why buy someone else's IP?
The story given by asicminer was that the current gen of chips effectively came in at half of expectations, but for a reason they identified - presumably the next gen will be the same architecture but at the previously-promised ~0.4w/GH
The latest info on gen 4 is that samples will be in hand around Dec 16th and have the following specs:
Process: tsmc 28nm hpc
Package: fclga (5mm x 5mm)
Normal Mode:
0.7v vdd
6gh/s per chip
8gh/s-12gh/s per chip for mass production
0.343w/g on chip
~0.3w/g on chip for mass production
Low Power Mode:
0.55v vdd
4.5gh/s per chip
6gh/s-9gh/s per chip for mass production
0.225w/g on chip
~0.2w/g on chip for mass production
The schedule of BE300 producing: First batch production will be done next Feb.