Microchip is the designer, they get their chips from a fab. The problem is they plan production a long time ahead and, unless somebody tells them, they can't plan for blibs in consumption like this. I can see them puzzling over why everyone is buying these chips, because of the open source nature of the project, the buyers will be all over the world buying hugely varied quantities.
True facts. I had a feeling that components would be the bottleneck for most of the DIYers, and we're starting to see that a bit on the Klondike thread.
Steamboat does have QFN PICs in hand and has agreed to sell them to us at a reasonable price. He's going to be shipping them today, along with the heatsinks he's supplying us. I am quite grateful to him for stepping in and helping out when Microchip started stringing us along. Without his assistance, 59% of our miners would have been delayed until the rest of the PICs came in on August 21st, assuming Microchip didn't bump us again.
With everything ordered and either in Colin's hands or on the way, all that's left for now is to wait. :-)
BTW, these miners should be stackable, as I've decided to go with the right-angled molex connectors. Sorry I didn't discuss that particular point with you all before making the decision. I figure this will give us more configuration options, though. If any of you are interested in keeping your Klondikes stacked, let me know. I may look at sourcing some spacers and cables for shipping with the miners for those of you who want them and are willing to pay a little extra. (At this point, though, it looks like your partial refund should easily cover the cost, if that's the way you want to go.)