December 19 2017, Hanghzou-Avalon, now Canaan Creative, release its latest A8 miner, featuring TSMC Gen2 16nm chips, 13T hashrate with 1,200 kwh. Jiananyunzhi, the parent company of Avalon, promotes its ABCD strategy through AI, Blockchain, Cloud computing and 3D Display.

Canaan, or Jiananyunzhi, was founded in April 2013 in Hangzhou by Zhang Nangeng, aka NgZhang.

Avalon, now Canaan Creative, release its latest A8 miner

According to early forecast of Canaan, A8 should be released in Q2 this year. The delay may be caused by optimization in order to compete with other miners like S9 of Bitmain.

“841: the Avalon 841 will ship at 13TH and 1200 Watts for a power efficiency of 92 Watts/TH. I expect this to be a Q2 Product.”

A841, rated at 13TH and 1200 KWH, is indeed a great improvement over the 741 which was rated at 150 Watts/TH. However, the price of A841 is unknown.

Zhang Nangeng, Chairman of Canaan, Introducing A841 Miner

In May 2017, Canaan Creative received 300 million yuan in series A funding led by Baopu Asset, JinJiang Group and Tunlan Investment. After the ￥300 million of fundraising, Canaan now worth 3.3 billion CNY. The Company

While in pursuit of better miner performance, Canaan has been advancing in AI and 3D.

The team release its first naked eye 3D ultra high definition (8K) TV. It is understood that the technical team has mastered core technology including: the optical system design, optical postslay process of large-size LCD panel; conversion algorithms from 2D to 3D and multi viewpoint shifting (including the corresponding hardware chips); Digital multimedia content production and distribution technology; cloud computing-based service system.

Meanwhile, Zhang Nangeng also reveals KPU, the AI ASIC chips. Based on TSMC processing, KPU offers high performance, low power consumption miniatures chips, integrating artificial neural networks and high performance processors in one single chip. The AI unit supports heterogeneous, real-time, off-line AI applications. Currently four typical scenarios are picked: smart home, automatic driving, voice interaction, image recognition. The processing unit also provides support for real-time artificial intelligence application services.

At the end of the conference, Kong Jianping, Co-Chairman of Canaan, disclose that 3D cloud computing data center would be set up in Inner Mongolia.