I have been following the debates on this forum with interest. Again, there seems to be evidence of a lack of understanding of what is being offered by PTK. So, I will reiterate some salient features and you can decide for yourselves if those who post deliberately misunderstand what’s offered or wallow in vagueness and make unsubstantiated statements that sound negative.

PTK has designed a series of processes that can be used to make a processor which can have wide application in the world of microelectronics; an absolutely vast world market in financial terms. Because the basic substrate from which the processors are made offer much greater speed of information transfer, at significantly reduced power consumption and at higher clock speeds, they offer a huge advantage for fast processing over Silicon. So the greatest advantages for a PET or POET chip are their capacity to process information more rapidly, with lower heat production and to integrate much more functionality on a single processor.

Additionally, because you don’t have to miniaturise the processor components as far as Silicon is currently, you can produce these processors in older factories at modest cost. Also, you can put more processor components into a single chip than is possible in Silicon, thus, a single chip can produce an integrated system on one chip, with low heat production that is very fast and should compare with best Silicon performance currently. Silicon has been forced to miniaturise in order to put more components on a chip and increase performance in this way.

The concept of a microprocessor is really very simple. It simply moves binary numbers around a processor and stores them in memory for use when needed (in a PET chip this movement is done at light speed and cannot be made physically faster). All this movement of binary numbers is controlled by a clock and one movement of numbers is done with each turn of the clock. A programme (the software) is also running in memory, and tells the processor where to put things in memory (it gives each memory cell an identifying code so its contents can be recalled when required), what to do with addition or subtraction of numbers, how to compare results and where to go next in a long series of processes. The numbers used are put in from various sources, e.g. a keyboard, a mouse, a finger on a screen, a sensor, light or whatever input you care as long as it can be translated into binary numbers. You or I can do all this with pen and paper but we’d be slow; but, imagine a PET chip doing 60 billion of these movements every second – that’s fast, very fast. One fact you should remember here is that Silicon can’t get, under normal conditions, above 4 billion per second clock speed – so you can see one major advantage of PET. The real difficulties with processors is not understanding what they do but overcoming the manufacturing difficulties, designing the processes required and getting the software programmes to design and control them. This is why there a collaboration between a factory, a software house and the intellectual concept is critical.

To design a processor requires a modelling process for use on computers so that you can tell a factory how the layout of a processor is done. You also need software to codify the structures of a processor so that companies who need a processor can design them for their own products and get them to work as planned. Hence, the need for design kits which we are currently awaiting for the 40nm PET processor.

PTK will get its money from the use of its intellectual input into this triumvirate. We know that Synopsys is involved in software design and we suspect Global Foundries may be the factory. There will only be a PET chip if this trio work together. Non disclosure agreements are highly likely to ensure security. Revenue is available to all with sales of the chips and the software and use of intellectual property. I suspect, but do not know, that the idea of PET is so attractive to a factory and software designer that payment for work done will be met by future sales and not by upfront money.

As regard PTK and niche markets. If you are offering an integrated system on chip, with low power usage and ultra high processing speed then I’d go for is the entire mobile technology field because, if a product is powered by a battery, then there are huge advantages (recharge weekly has been suggested). If you also design an integrated system on chip then screen size alone determines product size. Then, think what optoelectronics can add to all this and that is still to come. Additionally, if you tie in processor production with a very large factory company and a highly successful, large software house, don’t you think there is some takeover protection there? There are other very large fields where PET or POET technology can provide ultra-fast, low power processing and JF has provided excellent information on this aspect. ET has given ample information on why this product will behave exponentially one the concept is released and grasped. I congratulate both contributors for their truly exceptional input. There are many others who I could mention. I really cannot be negative about this product’s potential.

Thus, to summarise: PET offers cheap system on chip integration, low power usage, very high processing speeds and the potential for substantial future improvement with miniaturisation and higher clock speeds. This is very difficult for Silicon to achieve that can only be marginally improved and at gigantic cost. We are at the stage where we can expect working processors to actually compare with current fast processors. I await comparative results with interest. I believe we are on a cusp of a revolutionary upgrade in chip technology that can change things in the product market and 2015 will see this start. Strategically, I suspect, it will need a series of major news releases, lined up over some months and this will include a NASDAQ listing. The management will undertake this as part of a market assault and not in piece-meal fashion. This may delay the first news release; I have no faith in holding news releases as previous releases have conclusively shown. All shareholders will just have to be patient; but rewards are likely to be very high.

David