Interesting, the pictures in the
911 spec sheet show it as having the usual PCIe jacks for power. Then again, in the past Canaan has not been the best at properly updating info on their site...
Those pictures appear to have been copied from their pages of the A8s. Even their page for the A921 is still using placeholder images that depict the A8.
Considering it uses the same chips as the A8 series, wonder why they did not stick with the A8xx numbering? Call it a 861, 871, etc...
Probably a combination of marketing strategy and the fact that the A911 will most likely follow the A921's form factor.
Marketing it as part of the A9 series allows them to price it higher than they could have if they released it as part of the A8 series. The A8 series and nomenclature have also been discontinued, so I'm guessing that Canaan didn't want to resurrect it for fear of being seen to have regressed in terms of product development.
Regarding the form factor, the A911 appears to have the same dimensions (37.8 cm x 17.0 cm x 15.5 cm) and uses the same fan as the A921, while being 0.8 kg heavier than the A921. So, either Canaan did not take the dimensions and mass of an integrated PSU into account, or the A911 will come with a discrete PSU bundled as part of the package. The latter now seems more likely to me, as the PSU is listed as a separate item on the A911's product page, and the A921's spec sheet also does not include the number of PCIe power connectors, and yet the A921 has ten of those.
At the time of writing, it appears that the A911 will have a
greater range of voltage level settings and will
run at lower clock speeds compared to the
A921.
Canaan also appears to have two new series of miners in the pipeline — the
Avalon LC3 series and the
AllWinner H3 series.
A new miner belonging to the A9 series — currently called the
A920 — also appears to be in development.