This is the last I heard too for the Mercury. I have just starting looking at them a bit more seriously, myself. Mainly because the Mercury finally brings them down to a more acceptable risk for me. Everything seems in order (pending the email I sent to Kennemar & Cole) but based on everything I have read, I somehow doubt they will be able to deliver the claimed power efficiency with ORSoC. That said, everything I am making my judgements on is hearsay. There is potential for another BFL fiasco.
For the sake of diversification, what is your reasoning for not ordering a BFL and what would be your reasoning be for not ordering KNC, assuming you decide not to? The same goes for the Open source Avalon designs and the other manufacturers. Essentially, as a shareholder, I am interested in what you are actively looking at and what you are rejecting, considering and moving forward with. I was really glad to see your acquisition of Avalon miners followed by an appropriate increase in market share price and dividends. What I thought would turn into a stale investment after the bASIC fiasco has started to become a valuable asset.
Hi mokahless. Please keep me posted on your ongoing research into knc's progress.
My cautious stance with regard to pre-orders stems from the fact that all of the companies developing ASIC gear are quite small. When things go wrong with these tiny companies, they can go very wrong...as in the case of BFL and BTCFPGA. While it was rather painful for bASIC-MINING shareholders(myself included) to watch Avalon batch 1 units being deployed and AM completing their chip development while our own bASIC hardware pre-order was delayed twice and then cancelled, at least the network hashrate wasn't increasing exponentially at that time. Such an occurrence in the rapidly expanding network environment we're now facing would be far more costly. The company's batch 2 & 3 Avalon orders were placed just as network growth was beginning to accelerate and immediately following the successful delivery of two batch 1 Avalon units, confirming Avalon's ability to deliver. I will continue to seek reasonably priced in hand hardware as it makes more sense to my mind to pay a small to moderate premium for such hardware and eliminate the tremendous risks involved with large scale pre-orders for products that are still in development and may well be delayed or cancelled entirely.
Cheers.
