Ofc there is a overlap. But the fact is this:
When you produce chips, everything is made in one "batch" or plate or whatever you want to call it. When the batch is done, they cut it into individual chips.
Then they test the chips to check the performance and stability. I guess this is called Quality Control.
Intel example:
When the batch is done, the good performing chips (that has proven stable at a given performance) are labeled as "Intel" processors.
The chips (from the same batch/plate) that are not stable at the target clock/performance, are underclocked to a freq that makes it stable. And labeled and sold as "Celeron" processors.
Do you see where I'm getting at?
What Bitmain has done is this:
They tested the chips from batch 1, and figured out that some of these chips do not perform as the BM1385 are supposed to.
What did they do? They took the poor performing chips, placed them on hashingboards, and shipped them out to customers as S7 miners anyway..
Why did they do this? If they didn't, many batch 1 S7 orders would have been shipped late, and they would have been forced to pay big compensations.
This is what I believe has happend, and is the reason why I will call it a scam if I get some of these celeron miners..
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Normally, in mass production of IC's QA\QC will perform burn-in tests and report their findings. My suspicion is they ran into issues with a large batch of under performing chips and had to sell them since production costs are a capex expense, albeit on our dime. Anything short of them making up the difference between pricing on B1 and later batches for people that pre-ordered B1 will be very disappointing.
I cleared out all of my miners and paid for nine s7's /w their recommended PSU's. I believe they know they will have serious backlash and are trying to come up with a solution to balance out the failure of their first production run with the people that paid for it. Not using ones own equity/credit is always better when releasing any product, which is why they are generally priced lower in western business practices. The fact they priced the B1 higher, then dropped the pricing on B2/B3 for obvious reasons will make their decision very difficult. Most people that know supply chain mechanics will know that this a worse case scenario in the west, but they are the only reliable provider that will sell to non-mega farms.
I know three farms with over fifty s7's on order that received theirs before the holiday that ordered in mid September, so they are appeasing the larger customers. Granted my measly nine is small in comparison, but I am losing money everyday.
Hopefully, the Monday announcement will shore up my faith in them. I am not holding my breathe at this point.
edit: I honestly think they didn't intentionally ship out the under performing s7's. They realized it after the fact and quickly created B2/3 to allow them to recoup the losses from their bad batch, while B1 order holders sit on the sidelines waiting for their never ending holiday and weekends for a true update or compensation option.
Ufo