Its correct that the advantage of lower process nodes arent so high in cost like it looks on the first view since a chip is way more expensive. But a big factor to keep in mind is that you save a lot money by assembly, you need less miner boards, you need less work to do for the same TH and you need less space. Not to forget the higher speed to bring up TH.
So as long as you dont plan to sell... for mining lower process nodes have some good advantages.
The NRE costs for all 28nm were payed buy customers preorder funds that were willing to dig their own grave.
Not an option for Asicminer.
I didnt speak about NRE-Costs at all. Only production costs. NRE-Costs are higher of course too and the higher the diff is rising the more impact has it on future chip production. Thats correct.
But isnt asicminer already developing 28nm? I though they developed a 40nm or 65nm chip that didnt work good and now work on 28nm. Or was it another process node?
The other companies don´t have to worry about NRE because the customer already took all the risk and funded NRE for no gain.
Asicminer has to add the NRE costs to every chip they produce.
It is all about costs per Thash including NRE costs.
If 5000Thash 40nm are cheaper than 5000Thash 28nm you will go the 40nm way.
Imho 65nm has failed and 40nm is in development right now.
I dont think so. Once the NRE-Costs are paid and the miners work you can earn the NRE-Cost back in. Every chip on top that you build is cheap then since you can build as many as you want with the profit. But of course the high NRE-Costs are a big factor even more now.