3. 3rd Gen chips were also under development during that period. It is already developed now but still under test. It is expected to become a mature product in Feb 2014, which means its key indicators would be much better than those of its competitors. It is estimated that the network hashing power would be 1000p then, while Friedcat would deliver several hundred of it.
1000P ? As in Petahash? By February? That sounds like more than a stretch. Even if the hardware costs nothing, electricity consumption of a 1000PH network would be close to its mining revenue for anything but the cheapest electricity. We may get there one day, but not in February. If Friedcat really think he can get several 100PH online by then, well, I wanna buy some shares. Find this hard to believe though.
1000 PH sounds quite reasonable actually. The break-even point for BTC at $100 USD for the highest efficiency ASICs today (the 28nm tech) is ~200 PH/s (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=281279.0)
if bitcoins are $500 by then, that takes us to a break-even of 1000 PH... and this doesn't take into account more efficient chips or higher bitcoin prices (or over-invested miners or people powered on wind farms, etc.)