KnCMiner has announced that their plans to move from 20nm to 16nm are well under way, having finalised what they say are the most important contracts in the process. The 16nm chips are expected to be deployed in early 2015 as part of KnC's new mining platform called Solar.
KnC claim their 5000+ core 16nm FinFET processor will achieve a performance level of at least six times to that of previous gen hardware such as the 20nm Neptune. The 16nm ASIC is expected to consume 0.07w/GH, while the 20nm Neptune consumes 0.56w/GH.
In comparison, BitFury's 55nm ASIC consumes 0.8w/GH with a soon to be released 28nm ASIC expected to consume 0.2w/GH. BitFury previously stated their intention to release a sub 0.1w/GH ASIC by mid 2015.
In October, KnC announced it was planning to cease retail sales of hardware, citing ongoing problems with problematic customers. KnC will instead offer cloud mining services which is an industry plagued by ponzi operators and scam artists such as GAW Miners.