And some new firmware reports the wrong value

Also, the OneStringMiner devices allow a simple serial connection to connect multiple boards through 1 'master' board connected to a USB port (potentially resulting in hundreds of chips). The firmware automatically detects and counts these boards, but this is done in parallel with the USB enumeration/initialization, so the number of chips could increase some time after the miner application request the version string. In theory, the user could even dynamically add some extra boards after the device has been running (although this would not be a common procedure).