Canaan Creative

 

Canaan Creative, known simply as Canaan, is a computer with specific skills based in , China founded by N.G. Zhang in 2013. Canaan invented the first Bitcoin mining processors and computers and leads bitcoin hardware mining by using advanced manufacturing processes. Canaan is known for its quality hardware paired with Open Source Software in all of its products up to the latest product, the AvalonMiner 741.

Most recently Canaan announced a $ 43 million USD Series A investment round to compete with other hardware manufacturers and develop technology

The investment is the largest-ever announced by a bitcoin mining business, though one that’s in line with moves from Canaan’s competitors. One of the largest makers of ASIC chips specialized for mining, the firm’s diversification follows competitor Bitfury’s transition into software services and pursuits centered on enterprise blockchain offerings.
For Canaan, however, the funding will serve as a means to facilitate the exploration of computing chips for use in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and potentially, into hardware solutions for alternative cryptocurrencies that require different chips to optimize the mining process.

Contents

Pre-Canaan History

In 2010, while still pursuing a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering, Ngzhang discovered Bitcoin. In November 2011, Ngzhang announced on Bitcointalk the world’s first dedicated bitcoin mining hardware named “Icarus” using FPGA technology.

The follow-up product came in May 2012 with the second FPGA-based design, the Lancelot.

In 2012, upon the release of Icarus, the Bitcoin community and industry gave much attention to the project. Then Ngzhang founded the Avalon Project as the brand to launch bitcoin mining hardware and Avalon ASIC semiconductors. And, because the software around the chips is open source, many engineers joined the project.

Pre-Canaan Pre-Avalon FPGA Miners

 
Name Release Date H/s Watt Voltage Connection Pictures
Icarus Test’s performed showed that the chip was 110 times more powerful than the previous FPGA calculating power. This also meant that use of graphics card “GPU” bitcoin mining had also been surpassed with the Avalon1.

In August 2013, the Avalon Project launched its second generation of dedicated bitcoin mining ASIC chips, the Avalon2 A3255. Soon after, the “Avalon2 Single” hardware product using a single Avalon2 A3255 chip, was released. Unlike past machines, the Avalon2 does not operate in standalone mode. During the design of the Avalon2, a bottleneck in mining performance was realized with standalone-only design. Therefore, the Avalon2 also is operated with an external controller so multiple Avalon2 Single units can be operated in parallel to reduce peripheral costs. The mining power in Bitcoin shifted from single user’s running individual mining machines to running Bitcoin mining farms.

In April 2014, the Avalon Project launched the third generation dedicated bitcoin mining chip the Avalon3 A3233 after 1 year and 3 months from its predecessor. In that time, the Bitcoin industry grew around the world. The Avalon Project also launched the Bitcoin hardware product, the Avalon3 using the Avalon3 A3233 ASIC chip and an open source Web-based management software called AMS (Avalon Management System).

 2013-1 110 nm 295MH@375 MHz 1.15V 6.6 QFN48 – 7X7, 0.5mm pitch  
A3255 2013-8 55 nm 1.5GH@750 MHz 0.8V-1.0V 1.6 – 2.45 QFN48 – 7X7, 0.5mm pitch  
A3233 2014-4 40 nm 7.08GH@600 MHz 0.55-0.85V 0.75 – 0.99 QFN48 – 7X7, 0.5mm pitch  
A3222 2014-9 28 nm 25GH@400 MHz 0.65V-0.8V 0.4 – 0.6 QFN56 – 8X8, 0.5mm pitch  
A3218 2015-9 28 nm 47.5GH@500 MHz 0.6V-0.7V 0.28 – 0.29 FCLGA – 8X8  
A3212 2016-9 16 nm 83GH@Auto MHz 0.4V-0.5V 0.12 – 0.13 FCLGA – 8X8  

Avalon Miners

 
Name Release Date ASIC H/s Watt Voltage Connection Standalone Pictures
Avalon1 3module 2013-1 A3256 72G 600 100 – 240 USB Yes  
Avalon1 4module 2013-6 A3256 90G – 110G 750 100 – 240 USB Yes  
Avalon1 mini 2013-7 A3256 60G 595 100 – 240 USB Yes  
Avalon2 single 2014-5 A3233 295G – 325G 342 – 410 100 – 240 IIC No  
Avalon3 3module 2014-6 A3233 710G – 970G 668 – 1235 100 – 240 IIC No  
Avalon nano 2014-8 A3233 1G – 3.6G 1 – 6 5 USB No  
Avalon4.0 – 1T 2014-10 A3222 800G – 1T 419 – 600 100 – 240 IIC No  
Avalon4.1 – 1.3T 2015-1 A3222 800G – 1.3T 419 – 990 100 – 240 IIC No  
Avalon4 mini 2015-7 A3222 30G – 78G 12 – 32.4 12 USB No  
Avalon nano2

Acquisition history

The company attempted a reverse acquisition for $466 Millions USD by Shandong Luyitong (LYT), publicly traded company on the Shenzhen stock market. After the acquisition, Canaan Creative would have been a wholly owned sudsidiary at that point.

Public reports stated that, “Luyitong [would have] paid roughly ¥1bn (approximately $152m) in cash, and issued 81 million shares at an average price per share of ¥24.57 ($3.74), representing an additional ¥1.99bn (roughly $303m).” Reports say that Canaan’s “strong sales projections fueled the valuation, and that it anticipated a net profit of $27m for 2016, with expectations of $39m and $53m in 2017 and 2018, respectively.”

However, in the end, the deal did not happen as noted by Coindesk. “While Canaan spent time and resources pulling together this deal, those efforts are not wasted. They are contributions to our future. Internally Canaan strengthened its management structure, refreshed our public image, and have our product pipelines flowing to deliver solid reliable and efficient bitcoin technology solutions worldwide,” said N.G. Zhang, Canaan’s CEO.

See Also on BitcoinWiki

Source

http://wikipedia.org/