in 2-3 months (...)
Learn the math first.
or maybe you should research stuff before mouthing off - try some of advanced mining calculators which take into consideration difficulty rise - you're looking at jun-july tops, to be in green, after that you will not generate enough to even cover electricity cost.
if you got access to free electricity good for you, but most people dont.
You are mistaken if you think 28nm chips will not even pay for their own electricity use for an average kWh cost by June. Otherwise the network hashrate would shrink dramatically as even the most efficient chips couldn't even cover their own power costs
I remembered hearing this last September when average difficulty growth was much higher than now and said the same then. 28nm chips will stay profitable until a much smaller fabrication size chips is the majority of the network hashrate.
Why the obsession with process node size? Asicminer 40nm will be twice as efficient as bitmines 28nm chips. Basically means there is much room for improvement/optimization left with 28nm chips before the efficiency has reached its limit.
Fully agree. Right now, the manufacturers are in an arms race, and because time to market is so important, they are taking shortcuts. This in itself is not egregious, but as things slow down and sanity rears its head, things will change.
I think the next iteration of ASIC design will not be aimed so much at lower process mode, but at designing from the ground up for efficiency. It is my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) that most, if not all, of the current bitcoin ASICs are essentially miniaturized FPGA arrays rather than a complete ground-up design. Thus they have a lot of room for reducing redundancies, thus freeing up a lot of silicon real estate. Die shrinks make them bigger and badder fast, but they are not truly optimized. Since the ASIC essentially has one relatively simple task, I suspect that we will soon see chips with much better efficiencies and higher hashrates. But it will probably be a year or more, as that's a much more difficult proposition than what is currently being done.
I truly hope the preorder madness has run its course. Without that perverse incentive, companies will have to focus more on quality and innovation.