Topic: Finally photos of real BFL Single SC and Jalapeno ASICs (Read 11257 times)

I think it's in everyone's interest that no ASIC hits the market before the block reward halving. Less volatility in the supply of BTC that way. Predicting an early December release from both BFL and Tom(caplepair).

His wording makes it sound like that, but someone asked whether they had any prototypes that were actually hashing at all and Josh said no:


Admittedly that was a week ago, but he was using similarly confusing language back then too. For instance, he said: "We are waiting on the bulk chips from the foundry, that is really the major delay right now" as though there were some previous non-bulk chips, which apparently don't actually exist.

If you recall the announcement, Josh specifically mentioned the "final chip versions," so I'm going to stand well back because you are going off half-cocked, and that is dangerous to your fellow Musketeers.
(realizing some of our international friends might think this colloquialism is a porn reference, here is some background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-cock)

It would appear from the wording that there has been at least one other batch or test ASIC. FYI, I've not looked him up yet, but the guy they have doing the ASIC design is supposed to be pretty hot stuff.

Inaba, I guess you didn't see my question yesterday. Does BFL have a working (hashing) prototype ASIC miner?

No, we are waiting on our ASIC chips right now, as I've stated in a number of other places, though it's understandable if you have missed the posts, since they are spread out everywhere.

It all depends on the contract, was it for X Working Devices to spec Y, or was it just X Devices with a penalty for excessive defects beyond a certain percentage? We don't know, but it really does not matter.

They have stated "This is enough for the pre-orders and then some", this means that even if there are faulty ASIC's they should have enough for the current orders.

and all those 20000 chips are guaranteed to work?

i don't know about the failure rate, but i can safely assume not all of the 20000 will be failure-free....i think.

You make a lot of assumptions in that sentence.

If you recall the announcement, Josh specifically mentioned the "final chip versions," so I'm going to stand well back because you are going off half-cocked, and that is dangerous to your fellow Musketeers.
(realizing some of our international friends might think this colloquialism is a porn reference, here is some background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-cock)

It would appear from the wording that there has been at least one other batch or test ASIC. FYI, I've not looked him up yet, but the guy they have doing the ASIC design is supposed to be pretty hot stuff.

Oh my.

I can't quite believe they are ordering up 20,000 chips, and counting on them to all work right, without having first received such an engineering sample, to verify that it works, and to have the opportunity to make any changes before producing them in large numbers.

If they are, well, best of luck gentlemen.

Engineering samples are by definition an actual, mostly-working version of the chip, possibly with various issues and really poor yields, but functional enough to test with. BFL have said they don't have any chips like that yet, so these pretty much have to be fakes (though I believe the more polite term is "mock-up").

November 2012 no real ASICs working proof out there ..so it,s very hard to speculate who will ship first..IF ever shiped

Aww,no TOASTER STRUDEL 

Very telling:
So, that's the 22nd of November based on when this was posted, and that's assuming no further delays, and that all the other parts turn up in time, and that's just when they can begin assembling boards.

Yeah, I don't know why BFL are even pretending they'll ship in November...

I like it.

FACT: https://forums.butterflylabs.com/showthread.php/251-More-Jalapeno-Pictures-amp-Shipping-Update

We expect the final chip versions to be in our hands in ~25 days, with final assembly and shipping to begin a few days after that.

On a lighter note:

Pop Tarts!

FACT: Several other manufacturers and BFL have been producing mining equipment starting last year and early this year.
FACT: BFL had significant delays, and a 4x difference in projected and actual power utilization, even after shipping started it remained slow for some time.
FACT: BFL started taking preorders back in July, some folks have been waiting on them since then, impatiently
FACT: BFL stated initially that they would be shipping October, and at some point updated that to October/November.
FACT: Late on 10/29/2012 BFL updated their shipping outlook to the very end of November, most likely the first week of December for first shipments. (added 10/30/2012)
          (https://forums.butterflylabs.com/showthread.php/251-More-Jalapeno-Pictures-amp-Shipping-Update)
FACT: BFL updated their unit to be more competitive, and has blamed some of their challenges on this
FACT: BFL is has experienced some sourcing issues on the heat sinks for the SC Singles, but the issues are believed resolved (added 10/30/2012)
FACT: BFL expects the final revision of the ASIC chips in hand in about 25 days (est. 11/26/2012) (added 10/30/2012)
FACT: BFL has stated they will perform assembly and ship about a week after once the chips come in (this implies that they are doing final assembly of chips to boards in-house, but does not confirm it) (added 10/30/2012)
FACT: BFL is having sourcing issues for the VFD displays for the minirigs which requires changes to display and case, but have stated that it will not "affect the timeline in any material fashion" and Josh seems oddly smug about something... (added 10/30/2012)
FACT: BFL has not yet made any statements that shipping would not begin before the end of November. They have told BitCoin Magazine that they would be shipping late in November, but they have never said they would start in December. (outdated on 10/30/2012)
FACT: BFL has stated an intention to ship all pre-orders through September "by the end of the year" (IIRC, not sure about when they made the statement, thought it was early October)
FACT: BFL has invested in (new/upgraded) board level fabrication and assembly tools for use in batches after the first one
FACT: BFL has Millions of dollars in preorders, outside investors watching them, and huge community pressure to deliver on time and in spec

Supposition: BFL is very motivated to succeed, are not likely to take off with the money, and will in fact deliver a product, within their October/November timeframe, or tell us that they are missing it. Until we hear that they are shipping or delayed we get to wait.

Some folks are not so good at waiting, so if you notice someone saying in the 35th thread that BFL is a scam and are stealing all the money, just hit the little link under their name that says "ignore" and get on with it. If something bad enough to really get concerned about happens, you will see reputable posters talking about it quickly enough.

(If anyone sees errors above or has updated information, please let me know and I'll update the post.)

The new flat surface is best used for making grilled cheese instead of warming coffee.

Engineering samples are by definition an actual, mostly-working version of the chip, possibly with various issues and really poor yields, but functional enough to test with. BFL have said they don't have any chips like that yet, so these pretty much have to be fakes (though I believe the more polite term is "mock-up").

No, that just means that they don't have a prototype of this board running, it does not mean they are "fakes"

A fake is something intended to fool. An engineering sample is a more likely possibility.

But will it still heat my coffee

Clearly, judging by the shadows, these photos were taken on the moon...