It all hinges on what degree of statistical confidence they have...

It all hinges on what degree of statistical confidence they have in the data they get out of the current platform lot. I suspect there was a bit of variability of performance in the first 12 wafers and that's why 6 more were manufactured to increase the population size of the lot by 50%, so that a higher degree of confidence in the distribution could be generated.

So IMEC could say "those are your results, which remain confidential to 4DS, IMEC and HGST - we need more data." That's a sub-optimal outcome for 4DS to achieve the corporate transaction or develop a standalone megabit memory this year.

IMEC could say - "Those are the results and we are happy that they are consistent enough to take to market, but in the meantime, we'll fab the megabit memory" That's my hoped for outcome and would be consistent with objectives.

IMEC could also say, "Stick a fork in her, she's done, thanks for working with us - go forth and make RERAM" but that doesn't sound quite right given the content of the announcements. That would be the "knock it out the park" announcement.

There's always the "We tried, no dice" outcome but that doesn't sound likely given a process window has been defined.