Avalon A1566 ASIC Miner Testing and Review

Last month at the Bitcoin Asia 2024 conference, Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN) announced its newest Bitcoin mining machine: the air-cooled Avalon A1566 from the Avalon Miner A15 series. The Avalon A1566 boasts an impressive 185 TH/s hashrate and a power efficiency of 18.5 J/TH with a power consumption of 3420W. Its nameplate efficiency and hashrate are 5.1% and 8.8% improvements over the A1466I, respectively.

Canaan said that it will begin delivering the Avalon A1566 in Q4 2024.

Luxor had the privilege of accessing the Avalon A1566 early for testing and review, and the remainder of this report documents our observations and findings.

Avalon A1566 Specifications and Design

The A1566 weighs 15.1kg, which is 1.8kg heavier than the A1466, and the ASIC miner’s dimensions are 301mm * 192mm * 292mm.

A1566 PSU and Power Cable

The A1566 testing unit comes with the power supply model PSU3500-01. This power supply features an input AC voltage range of 220-277V and an output DC voltage range of 11.5-15V which is rated to 4100W.

The socket for the power cable is a 4-pin PA45 / P14 receptacle, which is different from the A1466 PSU and a first for Avalon machines. Canaan provides 9 types of power cables for clients according to their geographic region, and the one that we received with the testing unit was a CCC(CN)- 4 pin 1200 mm cable with a P13 plug to connect to the PSU. 

Avalon A15566 Fans

The fans of the A1566 are Martech model DF1205012B2FN, rated at 12V and 8A. At 96W each, these fans are powerful and bring solid heat dissipation performance to the A1566.

Avalon A1566 Control Board and Kendryte K210 Chip

The Avalon A1566's control board model is the MM_V1_2_20230609. It's worth mentioning that the control board contains a custom Canaan-designed chip: the Kendryte K210. The K210 has been used on Avalon machines since the A10 series.

Other than the K210 chip, the components on the control board are the same as those used in other Bitcoin ASIC miners, including an ethernet connector, reset / function buttons, four fan connectors, and an LED on the front panel. It also has a power connector input, power supply interface connector, and capacity to support three hashboards via the ribbon cable connectors.

Avalon A1566 Hashboards and Heatsinks

Each A1566 contains three hashboards with dual front-and-back bolted-on heatsinks on each board, a design that disperses heat evenly. The heatsinks also appear to have an anodized finish, which would help protect them from corrosion in harsh environments.

The following image shows the power and ground bus connections, which are designed to handle the current required for high-power proof-of-work compute applications.

Avalon A1566 Performance Testing: Hashrate and Efficiency Results

In our test of the A1566, we ran the machine indoors at a 28° Celsius ambient temperature for 4 hours.

The machine ran at 187 TH/s on average as viewed from the following Luxor Mining Pool dashboard, and it drew 3420W to 3460W in power consumption during the testing period, resulting in an average efficiency of 18.4 J/TH to 18.5 J/TH. This efficiency matches Canaan’s advertised efficiency for the ASIC miners and can even be improved by adjusting the ASIC’s power settings. It only took 5 minutes for this testing unit to ramp up and reach 185 TH/s.

Avalon A1566 Temperature During Testing

At 28°C ambient temperature, the hashboard temperatures were 69°C, 74°C, and 68°C after 3 hours of hashing.

Final Thoughts on the Avalon A1566

The Avalon A1566 is larger in both weight and dimension than previous Avalon series ASIC miners, and the machine comes with a new receptacle design (4-pin) on the PSU and supports client needs by allowing them to select different types of power cables.

The testing unit ramped up to its nameplate standard hashrate quickly, and the average hashrate was 187 TH/s with 18.5J/TH efficiency during our testing. The temperature of the hashboards was stable under our testing conditions, with plenty of margin to operate in warmer temperatures.