BRN Discussion Ongoing

[GDJR69]

Hi Slade,

Couple of announcements today already.

New Patent

AND my favorite

Another Partnership....pushing to 18 now...30 is getting closer !

I've taken some time to reflect on the AGM and the business and wanted to share my thoughts.

Last year's AGM the company was full of confidence for the next 12 months. Unfortunately, that confidence was premature. My impression was that the company was determined not to make that mistake again at this year's AGM and perhaps the pendulum swung too far the other way at a time when shareholders were actually looking for some reassurance.

However, let's look at some basic facts removed from sentiment and emotion generated by yesterday's AGM. The runway to commercial success is longer and more winding than many of us thought but we are still on that runway. Customers had feedback about Akida 1.0 that the company has taken on board and has now produced Akida 1500 in response with Akida 2.0 on the way. I infer from this that if Akida 1500 meets their requirements there is likely to be customer engagement after they have tested it as this is the end of the journey that started with Akida 1.0 rather than the start of a new journey with Akida 1500. No doubt also, Akida 2.0 is designed with these issues in mind but with even more functionality. As far as I can see too, we are still the only company with a commercially available edge AI solution in a rapidly expanding market that is crying out for this solution.

So when I ask myself the question, is this a company at this point I would want to buy into the answer for me is yes; and because the answer is yes the answer to the question should I sell my holding is obviously no.

There is no doubt the company is making progress behind the scenes and that the partnerships are important. I actually believe Sean has contributed a lot. As investors we are always dealing with probabilities and being called on to make decisions based on inferences from the facts we know. However, the inference I draw from where we stand is that we are still likely to be successful, and maybe we will see some engagement from customers sooner than people might otherwise believe if Akida 1500 finds a receptive market.

They are my thoughts for what they are worth.

 

[DK6161]

Anyone recorded the AGM? Can you please share?

 

[Diogenese]

I'v no doubt that they are working their butts off but if it doesn't equate to sales then it means squat. Thats the industry they are in. They need to turns 'talking' into contracts and $$$.

A lot of individuals held Sean to his word at the last AGM..

With hindsight we can see that Sean was a bit overenthusiastic as the new CEO of the-next-big-thing, perhaps a bit dazzled by the brilliance of Akida. But we were hit by the difficulties in getting the radical technology adopted in a market about to be hit by recession, war, chip shortages, tech retrenchments and cost cutting, with a market about to turn from bullish to bearish. Added to that is the fact that we transitioned from a chip maker to an IP licensing business which necessitated a major reappraisal of our marketing strategy.

While the projections at the previous AGM were rosy, we were advised in a 4C several months ago that these headwinds would adversely affect income. Apparently some did not adjust their expectations.

But I do not accept that the last 12 months have produced "squat". In the last several months we have been advised of many customer engagements and partnerships, some with the behemoths of the industry, clear evidence that our team is having success. The gestation period for these results is much longer than any of us would like, but we are soon to see the first MCUs containing Akida on the market.

While the Renesas deal has taken several years to produce a chip, deals with enablers such as Teksun and Edge Impulse may reduce that time to market.

And let's not forget that the partnerships may not involve licences, instead taking the form of joint ventures, where the payout is based on sales with no up-front licence fee. This group includes nViso, Prophesee, SiFive, Valeo, ... We may not see the results (certainly covered by NDA) from these partnerships until after the products hit the market. As Antonio pointed out, there is a 4 year safety lag for automotive. Our association with Valeo dates from before 2021.

There are also direct competitive pressures on ARM from SiFive which should remove any unnecessary delay.

But, in the end, with our IP licensing model, we are in the hands of our customers ...

 

[Slade]

It’s time for me to take a break from social media. The negativity has become repetitive, monotonous and boring. How many times and for how long does a person need to put down a company they are invested in before they sell and move on? And why do they feel the need to share their misery every single day?
The new partnership and patent today are great and I look forward to more good news dropping soon. I will be back to join the celebrations when MegaChips and Renesas step out from the shadows.

 

[FlipDollar]

It’s time for me to take a break from social media. The negativity has become repetitive, monotonous and boring. How many times and for how long does a person need to put down a company they are invested in before they sell and move on? And why do they feel the need to share their misery every single day?
The new partnership and patent today are great and I look forward to more good news dropping soon. I will be back to join the celebrations when MegaChips and Renesas step out from the shadows.

I think people are still here because not everyone can just sell and move on if they are holding paper losses.

There actually is a decent balance of opinion on here - some days lean more to one side than the other, but overall its fine.

 

[IloveLamp]

Qualcomm and Microsoft Align Efforts to Scale On-Device AI at Build

www.qualcomm.com

 

[TheUnfairAdvantage]

With hindsight we can see that Sean was a bit overenthusiastic as the new CEO of the-next-big-thing, perhaps a bit dazzled by the brilliance of Akida. But we were hit by the difficulties in getting the radical technology adopted in a market about to be hit by recession, war, chip shortages, tech retrenchments and cost cutting, with a market about to turn from bullish to bearish. Added to that is the fact that we transitioned from a chip maker to an IP licensing business which necessitated a major reappraisal of our marketing strategy.

While the projections at the previous AGM were rosy, we were advised in a 4C several months ago that these headwinds would adversely affect income. Apparently some did not adjust their expectations.

But I do not accept that the last 12 months have produced "squat". In the last several months we have been advised of many customer engagements and partnerships, some with the behemoths of the industry, clear evidence that our team is having success. The gestation period for these results is much longer than any of us would like, but we are soon to see the first MCUs containing Akida on the market.

While the Renesas deal has taken several years to produce a chip, deals with enablers such as Teksun and Edge Impulse may reduce that time to market.

And let's not forget that the partnerships may not involve licences, instead taking the form of joint ventures, where the payout is based on sales with no up-front licence fee. This group includes nViso, Prophesee, SiFive, Valeo, ... We may not see the results (certainly covered by NDA) from these partnerships until after the products hit the market. As Antonio pointed out, there is a 4 year safety lag for automotive. Our association with Valeo dates from before 2021.

There are also direct competitive pressures on ARM from SiFive which should remove any unnecessary delay.

But, in the end, with our IP licensing model, we are in the hands of our customers ...

I don’t buy the excuses of economic headwind. I see it more of a new technology take up issue.

Quote from the Chairman AGM notes :
“On one end, you have over “speced” systems that are inefficient, and on the other end, you have under “speced” offerings that don’t yet understand what fully optimized AI can bring to their solutions. Through our recent commercial efforts and ecosystem development, we have gathered the demands to reshape our roadmap and product offering.”

In other words. The tech world got on with business with what they know. They stuck to their knitting! Time and time again TSExers found a product or company that was implementing or releasing a product containing a form of AI and you rightly so ogerred it and gave you reason it was using a less efficient but operable AI solution. They got on with business despite the economic environment.

The company has obviously recognised the impediments for customers to implement Akida with their new road map. Hopefully this eco system can assist with the technology knowledge gap required to get Akida into the market. None of us wants to witness the Beta/ VHS scenario!

 

[Vladsblood]

They would do well to get onto Nasdaq for recognition worldwide ASAP and beginning our trajectory northwards.
Nasdaq WILL crack the icy waters of International business community IMO. Vlad.

 

[Boab]

Question for @Diogenese and others.
Has the patent from this morning been accepted in other countries?
Regards

 

[Mea culpa]

It’s time for me to take a break from social media. The negativity has become repetitive, monotonous and boring. How many times and for how long does a person need to put down a company they are invested in before they sell and move on? And why do they feel the need to share their misery every single day?
The new partnership and patent today are great and I look forward to more good news dropping soon. I will be back to join the celebrations when MegaChips and Renesas step out from the shadows.

The incessant negativity of particular posters makes me doubt they are in fact holders as they state on their stock disclosure. Being an anonymous forum, I, they can state what suits.

Being so often disgruntled with this company must question their choice to have purchased and continue to hold shares. In view of one poster's veiled comment yesterday querying questions from the floor at the AGM, (which follows his predictable pattern on this forum) and later feigned comments, it is clear he was neither in attendance at the meeting nor watched the meeting online. My doubt to his integrity and holding BRN shares is reconfirmed.

@Slade , your presence will be missed. I trust it will be a brief absence.

Cheers

 

[Diogenese]

Question for @Diogenese and others.
Has the patent from this morning been accepted in other countries?
Regards

Hi Boab,

This is the link to the Espacennet publication.
US11657257B2 Spiking neural network

The specification and claims are not available here yet. Perhaps on Google patents?

The "Published As" data shows where it was filed ( the ones with a "B" suffix are granted) but this is complicated as this seems to be a Continuation of the earlier US11468299, probably based on US2023026363. The AU2021254524B2 is probably the parent, not the continuation (divisional /additional in AU).

US2023026363A1 SPIKING NEURAL NETWORK
[0002] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/670,368, filed on Oct. 31, 2019, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/754,348, filed on Nov. 1, 2018, titled “An Improved Spiking Neural Network,” all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

This is the first claim of the application. It may have been modified during examination.

Claim 1
A neuromorphic integrated circuit, comprising:

a spike converter configured to generate spikes from input data;

a spike input buffer configured to store the spikes from the spike converter;

a neuron fabric comprising a neural processor comprising a plurality of spiking neuron circuits configured to perform a task based on the spikes and a neural network configuration;

a memory comprising the neural network configuration, wherein the neural network configuration comprises a potential array and a plurality of synapses, the neural network configuration defines connections between the plurality of spiking neuron circuits and the plurality of synapses, the potential array comprising membrane potential values for the plurality of spiking neuron circuits, and the plurality of synapses having corresponding synaptic weights;

a packetizer configured to generate a spike packet comprising spike bits representing the spikes in the spike input buffer, wherein each spike bit in the spike packet corresponds to a synapse in the plurality of synapses; and

a processor configured to modify the neural network configuration based on a plurality of configuration parameters,

wherein a spiking neuron circuit in the plurality of spiking neuron circuits is configured to:

apply a first logical AND function to a first spike bit in the spike packet and a first synaptic weight of a first synapse corresponding to the first spike bit, wherein the first synaptic weight has a value of one, and the applying the first logical AND function outputs a logical one; and

increment a membrane potential value associated with the spiking neuron circuit in response to the applying the first logical AND function outputting the logical one;

apply a second logical AND function to the first spike bit in the spike packet and a second synaptic weight corresponding to the first spike bit, wherein the second synaptic weight has a negative value, and the applying the second logical AND function outputs a logical one;

decrement the membrane potential value associated with the spiking neuron circuit in response to the applying the second logical AND function outputting the logical one.


For comparison, this is claim 1 of the parent US11468299 which we have seen before:

1. A neuromorphic integrated circuit, comprising:

a spike converter circuit configured to generate spikes from input data;

a reconfigurable neuron fabric comprising a neural processor comprising a plurality of spiking neuron circuits configured to perform a task based on the spikes and a neural network configuration; and

a memory comprising the neural network configuration, wherein the neural network configuration comprises a potential array and a plurality of synapses, and the neural network configuration defines connections between the plurality of spiking neuron circuits and the plurality of synapses, the potential array comprising membrane potential values for the plurality of spiking neuron circuits, and the plurality of synapses having corresponding synaptic weights,

wherein the neural processor is configured to:

select a spiking neuron circuit in the plurality of spiking neuron circuits based on the selected spiking neuron circuit having a membrane potential value that is a highest value among the membrane potential values for the plurality of spiking neuron circuits;

determine that the membrane potential value of the selected spiking neuron circuit reached a learning threshold value associated with the selected spiking neuron circuit; and

perform a Spike Time Dependent Plasticity (STDP) learning function based on the determination that the membrane potential value of the selected spiking neuron circuit reached the learning threshold value associated with the selected spiking neuron circuit.

 

[Damo4]

The incessant negativity of particular posters makes me doubt they are in fact holders as they state on their stock disclosure. Being an anonymous forum, I, they can state what suits.

Being so often disgruntled with this company must question their choice to have purchased and continue to hold shares. In view of one poster's veiled comment yesterday querying questions from the floor at the AGM, (which follows his predictable pattern on this forum) and later feigned comments, it is clear he was neither in attendance at the meeting nor watched the meeting online. My doubt to his integrity and holding BRN shares is reconfirmed.

@Slade , your presence will be missed. I trust it will be a brief absence.

Cheers

I noticed this as well, bit silly of them to make it so obvious they had, at most, read the address only. Very telling and frankly disgusting.
They have a post history that backs up what you are saying too.

@Slade good idea RE the break, but you'll be missed!

 

[supersonic001]

Hi all, am i or have i missed something about Renesas ?

No longer on this page, or elsewhere ?

 

[GDJR69]

Hi all, am i or have i missed something about Renesas ?

No longer on this page, or elsewhere ?

View attachment 37152

I emailed the company the other day about this and was told that we still have an IP Agreement with Renesas but they are considered a customer and not a partner.

 

[Murphy]

Did the renumeration items on the agenda get voted down? Sorry if it was posted earlier but I didn't see it.
Thanks

 

[TECH]

Congratulations to both Peter and Anil, the named inventors of the latest granted US Patent.

30 pages attached for the ones who can understand and appreciate the amount of work involved, thanks also go out to our 2
Patent Attorney's in the Perth office...I certainly appreciate all the staffs efforts...thank you guys. Tech.

https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/11657257

 

[HarryCool1]

It’s time for me to take a break from social media. The negativity has become repetitive, monotonous and boring. How many times and for how long does a person need to put down a company they are invested in before they sell and move on? And why do they feel the need to share their misery every single day?
The new partnership and patent today are great and I look forward to more good news dropping soon. I will be back to join the celebrations when MegaChips and Renesas step out from the shadows.

 

[Xray1]

Agree with all the comments here. I'm willing to consider Sean was unwell, or hungover or something, but he needs to do much better, for the amount of money he makes. Our money. First strike! A second and he'll likely be out of a job. And that won't look good on the resume..

Tony did well, spoke clearly and seems to have his finger on the pulse. Much more aligned with shareholders expectations and knew what our concerns would be. Was empathetic to our plight and didn't act like a child being scorned.

But too many important questions were dodged. The big one being why are they the directors not investing their own money?

The other issue being around share incentives? We're told we can't know the metric on which these people are judged... they say they made it simple. Well, make it simple... share price? Sales? Acquisition of talent? Licences? Those metrics can't be under NDA's....they can surely tell us those. Why would we approve our money to be given to them and expect them to be honest about what the metrics are used?

Now, the way I see it, we have a product or products being developed but as shareholders, no idea who or if anyone is using it. Or will be soon.

If the product is so good, they need to let the product speak for itself and show that to the world. Develop a use case in house, do a study. They have the engineers, the support team. Don't wait for some mercedes or megachips or some other company to do it, and hope they mention us.

Customers and shareholders will flock if we can show how advanced it is. I'm not asking to say how it works, just that it does. Put some effort into showing that it works in the real world. Not just for us shareholders, but customers.

They seem to think that once someone signs on it will open the flood gates... but it seems most companies that might use us will keep that usage well under wraps. So they need a professional show, a product of their own that shows its advanced capabilities.

I for one will stay holding on, but I'm not happy and haven't been for a while with the lack of information and lack of sales. The obvious question being, does this have any real world applications. I was hoping for some reassurance today, but have been left wanting.

But again, I will hold, because the question being does it work or not, although unanswered for me. I still feel that this is a huge future market and I'm willing to gamble the odds that it does work.

Cheers
Draed...

NFA, DYOR

Draed ........... Totally agree with your post.

IMO .......... There were two other things at the AGM that also stood out big time to me, these being :

1) The question from someone in the audience who stated that he was a CEO from another rather large organisation and how dissatisfied and baffled he was with the proposition that Sean nor the board were unwilling and unable to give any financial forcasts or guidances. IMO, This question really through a curved ball at Sean and the Board and questioned how the Co could take / make any forward moves without actually knowing where the Co financially stands at present or even a few years down the track.

2) Also of concern to me was the situation that the Co would not devulge what was or is contained within the so called 5 year Co plan that Sean had submitted and which was eventually approved by the Board.

Once again this AGM was a situation of keeping s/holders in the dark and invoking the onging " Cone of Silence " treatment.

 

[Boab]

Hi Boab,

This is the link to the Espacennet publication.
US11657257B2 Spiking neural network

The specification and claims are not available here yet. Perhaps on Google patents?

The "Published As" data shows where it was filed ( the ones with a "B" suffix are granted) but this is complicated as this seems to be a Continuation of the earlier US11468299, probably based on US2023026363. The AU2021254524B2 is probably the parent, not the continuation (divisional /additional in AU).

US2023026363A1 SPIKING NEURAL NETWORK
[0002] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/670,368, filed on Oct. 31, 2019, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/754,348, filed on Nov. 1, 2018, titled “An Improved Spiking Neural Network,” all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

This is the first claim of the application. It may have been modified during examination.

Claim 1
A neuromorphic integrated circuit, comprising:

a spike converter configured to generate spikes from input data;

a spike input buffer configured to store the spikes from the spike converter;

a neuron fabric comprising a neural processor comprising a plurality of spiking neuron circuits configured to perform a task based on the spikes and a neural network configuration;

a memory comprising the neural network configuration, wherein the neural network configuration comprises a potential array and a plurality of synapses, the neural network configuration defines connections between the plurality of spiking neuron circuits and the plurality of synapses, the potential array comprising membrane potential values for the plurality of spiking neuron circuits, and the plurality of synapses having corresponding synaptic weights;

a packetizer configured to generate a spike packet comprising spike bits representing the spikes in the spike input buffer, wherein each spike bit in the spike packet corresponds to a synapse in the plurality of synapses; and

a processor configured to modify the neural network configuration based on a plurality of configuration parameters,

wherein a spiking neuron circuit in the plurality of spiking neuron circuits is configured to:

apply a first logical AND function to a first spike bit in the spike packet and a first synaptic weight of a first synapse corresponding to the first spike bit, wherein the first synaptic weight has a value of one, and the applying the first logical AND function outputs a logical one; and

increment a membrane potential value associated with the spiking neuron circuit in response to the applying the first logical AND function outputting the logical one;

apply a second logical AND function to the first spike bit in the spike packet and a second synaptic weight corresponding to the first spike bit, wherein the second synaptic weight has a negative value, and the applying the second logical AND function outputs a logical one;

decrement the membrane potential value associated with the spiking neuron circuit in response to the applying the second logical AND function outputting the logical one.


For comparison, this is claim 1 of the parent US11468299 which we have seen before:

1. A neuromorphic integrated circuit, comprising:

a spike converter circuit configured to generate spikes from input data;

a reconfigurable neuron fabric comprising a neural processor comprising a plurality of spiking neuron circuits configured to perform a task based on the spikes and a neural network configuration; and

a memory comprising the neural network configuration, wherein the neural network configuration comprises a potential array and a plurality of synapses, and the neural network configuration defines connections between the plurality of spiking neuron circuits and the plurality of synapses, the potential array comprising membrane potential values for the plurality of spiking neuron circuits, and the plurality of synapses having corresponding synaptic weights,

wherein the neural processor is configured to:

select a spiking neuron circuit in the plurality of spiking neuron circuits based on the selected spiking neuron circuit having a membrane potential value that is a highest value among the membrane potential values for the plurality of spiking neuron circuits;

determine that the membrane potential value of the selected spiking neuron circuit reached a learning threshold value associated with the selected spiking neuron circuit; and

perform a Spike Time Dependent Plasticity (STDP) learning function based on the determination that the membrane potential value of the selected spiking neuron circuit reached the learning threshold value associated with the selected spiking neuron circuit.

Unlike @Bravo's hot tub party it looks like our asses are well and truly covered.
Thoroughly thorough.
Thank you

 

[GStocks123]

FFS never thought we would be seeing 30’s ever again..