Sidehack wanted to do an upgrade board for the S1/S3/S5 but he couldn't get any chips from any manufacturer ... (new gen chip).
I remember the community miner project thread. It's a shame nothing has come of it really.
And Bitmain,they got a new gen chip they aren't selling too,just full miners THEY make.................at least
As for the 16nm chips: no way would they sell them. We've seen the size of a couple new farms going up all to be filled with s9's. Hell, the new one powering up in Labrador will handle up to a 5MW load. Lord know how many more will just be upgrading and such. I have no doubt that those farms have standing orders to-be-filled on a schedule.
Point is, coupled with monthly production caps imposed by TSMC, my crystal ball and goat entrails say that for the foreseeable future all of Bitmain's chip's are strictly for internal use for making full miners.
edit: and let's not forget the B11 or whatever from BW whose 14nm chip is being produced at Samsung's foundry. AFAIK the chip *is* in production but all for BW's farm(s) and maybe other large private sales
