So, general testing update.
But the breakout board, with identical circuitry, worked just fine - except its regulator was more distant than and also orthogonal to the ASIC, which was itself under a large aluminum heatsink.
So I yanked an inductor on a moderately-functional board, wired up some pins to drive it off my test schfifty-three board (the one rigged up for the dual-chip testing with the original breakout boards) an inch or two away (on the other side of a ground plane from the ASIC) and BOOM within a second the chip was too hot to touch, current meter was pegged and I saw about 8GH reported on cgminer.
But the breakout board, with identical circuitry, worked just fine - except its regulator was more distant than and also orthogonal to the ASIC, which was itself under a large aluminum heatsink.
So I yanked an inductor on a moderately-functional board, wired up some pins to drive it off my test schfifty-three board (the one rigged up for the dual-chip testing with the original breakout boards) an inch or two away (on the other side of a ground plane from the ASIC) and BOOM within a second the chip was too hot to touch, current meter was pegged and I saw about 8GH reported on cgminer.
Yeah - I was lucky that I didn't have too hard time with my power design ... And a good catch on your side!
Past that, maybe drill out the inductor pads and mount it on the back of the board, ...
If you can make it work without going to double-side components this will save you a lot on production cost (and not to mention testing headaches). But it is what it is and if you have to - then by all means go for it. There is always the option for another improved version later.
I'm really hoping I don't have to do another board design, because that'll shift things back another two weeks or so.
Crossing fingers on that! And let me know if you go past version 7
And actually I think v5 is something like the statistical median for me - first NF1 was 0.6 , NF2 was v5, NF6 was the only lucky one with v3.