I imagine the secret processes are so technically specialised that nobody outside of a FAB would understand what was meant. They would have to do with temperatures and absolute pressures of various metal vapours, exposure durations, voltages between emitters and substrates, durations of a moving laser beam as it passes over a design template, acid washes to remove debris. In other words they would refer to the optimal settings used to create the deposition of metal layer thicknesses. These 'secret sauce settings' all matter hugely to the fabricators but not so much to us as SH.
Don't forget that Danny or Yuval once said that their original design had around 500 different layers of metal laid down and removed in parts. Initially you did not know until the 500th layer was complete if any of the other layers were wrong. Now I imagine it's a case of get the '7t'h one wrong and you don't realise what was amiss until the final structural element of the '25th' layer could be tested.
No-one has been asking questions about the ASIC or the code it executes or how the film layer that protects it all is attached. They matter but we are not alert to such things.
I don't think any of us would be remotely interested in that level of detail. But we do want to know when a design is proven out and can be reliably manufactured, and does not fall apart in ordinary air. That is a major step in the development program. Danny has shown us this kind of thing in his presentations. My understanding is that every one of the progress boxes has now been ticked as complete and ready. The 4C basically indicated that to be the case. Now it is a case of:
"We have packed the X,000 finished chips in cartons and they are all shipping on flight XX123 from Changshu to Tel Aviv on December nn 2023. You should have them next week for installation in the demo units for evaluation for a week before you send them to 'BigCompanyName Audio Labs' on Jan nn 2024."
But even details of that sort are of no interest to us. We want to hear something like:
"We have received finished commercial version chips and they are being evaluated for 2 weeks in Tel Aviv before we can send them to customers, the first of which will receive them in mid January. They are expected to respond within a month of that date. There are 8 customers so far that have signed up for the first batch of demo boards."
Where is that information?
OR: "We've struck a further problem" Then: Where and why have things come unstuck? What is the significance of this?
Where is that information?
Total silence on all fronts is just not enough information for mid January, given these earlier announced timeframes IMO.
AKP Price at posting:
$8.98 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)