Are there any attempts at creating ASIC for bitcoin mining?
The closest thing to ASIC seems to be the BitForce series which has just been released and customers it seems are just begining to receive their first orders.

From the website:


  Is your system based on FPGA or ASIC technology?
  
  The BitForce processor card is a proprietary implementation of both
  FPGA and ASIC technology.


As far as I'm aware, the actual chip design won't be released, but it seems legit now that people have begun testing the potential.

http://www.butterflylabs.com/