May 2, 2014 Get Help POET Update Dear Military Tec

May 2, 2014 Get Help POET Update Dear Military Technology Reader, I was in Toronto on Monday, for a talk by Prof. Geoff Taylor of the University of Connecticut, before the prestigious Empire Club of Canada. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s -- beginning with his days at iconic old Bell Labs -- Dr. Taylor has developed a novel form of computer processing tech, called "Planar Opto-Electronic Technology" (POET); he's also the founder of POET Technologies (PTK: TSX-V), a great company that quadrupled in value since we bought in last year. There's great news to report. Read on... The POET Story It's been quite a year for POET, so far. Here's the share price chart, going back to December. POET shares hovered in the 60-cents range last year. In January, shares began to surge upwards. For the most part, POET skipped the tech "mini-crash" of March, and remained strong into April. Many MTA readers saw great gains in a relatively short time frame. Trees don't grow to the sky, however, as old Wall Street gurus say. In the past couple of weeks, we've seen more share price volatility, upwards as well as downwards. Part of it is that the company is gaining visibility; thus the share price has moved to where short-sellers are adding their brand of risk to the equation. Global Coming Out Event Dr. Taylor's Empire Club speech, this week, was sponsored by Canada's National Post newspaper. Thus, the speech was something of a global "coming out" party for POET. Indeed, the Empire Club was packed with several hundred guests, including players from the tech investing side of trading desks in Toronto, New York, Boston and elsewhere. I also ran into large sections of the physics and electrical engineering faculty of numerous universities in and around Toronto. I'll add another positive sign for POET. At least one rep from Canada's passport control, at Toronto's Lester Pearson International Airport, recognized POET. As I entered the country, she asked what was my business; I told her that I was attending a talk at the Empire Club. "Oh yes," she said; "That must be important. We've had other people coming up to attend that talk." Hey, when the passport checker knows about a company? It's a good sign. Other major media also covered Dr. Taylor's talk, as well. I saw people from an array of big-name news and wire services. Thus, sooner or later, I expect to see articles about POET in a wide array of outlets -- after science writers wrap their collective brains around what's happening. Along these lines, so far, POET is an under-covered technology idea. It's no easy feat to explain the science, in that it involves all manner of crystallography and solid state physics -- "quantum effect" issues, and proton spins and such. It's fair to say that, up to now, POET has been buried within the shadows of university-level research and development. Then again, POET -- the company -- has a research arrangement with defense giant BAE Systems, too, so the word is getting out. (Plus other defense-oriented entities, but I'm not at liberty to publish those details.) Where's the Progress? POET... Looking ahead, I expect to see POET make some sort of licensing deal with a major tech player for civilian apps. For example, you can take a POET-type chip, wire it into your iPhone or iPad, and run the device with virtually no noticeable difference (to your finger tips and eyeballs), compared to how things work now. Except that the POET chip is much smaller, and uses far less power than what's currently in the Apple product. In other words, POET offers designers the ability to achieve and improve on processing goals. You can do things certainly as fast -- or much faster -- than with older tech; but you can do these things with a smaller chip, which is far more robust (the term is "monolithic", and uses far less power. Indeed, the tech world -- and tech investors everywhere -- absolutely need to see the "next big thing" in terms of smaller-faster-better, and not a moment too soon. Current research on silicon is not yielding improvements that designers need to achieve increased speed, smaller size, lower power consumption, less heat, etc. Something HAS to happen. Here's where POET, and its unique gallium arsenide basis, comes into play. POET is new and different, but it's not THAT different. Yes, it's different atomic chemistry, but all based on well-understood engineering techniques in the fabrication-departments of the world. Thus POET won't scare people away because they think that they have to scrap all manner of past investment. Think of it in this way. The idea would be for a current chip user -- Apple, Samsung, Panasonic, etc. -- to go to a fabrication company -- Intel, AMD, Taiwan Semiconductor, etc. -- and apply POET tech to an existing foundry operation, say with a standard, existing eight-inch chip line. It's all doable. Of course, nothing is that easy in this world. POET tech is based on gallium arsenide, versus traditional silicon. So right away, people have to think in terms of different materials. Then the tech is built on optical processing, using nano-lasers. That's different as well, to be sure. And make no mistake -- there are strong military apps with all of this; and the company has held many talks and demonstrations for reps from innumerable layers of the defense biz. Also, looking ahead, you'll doubtless see POET tech in coming generations of commercial products as well. POET has a bright future. That's all for now. Have a good weekend.