32:37 – Question: Another question on competition – this is a good question! What is POET’s competition? Are there technologies that appear to compete with POET? Are there any technologies that are capable of full monolithic integration of digital, analog and photonics?

32:57 – Answer: Of course, there’s always competition. Like I say, if you’re trying to solve a tough problem, you’re likely not the only one trying to solve it. So, you’re working on a solution to a hard and immediate problem, there are always going to be multiple competitive solutions. That’s the way you want it to be. If you’re working on something that you’re the only person working on, then it’s probably not a problem worth solving.

33:20 – So, Silicon Photonics is one competing solution. It emerged as one of the prolific integrated photonic solutions today. It tends to have two drawbacks. One is, coupling efficiency is relatively poor in silicon. And the second is that silicon clearly does not have yet a demonstrable, viable light source. I mean, a lot of people, including people at IMEC, working on integrating indium phosphide with silicon so that you could, potentially, emit light. But those are still very, very early in the research phase. But Silicon Photonics is an integrated solution, and being on silicon, it does leverage a good cost structure and it has become a de facto standard for the medium-reach segment, if you will, of the data center market. Indium phosphide also has what they call “photonic integrated circuits”. That’s another example of an integrated solution, but they tend to be absent the electronics. So, if you take light – the generation of light, the modulation of light, the detection of light – and electronics and put them all together, POET Technologies still has the advantage. Which is why we believe it is a differentiator in the short-reach and really high-volume segments of the market where cost and form factor really are the primary considerations.