Alpha Technology Litecoin (Scrypt) ASIC Miner Order Batch 1 Now!

[vesperwillow]

Might be helpful to others here - Do you know how many watts a netbook uses on average? Any suggestions and average cost?
I thought of running windows just to keep things simple but I can run Linux.

I understand Pi's - I ran two for some miners I had. They are solid for the most part, though the cards occasionally crap out, and I strongly suggest you both have an extra already formatted on hand AND use the HIGH SPEED variety. Trust me on this   I've had them running for months on end with no problems and every so often a card would go bad.

I wonder about those BlackBeagles or whatever they are called as a better Pi (I hear they are more solid).

I have never put the netbook on a watt meter, I would guess less than 30w since it's just idling.

You're referring to beaglebones I think? They're hard to source right now.

They can't have a prototype without the chips. The technology is not groundbreaking anymore, so I'm not concerned to a huge degree. I still have concerns as I have been taking part in this space for over a year now, so, I'm not blind.

I can't vehamently disagree with you, so I will hope they are bing honest, and that is my feelings. I mean look at KNC lately.

That's the thing, tapeout is 60-90 days if you're lucky, and if you're super lucky the majority of your chips run as designed within spec. Take another 2 weeks to properly work them up (and that's if you're an experienced IC design shop) within your PCB design and tune the software, then start packaging it all together for shipment preparations. This is why their capability to ship machines at spec on time is a red flag in my mind. Let's say they began tapeout May 1st. They likely won't receive chips until July 1st, unless they're willing to accept crap chips. Very tight window..

KNC is a perfect example. Though lately they've been kicking their customers in the nuts, the fact is their design is stout, and they're experienced at this. With their senior experience it still takes them over a week to tune the chip settings and tweak the software. They have a much more automated setup than Alpha Tech likely has.

Edit: Also, did anyone else notice that they still haven't completed their PCB designs? I sure hope they can source all of the components in mass at the last minute since they're still designing the boards to receive the ASIC. Another tight-timeline issue.

[Searing]

Any one paid the remaining funds?

I'm not paying anything at the moment.

i'm not paying at the moment too, but i don't wanna lose my pre order

I sent them an email asking what I would get as a refund if I would cancel, but didn't get any reply after two days.

well next week they claim we will (usa) be able to pay via credit card..that is 60 days on my amex card..as a buffer they don't come thru i'd  likely get it ALL refunded not just the 70% I owe...so on that safety note (call your credit card company it was an informal reply but was a reply) I also think that if i initiate a dispute before the 60 days on amex then you get more time as they sort thru it

should? be enough of a buffer to see how this works and if it tanks should be able to get all the $$ back imho via cc option imho

hope i'm wrong

but then again i just have 1 2300 buck usd vyper...so wtf...not sure what i'd do with the bigger unit coming

anyway my play on this

Searing

[sillywhim]

Watch what you say on the alpha-t forums. You will get kicked off if you don't totally kiss their ass or pay homage to them as the Great Leader.

Anyhow, I get kicked off their forums and my order for a Viper is now ON HOLD. I dunno exactly where I went wrong:

1. When I questioned Flutz's announcements on BOTH an Ethernet and a USB connection to the Viper miner? I said both are mutually exclusive ---if you have an ethernet, that means there is an internal controller. If you have a USB connection, that means an external controller is needed be it a netbook, desktop, raspi, beaglebone etc. Why would a miner have both? It is either an ethernet or usb.  Did my asking the obvious get me kicked off?

2. Someone on the forum wanted video proof of a alpha-t miner. I said, okay on this to-be-made video:

"Here is our production factory!" Lots of activity and noise. Then pan to an electronic box that's out-of-focus, but has blinky lights. That's your video proof. Gosh, wasn't this a sweatshop assembling curling irons for the USA market just 5 minutes ago?

Did my joking get me kicked off? I did later state that trust in the company was the only thing that mattered as any video "evidence" can be faked. Did I get kicked off the alpha-t forums for this Flutz?

3. Some future Viper owners didn't like the idea of now no webgui, and that they didn't want to learn linux and that they only knew Windows. I felt for them. Then a smart-ass said he planned to RDP into the miner, and what was the big deal? I said Alpha-T is cutting things out of the miner (led screen, webgui, etc) and why would they be providing a full blown computer that you could RDP into? Did you take issue to this Flutz?

Hey Flutz. I'm asking here and via email for a total refund based on the original Terms of Order, not the current Hashfast-ish constantly changing Terms of Order. My former alpha-t forum name is the same as it is here, "sillywhim".

[maardein]

Any one paid the remaining funds?

I'm not paying anything at the moment.

i'm not paying at the moment too, but i don't wanna lose my pre order

I sent them an email asking what I would get as a refund if I would cancel, but didn't get any reply after two days.

well next week they claim we will (usa) be able to pay via credit card..that is 60 days on my amex card..as a buffer they don't come thru i'd  likely get it ALL refunded not just the 70% I owe...so on that safety note (call your credit card company it was an informal reply but was a reply) I also think that if i initiate a dispute before the 60 days on amex then you get more time as they sort thru it

should? be enough of a buffer to see how this works and if it tanks should be able to get all the $$ back imho via cc option imho

hope i'm wrong

but then again i just have 1 2300 buck usd vyper...so wtf...not sure what i'd do with the bigger unit coming

anyway my play on this

Searing

I didn't think about the creditcard. Is that the purchase protection? I have bought with mastercard, they have a 180days purchase protection/insurance. If this would be covered, I could give it a go

[Phorna]

Watch what you say on the alpha-t forums. You will get kicked off if you don't totally kiss their ass or pay homage to them as the Great Leader.

Anyhow, I get kicked off their forums and my order for a Viper is now ON HOLD. I dunno exactly where I went wrong:

1. When I questioned Flutz's announcements on BOTH an Ethernet and a USB connection to the Viper miner? I said both are mutually exclusive ---if you have an ethernet, that means there is an internal controller. If you have a USB connection, that means an external controller is needed be it a netbook, desktop, raspi, beaglebone etc. Why would a miner have both? It is either an ethernet or usb.  Did my asking the obvious get me kicked off?

Guys, please be reasonable. The situation is obvious. Product is about to be shipped within 45 days. Yesterday you got the information that there will be no LCD or other unique features that were promised. Hashing speed is changed again. How it is possible that such a changes can be made last minute? What about manufactured already cases? This is not possible.

What is possible in my opinion is followng scenario:

1. Alpha tried but failed to design and produce working chips. Once they have written on the forum discussion "Call us a scam if we don't deliver by April 2014".
2. The situation got hard for them. Lots of smoke and mirror games. Options, features changed on weekly basis.
3. Luckly for Alpha the competition managed to develop and produce working chips.
4. Now Alpha is trying to buy some chips from other company. The prices went down so much that they can still get some bucks from it. As they have no boards, no cases no nothing they announced an excuse that because users pushed them so hard, they have to drop other features and focus just on hashing speed. The truth is that they have to adopt other's company solution as it is. That is why there is no Web UI no LCD no WIFI etc. Their biggest effort right now is to re-brand the chips with their own logo and buy some box to fit the gears in. The good thing is that the customer may still get some kind of equipment and maybe even be happy of it.

Another option, bad one, is that delivery will be much more late or there will be no delivery at all.

[Its About Sharing]

Watch what you say on the alpha-t forums. You will get kicked off if you don't totally kiss their ass or pay homage to them as the Great Leader.

Anyhow, I get kicked off their forums and my order for a Viper is now ON HOLD. I dunno exactly where I went wrong:

1. When I questioned Flutz's announcements on BOTH an Ethernet and a USB connection to the Viper miner? I said both are mutually exclusive ---if you have an ethernet, that means there is an internal controller. If you have a USB connection, that means an external controller is needed be it a netbook, desktop, raspi, beaglebone etc. Why would a miner have both? It is either an ethernet or usb.  Did my asking the obvious get me kicked off?

Guys, please be reasonable. The situation is obvious. Product is about to be shipped within 45 days. Yesterday you got the information that there will be no LCD or other unique features that were promised. Hashing speed is changed again. How it is possible that such a changes can be made last minute? What about manufactured already cases? This is not possible.

What is possible in my opinion is followng scenario:

1. Alpha tried but failed to design and produce working chips. Once they have written on the forum discussion "Call us a scam if we don't deliver by April 2014".
2. The situation got hard for them. Lots of smoke and mirror games. Options, features changed on weekly basis.
3. Luckly for Alpha the competition managed to develop and produce working chips.
4. Now Alpha is trying to buy some chips from other company. The prices went down so much that they can still get some bucks from it. As they have no boards, no cases no nothing they announced an excuse that because users pushed them so hard, they have to drop other features and focus just on hashing speed. The truth is that they have to adopt other's company solution as it is. That is why there is no Web UI no LCD no WIFI etc. Their biggest effort right now is to re-brand the chips with their own logo and buy some box to fit the gears in. The good thing is that the customer may still get some kind of equipment and maybe even be happy of it.

Another option, bad one, is that delivery will be much more late or there will be no delivery at all.

Talk about reasonable, if you only list negative things, that is all we see.
They cut some features, why? To save costs for giving us more hashing power. How much more? Originally a 5Mh unit is now MINIMUM of 50! I can lose the LCD screen and WiFi, but the Gui is a bit important and they put that back in.
1. They have demonstrated a working chip design via an fpga. Designing this chip is no longer rocket science. Just a matter of getting them made. The company is Dexcel Designs - a very trustworthy company. Alpha isn't doing all the work.
2. Smoke and mirrors? No, that is an accusation. They are on schedule and increasing hashing power to match. KNC seems to now be off track.
3. Luckily? Hey, if so, as I alluded to, it shows it's not rocket science to make the chips. They have been in design for many months now.
4. You have no evidence here regarding chips, just more blank less accusations. What a load of garbage and conjecture regarding why no LC and Wifi - the Web UI is back! Rebranding, lol.

Great first post. 

[Phorna]

Talk about reasonable, if you only list negative things, that is all we see.
They cut some features, why? To save costs for giving us more hashing power. How much more? Originally a 5Mh unit is now MINIMUM of 50! I can lose the LCD screen and WiFi, but the Gui is a bit important and they put that back in.
1. They have demonstrated a working chip design via an fpga. Designing this chip is no longer rocket science. Just a matter of getting them made. The company is Dexcel Designs - a very trustworthy company. Alpha isn't doing all the work.
2. Smoke and mirrors? No, that is an accusation. They are on schedule and increasing hashing power to match. KNC seems to now be off track.
3. Luckily? Hey, if so, as I alluded to, it shows it's not rocket science to make the chips. They have been in design for many months now.
4. You have no evidence here regarding chips, just more blank less accusations. What a load of garbage and conjecture regarding why no LC and Wifi - the Web UI is back! Rebranding, lol.

Great first post.  

Maybe you're right. And I do hope that I am wrong. And of course these are just speculations. People have a tendency to speculate when they lack hard evidence.
Rebranding? - you know - using sandpaper and potato stamp.

EDIT
Just please notice that after last update 90 MH ASIC is now 250 MH at 1875 W. Do you realize how much more heat has to be removed from the case after this change? How it is possible that the case is still the same. Device needs now 3 times more efficient cooling. Look how much more Alpha has to pay for PSU 675W vs 1875W. Consider that these are all rush changes. What about EU certificates for changed device specs as PSU will be included. Sorry but a lot of people see this as to good to be true right now.

[BenTuras]

... Dexcel Designs ... have been refining our chip design since May 2013 ...

So they needed 11 months before you could do a tape out ?
Am I reading this correctly, or is the above information incorrect ?

[Searing]

Any one paid the remaining funds?

I'm not paying anything at the moment.

i'm not paying at the moment too, but i don't wanna lose my pre order

I sent them an email asking what I would get as a refund if I would cancel, but didn't get any reply after two days.

well next week they claim we will (usa) be able to pay via credit card..that is 60 days on my amex card..as a buffer they don't come thru i'd  likely get it ALL refunded not just the 70% I owe...so on that safety note (call your credit card company it was an informal reply but was a reply) I also think that if i initiate a dispute before the 60 days on amex then you get more time as they sort thru it

should? be enough of a buffer to see how this works and if it tanks should be able to get all the $$ back imho via cc option imho

hope i'm wrong

but then again i just have 1 2300 buck usd vyper...so wtf...not sure what i'd do with the bigger unit coming

anyway my play on this

Searing

I didn't think about the creditcard. Is that the purchase protection? I have bought with mastercard, they have a 180days purchase protection/insurance. If this would be covered, I could give it a go

i called amex and "informally" they said it would work ...would not really commit ....until i had a problem but in 'theory' that is how it i supposed to work on a credit card purchase if you TOS and/or non-delivery or they are 'late' even if no fault of alpha's for a good try at it..probably uneeded..but what the heck i'm a bfl refugee did a bank xfer and it took me 1 year and 20 days to get my 8.5k back..so er maybe credit card makes me feel better  and helps so be it

Searing

[anderl]

As soon as we can we will be showing more pictures/videos, for now though we are still in the tape-out stage so cannot make a demonstration yet. What I can say to reassure you at this point is that Dexcel Designs have been designing for over 10 years (dexceldesigns.com/alliances.html as you can see they have done various work including with the Indian Ministry of Defense) and have been refining our chip design since May 2013 so they have both the capability and have had sufficient time in order to achieve this and there is every reason to trust them. On top of this our VP of ASIC development is Eric Gunn who has worked as a semiconductor for over 30 years holding senior positions at the likes of TSMC, GUC, National Semiconductor and Plessey and with his contacts with our foundry we are being dealt with on a more personal level and have been assured our design is solid enough for us to confidently promise 50 Mh/s and 250 Mh/s at a bare minimum respectively.

Wait... WHAT!?!?!  You are still in tape out but you are asking customers for the remainder of the money?  From the sound of it you might still be in tape out mid July since you started mid April  (90 day fast track).

[anderl]

... Dexcel Designs ... have been refining our chip design since May 2013 ...

So they needed 11 months before you could do a tape out ?
Am I reading this correctly, or is the above information incorrect ?

I call BS on that 11 months.  No foundry is going to touch a chip design until they get paid and "refining since May 2013" means that AT has been paying some schlub at Drexel for 11 months for what?  If it takes 11 months to design a chip that other companies are doing in 90 days then something is wrong with the skill level at Drexel.

[retro72]

... Dexcel Designs ... have been refining our chip design since May 2013 ...

So they needed 11 months before you could do a tape out ?
Am I reading this correctly, or is the above information incorrect ?

I call BS on that 11 months.  No foundry is going to touch a chip design until they get paid and "refining since May 2013" means that AT has been paying some schlub at Drexel for 11 months for what?  If it takes 11 months to design a chip that other companies are doing in 90 days then something is wrong with the skill level at Drexel.

That's some eagle eyed shit there Anderl. I hadn't even noticed that. Clearly Fiaz is sent out to feed the community bullshit and hope we all don't look too closely at it. But there are some very smart people here. That's why they started their own forum, after the mauling they took here a few months ago.

This stinks more and more by the minute. I really don't see how any of this is even possible if they want to l keep the current timescale. Stuffing more chips in will affect everything from case design to cooling to psu size and capacity.  More chips=more PCB's=more fans=more power=more heat=bigger case.
How are they going to do all this at the same price?

The 250mh/s unit will be pushing 2000 watts when fans pcbs etc are accounted for. If they are supplying a PSU that will run at high load 24/7 with a decent overhead, that is not something you want to change at the last minute, or try to save pennies on. Unless you want to burn peoples houses down.

They post updates at 11pm UK time like they are making this up after a bong session. I had a pretty low opinion of them before, but now...........This is just sad.

[Meanotor]

Watch what you say on the alpha-t forums. You will get kicked off if you don't totally kiss their ass or pay homage to them as the Great Leader.

Anyhow, I get kicked off their forums and my order for a Viper is now ON HOLD. I dunno exactly where I went wrong:

1. When I questioned Flutz's announcements on BOTH an Ethernet and a USB connection to the Viper miner? I said both are mutually exclusive ---if you have an ethernet, that means there is an internal controller. If you have a USB connection, that means an external controller is needed be it a netbook, desktop, raspi, beaglebone etc. Why would a miner have both? It is either an ethernet or usb.  Did my asking the obvious get me kicked off?

Guys, please be reasonable. The situation is obvious. Product is about to be shipped within 45 days. Yesterday you got the information that there will be no LCD or other unique features that were promised. Hashing speed is changed again. How it is possible that such a changes can be made last minute? What about manufactured already cases? This is not possible.

What is possible in my opinion is followng scenario:

1. Alpha tried but failed to design and produce working chips. Once they have written on the forum discussion "Call us a scam if we don't deliver by April 2014".
2. The situation got hard for them. Lots of smoke and mirror games. Options, features changed on weekly basis.
3. Luckly for Alpha the competition managed to develop and produce working chips.
4. Now Alpha is trying to buy some chips from other company. The prices went down so much that they can still get some bucks from it. As they have no boards, no cases no nothing they announced an excuse that because users pushed them so hard, they have to drop other features and focus just on hashing speed. The truth is that they have to adopt other's company solution as it is. That is why there is no Web UI no LCD no WIFI etc. Their biggest effort right now is to re-brand the chips with their own logo and buy some box to fit the gears in. The good thing is that the customer may still get some kind of equipment and maybe even be happy of it.

Another option, bad one, is that delivery will be much more late or there will be no delivery at all.

Very are a smart person. There was nothing in the beginning, only a photoshop image of something that looked like a DVD player. Then Halleluya! the competition made working products. Now all they need to do is go to the competition and bulk order a few 50 MHs and 250 MHs and get them branded. That is very plausible.

[Bogart]

There seems to be some confusion about what "tapeout" means.  Tapeout refers to the creation of the mask set which will later be used to fabricate the chips.  As I understand it, it is not a long process and is done inside of a day, though it is one of the most expensive steps in the production process.

Once the mask set has been made, the masks are then used to fabricate the chips themselves one layer at a time onto the silicon wafers, using a photolithography process.  This is the part that takes 4 to 8 weeks.

[anderl]

There seems to be some confusion about what "tapeout" means.  Tapeout refers to the creation of the mask set which will later be used to fabricate the chips.  As I understand it, it is not a long process and is done inside of a day, though it is one of the most expensive steps in the production process.

Once the mask set has been made, the masks are then used to fabricate the chips themselves one layer at a time onto the silicon wafers, using a photolithography process.  This is the part that takes 4 to 8 weeks.

Yes a single tape out can be done in a day depending on the size of the die.  The tape out process is what we are talking about here. from the first tapeout to the final production ready chips.  There could be one tape out or dozens of them.  There all have to be tested by the foundry to prove that they are functional chips.  If there are problems fixes have to be done.   I can assure you that it would be a miracle if the first tapeout proved a flawless design.  That is why it can take weeks and months to go through the tape out process.

The problem is what the foundry will define as a functional chip and what AT will accept as a functional chip.  Because AT decided to bulk over sample chips "risk lots" leads me to believe that they plan to speed up the process by using "good enough chips" in vipers.

All chips are pulled off of wafers.  There is always a percentage of chips on a wafer that are deemed non functional and some that are deemed of lower quality.  The sample chips that are create during the first few tapeouts have a risk of having more nonfunctional chips due to poor quality.  If AT iis buying extra sample chip wafers then intend to use them in devices rather that what those risk lots are supposed to be for (more accurate test of articles). 

[crazyearner]

Has anyone received units from Alpha T yet or still in pre orders.

Also a question for Alpha T If placing order can a pre order be done to arrange pick up from location and payment be made via BTC.. Also is their a demo of units mining in real time. I have also seen Batch 1 is out of stock when will it be likely Batch 2 will start for the 50MH  units. Thanks

[peacefulmind]

Welcome to Gunda Miners, may I take your order please? 

[s1gs3gv]

Hope springs eternal.

[Its About Sharing]

... Dexcel Designs ... have been refining our chip design since May 2013 ...

So they needed 11 months before you could do a tape out ?
Am I reading this correctly, or is the above information incorrect ?

I call BS on that 11 months.  No foundry is going to touch a chip design until they get paid and "refining since May 2013" means that AT has been paying some schlub at Drexel for 11 months for what?  If it takes 11 months to design a chip that other companies are doing in 90 days then something is wrong with the skill level at Drexel.

That's some eagle eyed shit there Anderl. I hadn't even noticed that. Clearly Fiaz is sent out to feed the community bullshit and hope we all don't look too closely at it. But there are some very smart people here. That's why they started their own forum, after the mauling they took here a few months ago.

This stinks more and more by the minute. I really don't see how any of this is even possible if they want to l keep the current timescale. Stuffing more chips in will affect everything from case design to cooling to psu size and capacity.  More chips=more PCB's=more fans=more power=more heat=bigger case.
How are they going to do all this at the same price?

The 250mh/s unit will be pushing 2000 watts when fans pcbs etc are accounted for. If they are supplying a PSU that will run at high load 24/7 with a decent overhead, that is not something you want to change at the last minute, or try to save pennies on. Unless you want to burn peoples houses down.

They post updates at 11pm UK time like they are making this up after a bong session. I had a pretty low opinion of them before, but now...........This is just sad.

What is hard to understand about a miner that is expandabe via more cards being plugged in? If you plug more cards in you add another power supply. The cases design allowed for this and Fiaz said as much. You are acting like you uncovered a sinister plot and all you showed is that you don't understand the talked about design.

And to the other poster who edited their reply to me mentioning air flow - air flow is not affected with an expandable design, BUT you need more fans. Another shocking revelation. And if the heat is to much for you, run 1/2 of the cards. 

[retro72]

What is hard to understand about a miner that is expandabe via more cards being plugged in? If you plug more cards in you add another power supply. The cases design allowed for this and Fiaz said as much. You are acting like you uncovered a sinister plot and all you showed is that you don't understand the talked about design.

And to the other poster who edited their reply to me mentioning air flow - air flow is not affected with an expandable design, BUT you need more fans. Another shocking revelation. And if the heat is to much for you, run 1/2 of the cards. 

Well the problem is I don't see how you can get all that extra gear into a 4u rackmount case. I can see how the 18mh/s unit could be expandable to such an extent but not the 90mh/s. Even Alpha said only the 18mh/s unit was expandable.
"We have made the 16Mh/s upgradeable supporting up to 90 Mh/s simply by adding additional cards and a new power supply in case there is demand to upgrade your devices after shipment"

If you look at the case design it looks pretty packed in there. Please show me where they can get 4x as many chips (over 200 in total) another PSU (three in total according to Fiaz) extra heat sinks and fans into that case.



Assuming that design is correct and we have no reason not to. They will have 5 PCB's 15 chips per board. (18mh/s= 1 board 90mh/s=5 boards) how in the hell are they going to get another 8 PCB's into that case? They will have to radically change the PCB design to accommodate these new specs and I don't see how they do that and still be on time.

I'd find this more believable if they were giving you a couple of extra units but I'm not buying the idea that you can stuff all that gear into a 4u case and still have the thing run safely and reliably 24 hours a day.

Now I know you're the king of optimism but here's a fact for you. Most of the companies that have tried to develop mining asics have failed. Either completely and gone out of business or produced sub spec products. But for some reason you seem convinced that Alpha will buck this trend. I see now evidence to support this and I grow more sceptical by the day.