Quote from: joeventura on November 03, 2013, 04:49:36 AM

From Joshie:

Just to update everyone on where we stand with the Monarch at the moment.

Current chip production has an expected delivery date in early/first half of December. We expect to have chips at that time and hope to have our first units shipped out the door by the end of December. We did not reach our goal of November delivery. Unlike our first generation ASIC devices, we already have the vendors in place and ready to go, along with the substrate design and manufacturing slotted in and geared up. Right now, we are not anticipating any issues but unexpected things do pop up. If they do, I will let people know as soon as I have definitive information regarding that, otherwise we are on target for a December release. If anything changes, I will let everyone know, via this thread, as soon as I have the information.

Let me reiterate that if you are uncomfortable with pre-ordering for cutting edge, custom designed technology and all the risks that it implies, please do not place a pre-order and wait until the products are shipping and available. If you do choose to pre-order, please understand that unforseen problems and delays can and do happen and we will do our best to alert everyone to them when we encounter them and have had time to assess what the impact will be on the timeline.

Our production capacity is geared up and ready to go. With the extreme simplicity of the Monarch compared to our 65nm product line, we do not anticipate any difficulties in getting units built and out the door in a rapid fashion. Compared to our current generation, assuming no parts shortages, we should be able to product more than 1000 Monarchs per day. For reference, the Monarch should use ~12 screws and two discrete parts (board and HSF), compared to even our most simple device, the Jalapeno, which has over 20 discrete parts, assembly is trivial and should pose no issues.

The current expected date for our chips out of the foundry is early December. Obviously nothing will be shipping in November. Projected target is end of December but that is, as usual, subject to change. When I have more info I will share it.

Latest Monarch update from Josh:

04 March 2014 - Monarch Update

Power & Performance better than expected
The initial power consumption numbers for Monarch are in and they're about 20% better than anticipated, meaning we expect the Monarch to consume 0.45W/GH at the chip level. This translates to about 300W per 600GH at the wall. Chip performance of all systems is as good as or better than predicted. To put this in perspective, this makes the Monarch chip nearly twice as power efficient as compared to our 28nm competition whose products operate between 0.9 and 1.0w per GH at the wall.

Chip Delay
The initial batch that we currently have in hand is not suitable to ship to customers. This is due to a problem in a top metal layer of the chip that prevents some engines from initializing when the chip is first powered on. (With ASIC design, there are a number of layers to a chip; most of those layers are in silicon, but the last few layers are in a special type of metal. Subsequent batches were held in wait just prior to the metal layers so that we could affect any necessary changes and proceed with chip production from that point, drastically reducing the time it takes to bring a new batch of chips to life.) The problem was positively identified and the fix is already in progress; however it will take approximately 5 weeks before we get packaged chips in hand, meaning the deployment of the Monarch will be delayed about 5 weeks from now. The specific date is still being determined, but I wanted to get an update out as soon as possible.

Refunds & Delay Compensation

Because of the delay, we're offering several different forms of compensation that vary based on order pricing and order date:

$4680 600GH Monarchs

Free performance upgrades
All customers who ordered 600GH Monarchs prior to the price decrease on November 28, 2013 will be upgraded to the Imperial Monarch product, which is a new, high performance version of the card. The Imperial Monarch will operate at 1 TH/s (+ / - 20%).

Six Month Refund or Double Shipment Guarantee
If youve been waiting in queue for six months or more, you qualify for either a full refund in USD, OR double the hardware you ordered. This latter option will come in the form of (a) first shipping you the new Imperial Monarch, giving you an expected 160-175% of your ordered hashrate, and then (b) an additional Standard 600 GH Monarch at the end of the queue, giving you another 100% hashrate boost, totaling an expected 250+% of your ordered hashrate once all products have shipped. (Note: Electing the refund cancels the Imperial Monarch upgrade offer in the first section above.)

50% off Voucher
If your paid order is less than 6 months old but you paid $4680 for your Monarch, you will instead receive an Imperial Monarch as described above, as well as a 50% off discount on an additional Standard Monarch at the end of the queue.

Full Price 300GH Monarchs
For 300GH Monarch orders, similar but slightly different offers will be extended. Customers will be contacted with specifics via email soon.

Mining By the GigaHash
If your Mining By the GH paid order is more than 6 months old, you will receive 2x the hashrate purchased.

Reduced Price Orders
Individual orders that are less than 6 months old and that paid for the reduced price 600GH or 300GH Monarch will likely not be delayed past the expected delivery date.

. Details specific to each of the above order categories will be communicated to eligible customers via email in the next few days. We hope everyone will remain in the order queue and take delivery of these extremely power-efficient, super-fast miners. But, cognizant of the feedback of our earlier 65nm customers, for those qualified buyers who desire a refund we will gladly issue you one.