Alot re the Q&A has already been said, so i will fill in the critical gaps.
When questioned about competitors - Silicon Valley and the industry is extremely s mall. Everyone knows everyone, lunches/drinks together, has worked together etc. Everyone crosses paths in the hallways of IMEC. IMEC employees even work on multiple projects across different companies. The chances of there being a competitor to 4DS, that Ting and Peter are unaware of is close to ZERO. The industry is secretive as far as public knowledge goes, but nothing stops all these intertwined people talking shop. Has been and will always be like this. Concluded with never say never though.
Dave reiterated 1st in class tech numerous times.
When questioned about the PR campaign - Peter said this is solely for industry raising awareness and chasing partners.
Right at the end i asked the question - Ting, you said everyone knows everyone and whats going on hence were confident we have no competitors. Peter, you said the PR campaign is targeted at industry to get our name out there as no one knows us or what we have.
If we know everyone, doesnt it stand to reason everyone knows us, especially given our tech is 1st in class?
Radio silence from Ting and Peter (who were both extremely talkative with all questions/answers throughout the session). Dave jumped in quickly saying not nessecarily, were very very small, very small, very small, avoiding eye contact and looking back at the screen, quickly changing the subject.
This was the only question in a very long Q&A session that was shut down.
Make what you will of this, i know what it says loud and clear to me.
All ill say is, Ting is an engineer - facts and figures.
Secondly, re the tech - PL5 and PL6.
From Tings mouth - This is simple physics. We know the metrics, we know the results, we know it works.
The process for every PL is;
1. theoretical design
2. physically created in standford at a larger scale, tested and proven.
3. scaled down at IMEC for PL's
We do not go into IMEC production blind, hoping, guessing or not knowing what will come out the other end. We know the metrics of PL5 and PL6 already as we have designed it. This is in the projections in the presentation. There wont be any miraculous announcement with miracle metrics, Ting is not a magician (his words - and he almost fell out of his chair laughing).
PL5 and PL6 metrics are within the bounds of PL4.
The only limitations scaling to 20nm was the lack of facilities at IMEC.
Product is salable now, based on PL4, 5 and 6.
Risk -
The biggest risk is IMEC equipment failure, which is a delay.
2nd biggest risk is IMEC not manufacturing to spec (production stuffup not an error in the physics), in which the physics speak for itself and would be overlooked by a buyer as they would just rectify it.
The lowest risk in all of this is the physics/design.
(Someone drilled them endlessly on risk, until they got the answer they wanted. PL6 is higher risk than PL5, but the risk is so low from a design perspective (as above), its extremely minute in the big picture).
R&D -
If anyones interested, Ting said R&D teams for even the biggest companies in the world are no bigger than ours. they are never more than a handful of people. It only takes 1 brain, and a few people in a lab. More people cannot speed up dev. Its the nature of the process.
Essentially, our R&D team is on par with everyone else, where other companies differ in size due to manufacturing teams, logistics, admin, sales, distribution etc etc. Not our field.
Ting going to IMEC in May - 1st critical step - but didnt say for what. No one questioned. I wasnt fussed to know more.
Summary -
After attending, reading body language, listening to the questions others asked, throwing some curvy ones at them etc id happily say these sessions are worth their weight in gold. Hotcopper gives very skewed and out of context opinions of posters.
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