UPDATE-ISH:

I have just got off talking to Sam (not that way you Pervs). As you know we had some problems connecting the last few days, part technical and part because apparently we both require the occasional sleep.

No, I have not been fired, quit, disappeared or been eaten by Chtulu. Everything is moving forward according to plan and the team is hard at work preparing for the initial roll-out in week one of Sept.

After the roll-out the plan is to release chip documentation, more specs/pictures, PCB reference design and move to full production orders and bulk chip sales.

I know there are quite a few people interested in buying bulk-chips and/or miners and as we get closer to bulk chip arrival we will get back to everyone. Focus right now is verification, mining, documentation and receiving chips IN HAND.

It has always been the team's belief that especially as an unproven project pre-orders are the bane of the bitcoin community, something that has just been underscored again by the recent unfolding regarding for example Avalons chip delivery "issues".

One of the clear advantages of 130nm is the readily available production runs and low bulk production cost. With this in mind Labcoin has decided to not go the "pre-order" route and only accept orders for hardware with delivery date less than 10 days from order placement. As we hope is clear Labcoins 1st gen chips are not 'state of the art' chips that will push the limits on power consumption and effective but rather Labcoin focuses on pushing the envelope in terms of chip cost and time to market. As it looks now, we should be able to compete in price/hash-rate with December competition, and deliver chips as early as 2 months ahead of them, something that should be ROI+ no matter power cost for the mining public.

That's all the information I have for now. I am not going to set a "hard date" for the next update as it is apparent that doing so only creates unnecciary drama and I feel it's not in anyone's interest to feed the trolls who believe that a 48 hour delay in update means the end of civilization.

That's all for this time.

TLDR; Everything is moving forward as planned. Mining start is planned for week 1 of Sept. Documentation, bulk orders etc. will follow in the coming week/weeks after mining start. Me and Chtulu had a few drinks and are now thunder-buddies for life.