This is interesting. Chips delivered en mass in around 100 days? Is that BFL suggesting they will get most or all of their preorders done within the next 100 days and then concentrate on the chip business? To me it seems pretty unlikely, as the PCBs instead of the chips seem to be the hold up right now. BFL could well be shipping chips while product preorders are still outstanding. It will take a while for third parties to develop, test and ship their own boards so BFL probably have 200 days from now before rival products appear based on BFL chips.
So... at 200 days for 3rd party.
I guess the question folks considering chips need to ask themselves is... will third parties deliver faster at 200 days, than BFL itself. Tough call... I would lean towards third parties.
I personally have no interest in their chips with the current state of information about them and their reference design.
No.
They are bailing on responsibilities.
They have, to their credit, designed working ASIC chips. How reliable they are is open to contention.
They are opening the machine/PCB design to open source.
Cutting and running.
I actually replied in a BFL post last week suggesting they do just this; swallow pride and open source to the community. I'm actually intrigued to know whether this was taken aboard!
If someone in the community is able to design a working on solution before them, or an improved solution, almost certainly they will adopt/base a design on it and fulfil orders.
Makes total sense from their position.
They need help, and this is an opportunity for the BFL pre-order community to assist them...unless they wish to loose funds.
