does BFL have the chips yet? seems it'd be easier to complete the production process using 90nm rather than 65, but i'm far from an expert in the field..
I don't know about easier, but the initial outlay seems like it ought to be less expensive to get the first few batches done on a 90nm process at least.
It's important to remember that what made FPGA miners attainable was the dramatic savings the vendors got by ordering bulk chips that were already one or two generations old. I think it was a roughly 10x reduction in the per chip price going with the chips they did versus the newest chips. Once they had them, all it took was programing them to specialize in hashing.
When it comes to ASICs, like most things bitcoin I'll probably get into them a bit late. It will probably be three or four months after the first products have been confirmed to ship. I'm not afraid of them never shipping so much as I'm more comfortable letting people run some into the ground, before I commit to purchasing a single purchase chip. The FPGAs have reputations for lifespan as well as resale value outside of the bitcoin community. Whoever ships an ASIC first is shipping uniquely new hardware, and they are going to make their customers very happy as long as the hardware performs and holds up.
