the firmware updates have eeked out a bit more performance, especially in some people's systems (the ones that were under performing)... and have been much more stable... however, the new prototype box thats hashing at 2 TH/s is completely new boards with 100% new components, and new power supplies.. thus almost everything inside the old box is completely new in the new version, thus there's nothing much to upgrade.. its pretty much a new box with nothing common from the old one except the beaglebone and some wires. that probably explains why it took a bit of time to get working, and also explains why they can't just rush it through production because the supply chain of components isn't the same so needs to be sourced from somewhere. it is, however, the same identical asics.. so that bit is good news.. their asics did indeed hash at 500 GH/s, as they always claimed. just not with the board or power supplies that their subcontractor had designed for their initial system... thus back to the drawing board for everything else. pretty much the same story with KncMiner as well.. and, for that matter hashfast. these guys all shipped systems that were then upgraded with noticeable performance improvements when they had the time to redesign their boards (probably in all three cases it was about delivering more power to the asics via optimised dc/dc circuit design).
The problem is that my $6280 (with shipping) boxes would show up in mid-late April and hash 1.6Thash, whereas I bought a box from a random Chinese manufacturer with an unknown reputation on these forums and they managed to deliver a box that actually mines at the promised hashrate for $3400. No, the hardware is not as polished as Cointerra and the interface was a headache to get up and running because of the weird static IP they chose to assign it but if it weren't for customs taking 5 days to clear the box I would have had the box WITHIN ONE WEEK of payment because they overnighted it from Hong Kong. So for $6800 or so I can have an actual 2TH of computing power within the same power envelope as 1.6Thash from Cointerra and not needing to wait until May for a revised board. Even worse is that it's not even $6800 now because the Chinese manufacturers are so aggressive about dropping their prices, now you can basically buy 2Thash delivered in a week from them for the same price that 1.6Thash delivered sometime later this month would be from Cointerra. The hardware isn't as nicely designed but the boards actually hash at the promised rate, and unfortunately with difficulty skyrocketing and the price of BTC tanking it's become very hard to justify keeping Cointerra orders.
Now admitted if BTC hadn't just tanked it's price and if the IRS hadn't announced rather awful taxation policies for miners then Cointerra would probably still be an attractive and profitable choice, but as it is now the missing 400Ghash of hashing power is basically the entire profit margin for people hosted at colo centers. My business partner who controls half of our mining company along with me has been pushing me to get a refund and unfortunately I cannot make a good case for why we should keep our Cointerra orders because it honestly makes no financial sense now.