Remember that BFL and their Single already existed before they stumbled onto mining
Citation needed.
Topic: I visited BFL, any questions ? - page 10. (Read 14888 times)
Citation needed.
BFL making their own custom chips seems hard to believe. Their performance per dollar is much better than existing FPGA solutions, but their performance per watt is worse than current FPGA implementations. That's the opposite of what you'd expect from a custom ASIC, at least in the small quantities that BFL would be producing.
They can use MPW MOSIS to produce small qty of chips.
http://www.mosis.com/products/fab-schedule
BFL making their own custom chips seems hard to believe. Their performance per dollar is much better than existing FPGA solutions, but their performance per watt is worse than current FPGA implementations. That's the opposite of what you'd expect from a custom ASIC, at least in the small quantities that BFL would be producing.
Maybe it's some sort of custom FPGA that happens to have fast adders, originally intended for supercomputing applications, and now re-purposed for mining. Remember that BFL and their Single already existed before they stumbled onto mining (and had to redesign the power supply just like Stefan of ZTEX). Being a custom FPGA, it did not wind up as energy-efficient as the products of Xilinx and Altera.
BFL making their own custom chips seems hard to believe. Their performance per dollar is much better than existing FPGA solutions, but their performance per watt is worse than current FPGA implementations. That's the opposite of what you'd expect from a custom ASIC, at least in the small quantities that BFL would be producing.
You don't have to answer it if you don't want to, but I'd be interested to know how many rigs/mini-rigs you ordered. 
not much
half a dozen or so This is another point I don't understand.
If you invest $100,000 or so you clearly have to think about risks and exit strategies.
BTC coming to a grinding halt and you can use your $100k devices as paper weights. Same if mining with FPGA's becomes unprofitable. Or if for some reason you need your money back.
With $100k invested in off the shelf FPGA devices (instead of "BFL's own chip") you could salvage the chips and recover a substantial amount of your $100k investment in the very worst case. If Bitcoin would still be going, the resale value of a an FPGA cluster would virtually be the same or higher as a BFL unit.
It just doesn't compute with me why on earth somebody would take that kind of risk and give his money to BFL of all.
Maybe just because I am working in the electronics industry for a company in Hong Kong (not related to Bitcoin or mining) and I know how this kind of stuff works and goes wrong all the time. That's probably also why I can see that lots of info coming from BFL is BS. I am certainly not somebody that knows everything and all of it, and I am no engineer/developer. But I have a certain perspective that a simple end user might not have. I've been handling developing and manufacturing projects for over a decade, on a small scale not Foxxconn/Apple size, but still significant.
Give me your $100k (and some more) and I'll build you a mining rig with lower risk and one that can truly be used for something else than Bitcoin mining and with higher after market value. I may even find another person or two to put down the same amount of money. And if something goes wrong with Bitcoin, I promise to salvage the FPGA devices for you to get your investment back. And after all, Chinese New Year is over, so I will probably do it much faster than BFL
(<- I am just kidding).
nope I saw the individual blocks, rig itself wasn't ready yet, but it be built from those singles so .
.You saw the current "individual blocks" aka 832 MH/s singles 80+ Watt, not the next generation ones?
If BFL is using their "own chip" not something off the self, whey do they need to sand off the top? That's just BS in my opinion. They are using a programmable device just like everybody else. It would be quite strange if they would have finances to make their own chips then end up with an 80 Watt device but don't have money to manufacture a couple of mini rigs without taking the customers money 3 months in advance. And how would "their own chip" be programmable with a new bitstream? Unless they are now in the business of competing with Xilinx and Altera and they make their own FPGA devices.
Did they really tell you that these are their own chips or did you mean to say something else?
There is just so much wrong with BFL's stories it makes my eyes roll. That's what I meant with "secrecy" in my original questions. Instead of asking why all the secrecy I could also be asking why all the BS.
seems like a lot of work to sand off all the tops, maybe they are lapping them to get that extra performance....
I hope I see my products soon, the wife is asking daily now "when are we getting that new computer stuff" lol
nope I saw the individual blocks, rig itself wasn't ready yet, but it be built from those singles so .
.You saw the current "individual blocks" aka 832 MH/s singles 80+ Watt, not the next generation ones?
If BFL is using their "own chip" not something off the self, whey do they need to sand off the top? That's just BS in my opinion. They are using a programmable device just like everybody else. It would be quite strange if they would have finances to make their own chips then end up with an 80 Watt device but don't have money to manufacture a couple of mini rigs without taking the customers money 3 months in advance. And how would "their own chip" be programmable with a new bitstream? Unless they are now in the business of competing with Xilinx and Altera and they make their own FPGA devices.
Did they really tell you that these are their own chips or did you mean to say something else?
There is just so much wrong with BFL's stories it makes my eyes roll. That's what I meant with "secrecy" in my original questions. Instead of asking why all the secrecy I could also be asking why all the BS.
nope I saw the individual blocks, rig itself wasn't ready yet, but it be built from those singles so .
.You saw the current "individual blocks" aka 832 MH/s singles 80+ Watt, not the next generation ones?
If BFL is using their "own chip" not something off the self, whey do they need to sand off the top? That's just BS in my opinion. They are using a programmable device just like everybody else. It would be quite strange if they would have finances to make their own chips then end up with an 80 Watt device but don't have money to manufacture a couple of mini rigs without taking the customers money 3 months in advance. And how would "their own chip" be programmable with a new bitstream? Unless they are now in the business of competing with Xilinx and Altera and they make their own FPGA devices.
Did they really tell you that these are their own chips or did you mean to say something else?
There is just so much wrong with BFL's stories it makes my eyes roll. That's what I meant with "secrecy" in my original questions. Instead of asking why all the secrecy I could also be asking why all the BS.
And 4 mini rigs ordered - this is all public info
Gigavps has competition
Sorry if I missed something, did gigavps place an order for a few units as well?
Gigavps has competition
Sorry if I missed something, did gigavps place an order for a few units as well?
Gigavps has competition
You don't have to answer it if you don't want to, but I'd be interested to know how many rigs/mini-rigs you ordered.
not much
half a dozen or so 
super cool story bro
You don't have to answer it if you don't want to, but I'd be interested to know how many rigs/mini-rigs you ordered.
nope I saw the individual blocks, rig itself wasn't ready yet, but it be built from those singles so .
.
You saw a mini rig in operation?
And since you are so willing to take a big risk, have you considered giving $2250 to an escrow agent (with virtually no risk) for a LargeCoin 20GH/s unit that will cost you $15k and will be delivered in July if everything goes smoothly? Even if you don't believe in LC, ordering a few virtually doesn't cost you anything except sending a relatively small amount of money to an escrow, which will send it back to you in case they are not holding up their promise. Doesn't this make more sense?
Yea bank escrow always makes sense, but I've seen BFL unit with my own eyes, touched it and saw it in operation, I never saw a Largecoin unit or not tested how it works, and the encryption thingy in largecoin units immediately made me look elsewhere
, if everything goes smoothly I'll have my rigs in the same time frame. I cannot say anything good or bad about largecoin though I dont know anything about it except whats in the forum. My question: What is the shipping out timeframe for singles? Are they currently "catching up" on their backordered items, or getting further behind, or simply keeping up?
They were shipping tons of them, while I was there, but I wasn't interested in singles so I don't know, sorry
My question: What is the shipping out timeframe for singles? Are they currently "catching up" on their backordered items, or getting further behind, or simply keeping up?
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