Canaan Creative, known simply as Canaan, is a computer hardware manufacturer with specific integrated circuit design skills based in Beijing, 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 ASIC semiconductor 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 artificial intelligence 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.
On May 21, 2017, Canaan announced the acquisition of "Blockchain Notary Service" Proof of Existence.
- "We make the hardware that secures the blockchain; and now with the acquisition of Proof-of-Existence, we will also build services on top of the tamper proof features of the blockchain," Xiangfu Liu, Canaan's co-founder, said.
Video Canaan Creative
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.
Maps Canaan Creative
Pre-Canaan Pre-Avalon FPGA Miners
Avalon Product Line History
Avalon is a Canaan Creative brand and product line offering both bitcoin mining machines and semiconductor chips under the same name. The project was originally created by Zhang Ng, known also as "ngzhang".
By January 2013, the Avalon Project successfully developed the world's first dedicated bitcoin mining ASIC chip, the Avalon1 A3256. A month later, Avalon announced a product, the Avalon1 3module which used the Avalon1 A3256 chip. The Avalon1 had the equivalent SHA-256 algorithm calculating power as the most powerful graphics card at the time, AMD's HD5970 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).
In August 2014, Avalon released the Avalon nano with a single A3233 chip on a small unit one can simply plug into a USB port for power and mining.
By September 2014, the Avalon Project entered advanced IC (Integrated circuit) design by releasing the Avalon3 A3222 chip using a 28 nm ASIC chip manufacturing process.
In October 2014, the Avalon4.0 mining hardware was released using 40 Avalon A3222 chips to bring 1T or 1 Terahashes per second SHA-256 Hashing power.
The latest hardware release came in October 2015 is the Avalon6 which uses 80 updated A3218 Avalon Avalon ASIC chips to achieve a 3.5T hashrate.
ASIC Processors
Avalon Miners
KPU
Canaan's recently announced investment is to be used towards the development of the Knowledge Processing Unit, or KPU. Canaan's Head of Sales and Marketing, Steven Mosher stated:
- [T]he company believes AI will provide the most fertile ground for the Canaan's expansion, and he projected that the returns could be "as good as" the company's earnings from mining chip sales. Further, he suggested that given the interest in intersections between the two industries there could be "synergy down the road".
Datacenter in Sweden
In February 2017 Canaan announced a 10 megawatt datacenter in Boden, Sweden.
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."
The attempted deal was an investment in Canaan's future as noted by founder, N.G. Zhang's statement, "This acquisition and investment provides us the necessary resources and autonomy to make even better products and innovations that our customers expect."
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
- Blockchain
- Bitcoin
- Qi Hardware
- Open Hardware
References
External links
- Official Website
- Official Github Account
- Canaan Creative on Crunchbase
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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