Today's announcement wasn't exactly what I asked Santa for Xmas (actually it was 25c share price). Like all twists in the 4DS saga this one leaves the reader with more questions than answers and allows diverse and potentially equally valid conclusions to be reached from "what's a few more weeks when we sell for billions next June" to "tech doesn't work & its over with IMEC".
It seems that we have gone from 2 batches being produced in parallel to series resulting in delay to produce platform lot
. However another reading could be that the time to incorporate learnings from second non platform lot (they really need to be more creative in naming) into any platform lot has decreased.
So rather than try to interpret - here are announcement extracts you may wish to ponder and digest :
- 10th August - Company Update : The fabrication of both lots of wafers will commence this quarter. Barring any unforeseen equipment problems or new COVID-19 government ordinances, the Second Non-Platform wafers should be available for analysis in mid to late Q4 2020. Due to fabrication complexities related to the inclusion of transistors in the Second Platform Lot, the wafers from the Second Platform Lot are expected to be available for testing in early Q1 2021.
- 29th October - Annual Report - The fabrication of both lots of wafers will commence in Q3 2020. Barring any unforeseen equipment problems or new COVID-19 government ordinances, the Second Non-Platform wafers should be available for analysis in mid to late Q4 2020. Due to fabrication complexities related to the inclusion of transistors in the Second Platform Lot, the wafers from the Second Platform Lot are expected to be available for testing in early Q1 2021.
- 28th October QUARTERLY ACTIVITY REPORT AND APPENDIX 4C - "4DS is pleased to advise that imechascommenced the manufacture of twenty-three (23) Non-Platform Wafers (Second Non-Platform Lot) and one lot of twelve (12) Platform Wafers (Second Platform Lot)."
- 10th December - Company Update : Based on the very limited available time slots on imec’s state of the art equipment, imec committed that the Second Platform Lot wafers will commence mid Q1 2021. 4DS is investigating all means to bring that timing forward.
Also thought David confirmed at AGM that they were on track to meet previously communicated timeline.
Finally a question for the technically wise : to sell this thing do we need to provide a new batch of chips for a buyer to test or could they retest a batch we have already tested? in other words is testing chips destructive?
(20min delay)