You probably need the buy the chips first and send them over to the assemblers.
I fail to see why no one wants to supply like you know, a FINISHED WORKING PRODUCT?!
Because the people designing the USB miner (allten, bkkcoin) don't have the BTC to make the minimum 10,000 chip order from Avalon?
Anyway there are so many threads on the front page which will allow you to find the chip suppliers, designers and assemblers.
I can see his point though (tom_o's). I want to send my BTC to someone and get a USB ASIC miner posted to me that I can plug in and configure - I dont want to send BTC to two people then receive two parcels then ship one parcel to someone who will assemble it (plus some BTC to pay them) then get it shipped back before I can finally use it.
I understand the designer may not have the capital to order a tonne of chips but they will have more buying power than any of us who will be looking for 1/2/5/10/20etc chips, and therefore will benefit from economies of scale. Could the BTC necessary not be raised via preorders, kick-starter or even an IPO. I would invest in either one of those three choices!.
Some of these options will come. Right now we're doing development and when a workable product is close there will be some assemblers who integrate the design and chips. I know I'll offer some assembly on the K1 and if I can arrange chips to me then I'll be able to do it in one step.
I think the main thing now is that "us" guys who are doing the dev work are not comfortable with the traditional tactic here of promising everything, taking your money, and delivering next year. I know I want to have something in hand that I can take orders for, but I want it to be more than vapour ware first. Things are moving forward every day. I've had several people contact me saying they have chips on order and want to assemble and sell finished products.
I'm about to order first test boards within a day or two. We only got final protocol docs from Avalon a couple days back so we're all busy finalizing any design changes.