Topic: Black Arrow 28nm 100Ghash Bitcoin ASIC from $0.49/GH/s - page 174. (Read 787053 times)

Bitcoin Miners progress update – 22 May 2014

Prospero X3
We experienced a few serious technical issues with the backplane PCB which unfortunately delayed the completion of the Prospero X3. Our engineers spent the whole week debugging the problem without finding yet a working solution. We solicited expertise from 3rd parties and we are now having 3 different teams working on the issue around the clock. Please note that we are not in the position to estimate a completion time. It is possible that the fix could be solved as early as tomorrow or as late as next week. We decided as a safety measure to start redesigning 2 extra versions of the backplane PCB. The first complete bug free version will be used in production.
Deadline delays are never welcome news therefore we decided to offer the following optional packages available immediately which might be suitable for a minority of anxious customers who are able to build their own miner based on the Minion chip:
Option 1: Replace each Prospero (2 Thash) including the compensation package (1Thash) with 50 Minion ASICs (up to 7 Thash)
or
Option 2: Replace each Prospero (2 Thash) including the compensation package (1Thash) with 20 Hashboards (each PCB includes 2 x Minion ASIC, heatsinks, power chips, inductors, capacitors) – 4.5 Thash. Note that due to the lack of a backplane these boards have not been intensively tested therefore further rework might be required (e.g: add some capacitors); should this work be required we will only provide documents on what needs to be done. The customer will be responsible of executing it and purchasing the parts.
Note: Opting for any of these options will not cancel your 25% discount for your next Minion orders.
We would also like to ask from help from the technical community to help speed up solving the issues that we have encountered or to design a new backplane. The solicited work will be rewarded accordingly (money, products, etc.)

Prospero X1
Prospero X1 miners are not affected by the issue mentioned above and we should start shipping next week once the cases will be delivered.
Note: To avoid any further delay we have the option to deliver the case-less X1 if any of the customers will choose so.
Please contact out customer support should you choose any of the options above.

+1

Black Arrow:

You asked for technical solutions. I might have a very simple one.

DITCH THE BACKPLANE

Run wires from the connector to an SPI controller. Similar to the SPI controller you use for the bitfury boards. It works for KNC, It worked for your bitfury, probably simpler than trying to smash all that data over serial through a board.

JUST USE WIRES

Or, if you can't do that, put in a controller for every hashboard. You'd lose some money and a tiny bit of power would be wasted but it's time to ship.

Will everything be doubled at this point with free PSU's and anything else needed to run?  Can you send barebone X-1's tomorrow and then get the cases to us?  even if its our expense?

Bitcoin Miners progress update – 22 May 2014

Prospero X1
To avoid any further delay we have the option to deliver the case-less X1 if any of the customers will choose so.

We do know how to build a miner. Our hashboards are running at 250Ghash with no problems or errors. The issue is the SPI communication fails on the current backplane as soon as you attach more than 1 hashboard. We've been trying to fix the current backplane in order to save time.

We do know how to build a miner. Our hashboards are running at 250Ghash with no problems or errors.

Option 2: Replace each Prospero (2 Thash) including the compensation package (1Thash) with 20 Hashboards (each PCB includes 2 x Minion ASIC, heatsinks, power chips, inductors, capacitors) – 4.5 Thash. Note that due to the lack of a backplane these boards have not been intensively tested therefore further rework might be required

We do know how to build a miner. Our hashboards are running at 250Ghash with no problems or errors. The issue is the SPI communication fails on the current backplane as soon as you attach more than 1 hashboard. We've been trying to fix the current backplane in order to save time.

22 May 2014
 
Prospero X3
We experienced a few serious technical issues with the backplane PCB which unfortunately delayed the completion of the Prospero X3. Our engineers spent the whole week debugging the problem without finding yet a working solution. We solicited expertise from 3rd parties and we are now having 3 different teams working on the issue around the clock. Please note that we are not in the position to estimate a completion time. It is possible that the fix could be solved as early as tomorrow or as late as next week. We decided as a safety measure to start redesigning 2 extra versions of the backplane PCB. The first complete bug free version will be used in production.
Deadline delays are never welcome news therefore we decided to offer the following optional packages available immediately which might be suitable for a minority of anxious customers who are able to build their own miner based on the Minion chip:
Option 1: Replace each Prospero (2 Thash) including the compensation package (1Thash) with 50 Minion ASICs (up to 7 Thash)
or
Option 2: Replace each Prospero (2 Thash) including the compensation package (1Thash) with 20 Hashboards (each PCB includes 2 x Minion ASIC, heatsinks, power chips, inductors, capacitors) – 4.5 Thash. Note that due to the lack of a backplane these boards have not been intensively tested therefore further rework might be required (e.g: add some capacitors); should this work be required we will only provide documents on what needs to be done. The customer will be responsible of executing it and purchasing the parts.
Note: Opting for any of these options will not cancel your 25% discount for your next Minion orders.
We would also like to ask from help from the technical community to help speed up solving the issues that we have encountered or to design a new backplane. The solicited work will be rewarded accordingly (money, products, etc.)
Prospero X1
Prospero X1 miners are not affected by the issue mentioned above and we should start shipping next week once the cases will be delivered.
Note: To avoid any further delay we have the option to deliver the case-less X1 if any of the customers will choose so.
Please contact out customer support should you choose any of the options above.

How does an asic manufacturer not know how to construct a miner?

Isn't that what they do for a living?

EDIT:  Why not ship all caseless X-1's now, then ship the case when they come in next week?

They can't figure out how to build their miner.  So you can have a pile of chips and some boards and try to build it yourself.

Oh brother...

I'm sure they are very frustrated and upset that their board isn't working.  Unfortunately this update really doesn't tell us much.  I spent over $6,000 (And have to pay more for a PSU and shipping) on a total of 3th that I have no idea when I may get it.  This is really bad.  

I hope you guys are working on this 24/7 and haven't just thrown your hands up in the air and given up.  If you know for sure that you won't ship until two weeks from now you should say so.  I don't want to keep checking this forum every day for a total lack of updates.