exceptionally high... maybe we just got lucky out of the 50 chips we have available on boards so far, but it seems unlikely. So that may mean the vast majority of our chips will be usable.
So the good news is the boards work, the chips work, the bumping works, the substrate works. We just need to nail down a bit more with the firmware and we should be able to conduct a full test and start shipping.
I will be posting another update as soon as I have more information. Needless to say it's been a pretty busy and stressful last few days here, and some script kiddie deciding to DDoS our sites this morning didn't help matters. All connectivity problems should be resolved now and we will keep people updated as time allows.
I find it odd that BFL is going to go from testing to shipping in a matter of days (from the sound of it like a "few" days). This is where Josh keeps failing.
They dont even have a working prototype and it is MARCH......TWO THOUSAND AND THIRTEEN. Back in November they were leading on making it seem they had a prototype then but couldn't ship until 30 days or more. So how is it that all of a sudden that they FINALLY get a "working" prototype that they are going to go from TESTING to SHIPPING in a few days?
Expect more delays people. Everything BFL made themselves out to be has come out to be false. They outsourced pretty much every part of the ASIC development process to a third party. And that is just to get started...
BFL is and will continue to be full of crap as long as they DONT disclose what actually went on during the time frame of October, November, December...
So fail...