BRN Discussion Ongoing

[TECH]

A CALL TO SHAREHOLDERS

Some of you may be aware that I have not posted here for awhile, July’23 to be precise, preferring to sit quietly in the background.
The reason I’m posting now is because more than anybody else, I’ve been the biggest critic of Brainchip’s remuneration plans going back to the 2018 AGM.
At the AGM last year, I stood and called out Antonio, Sean, and the other attending directors for what I described as having a SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT, for which I copped a fair share of flak.
I said this because they were paying themselves similarly to directors at CBA and BHP, even though our little battler was generating little or no revenue. I also said that up until that time, Brainchip could only be described as having potential, albeit that it was edging (excuse the pun) closer to realisation of its potential.
At this year’s AGM, and for the first time, the entire holding my family and I have in BRN will be voting YES.
We are doing so, because whilst it’s taken longer than we expected, we are now totally satisfied that the company is on the right path, placing itself in a position of strength from where it will quite quickly develop into a technology behemoth.
I believe shareholders who vote no will only be shooting themselves in the foot, because a second strike at this time, will only damage the company when it is finally on the cusp of great success.
Still awaiting the Great Tractor Challenge Fact !!

Is that you David ?

 

[Earlyrelease]

Further to support Realinfo. I posted earlier this year re the new remuneration policies on the BRN website. The rules surrounding when shares can be offered and when they collect are clear and available for us all to read. So if shares are approved for some and not others then maybe one employee or group is hitting their goals and others arnt. So not only watch the financials what how many share options are being converted. Still confident the BRN bus is in a forward gear, just wish like most it was in overdrive and not stuck in first gear low range.

 

[HopalongPetrovski]

Well Hoppy…as Fact continues to say…’Do your own research !

Back in the day, I was quite hostile to our Chair, Mr Hernandez ( a person to this day I find difficult to respect) and CEO Mr DiNardo. Lou at least had the metal to meet with me and thrash out our differences. Not only did these discussions lead to a grudging respect, dare I say friendship between us, I believe it played a part in an improvement to the remuneration plan later in 2018.

Initially, the arrival of Antonio and Sean caused me considerable concern, with their numerous stumblings, and what I believed was a whole lot of BS when they started all the getup about ecosystems and the like. My frustration came to a head at last year’s AGM.

Towards the end of 2023, and the early part of this year, after researching how other tech companies created success and comparing this with what we were doing, it became increasingly clearer to me that what I thought was a whole lot of nonsense was in fact the only way to go for our battler.

I have a genuine belief that several factors existed up until the latter half of 2023, and that they are now disappearing…
(a) the technology establishment either did not or didn’t want to accept that a market for AI on the edge existed.
(b) they now recognise this market is rapidly emerging and they must get on board or become a Kodak.
(b) the technology establishment are seriously envious of our patent protected Akida IP, and were (some still are) doing their best to find anyway possible to avoid using it.
(c) there is now a growing realisation, dare I say begrudging acceptance that it’s the best, perhaps only way to go.
(d) what I thought was a whole lot of BS, our rapidly growing ‘ecosystem’ is proving to be a master stroke…not only from a technology development and sales/marketing/support stance, but also from a cost to market perspective.

Revenue is not being generated yet Hoppy, but I just feel it in my aging bones that it’s not far away.

Hey Real, thank you for taking the time to answer.
And good to know you are capable of change and willing to reevaluate your opinion based on review.
The world is constantly changing around us and as we age it is commonplace to achieve and settle into a comfort zone that we have colonised and appropriated as "ours" over time.
But no matter how strong our fortress surrounds us, eventually time erodes its foundations and we are left alone and adrift on an unknown sea.
I see that with members of my family and other friends who distain and refuse to adopt new tech.
As it is more widely adopted and becomes "the norm" they are left floundering and inept in the accursed "new fangled world."
As an aside this makes me very happy to see Akida incorporating the temporal flow with TENNS.
It's all taking longer than many of us would have hoped and the inertia of older tech is proving a powerful burden to surpass, but the daily growing weight of evidence and exposure is on our side and as the new becomes the norm we are set and waiting.
Bring It, BrainChip.

 

[Esq.111]

Afternoon Chippers ,

Getting a few nibbles on buy side ........



Esq.

 

[HopalongPetrovski]

Afternoon Chippers ,

Getting a few nibbles on buy side ........



Esq.

If history is a guide I guess we can expect an increase leading up to the AGM followed by a deflation after.
Some would describe as a pump and dump.
I am hopeful that there will be "News" of sufficient calibre to sweep away any lingering negativity and rerate us, followed by a pipeline of success.
But, I am also mindful that "If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets."
Coming up to 9 years of waiting now, for me.

 

[buena suerte :-)]

"I believe shareholders who vote no will only be shooting themselves in the foot, because a second strike at this time, will only damage the company when it is finally on the cusp of great success."

Totally agree with you @Realinfo....

A CALL TO SHAREHOLDERS

Some of you may be aware that I have not posted here for awhile, July’23 to be precise, preferring to sit quietly in the background.
The reason I’m posting now is because more than anybody else, I’ve been the biggest critic of Brainchip’s remuneration plans going back to the 2018 AGM.
At the AGM last year, I stood and called out Antonio, Sean, and the other attending directors for what I described as having a SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT, for which I copped a fair share of flak.
I said this because they were paying themselves similarly to directors at CBA and BHP, even though our little battler was generating little or no revenue. I also said that up until that time, Brainchip could only be described as having potential, albeit that it was edging (excuse the pun) closer to realisation of its potential.
At this year’s AGM, and for the first time, the entire holding my family and I have in BRN will be voting YES.
We are doing so, because whilst it’s taken longer than we expected, we are now totally satisfied that the company is on the right path, placing itself in a position of strength from where it will quite quickly develop into a technology behemoth.
I believe shareholders who vote no will only be shooting themselves in the foot, because a second strike at this time, will only damage the company when it is finally on the cusp of great success.
Still awaiting the Great Tractor Challenge Fact !!

 

[buena suerte :-)]

If history is a guide I guess we can expect an increase leading up to the AGM followed by a deflation after.
Some would describe as a pump and dump.
I am hopeful that there will be "News" of sufficient calibre to sweep away any lingering negativity and rerate us, followed by a pipeline of success.
But, I am also mindful that "If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets."
Coming up to 9 years of waiting now, for me.

Me too!!! ...where is 'our' million dollar Barra?...... $$$$$$ ..Not taking the bait 'yet'!!!!! just having a sniff

 

[Diogenese]

Just wondering @Bravo , would it benefit our little nipper replacing your shoe laces? Could I suggest getting white laces with iridescent pink aglets and lengthening your stride?

Hi Rob,

I find it's quite difficult to lengthen stride in heels.

 

[Pappagallo]

Well Hoppy…as Fact continues to say…’Do your own research !

Back in the day, I was quite hostile to our Chair, Mr Hernandez ( a person to this day I find difficult to respect) and CEO Mr DiNardo. Lou at least had the metal to meet with me and thrash out our differences. Not only did these discussions lead to a grudging respect, dare I say friendship between us, I believe it played a part in an improvement to the remuneration plan later in 2018.

Initially, the arrival of Antonio and Sean caused me considerable concern, with their numerous stumblings, and what I believed was a whole lot of BS when they started all the getup about ecosystems and the like. My frustration came to a head at last year’s AGM.

Towards the end of 2023, and the early part of this year, after researching how other tech companies created success and comparing this with what we were doing, it became increasingly clearer to me that what I thought was a whole lot of nonsense was in fact the only way to go for our battler.

I have a genuine belief that several factors existed up until the latter half of 2023, and that they are now disappearing…
(a) the technology establishment either did not or didn’t want to accept that a market for AI on the edge existed.
(b) they now recognise this market is rapidly emerging and they must get on board or become a Kodak.
(b) the technology establishment are seriously envious of our patent protected Akida IP, and were (some still are) doing their best to find anyway possible to avoid using it.
(c) there is now a growing realisation, dare I say begrudging acceptance that it’s the best, perhaps only way to go.
(d) what I thought was a whole lot of BS, our rapidly growing ‘ecosystem’ is proving to be a master stroke…not only from a technology development and sales/marketing/support stance, but also from a cost to market perspective.

Revenue is not being generated yet Hoppy, but I just feel it in my aging bones that it’s not far away.

This is an excellent summary of the current state of play. I think the significant, self-sustaining revenue is still a while away but also that people will act on the precursors (i.e. IP deals) and instigate a proper rerate that sticks this time. In addition to the general mood swing towards AI at the edge and associated energy efficiency concerns, I’m hoping the conclusion of Akida 2.0 evaluations will finally break the dam with a handful of signings in quick succession.

 

[Diogenese]

Very positive signs coming from Sean that could see us get thru the strike vote unscathed, and move on to something positive for BRN.

The demise of the ex-Arm executives is a clear turning point.

The recognition that Rob and Nandan were never going to be able to bring in arm clients has arrived better late than never.

I'm not sure what the thinking was when arm was continually touted as a "partner" when it only made sense for arm to be a licensee. Whilever arm held out from becoming a licensee nothing was ever going to happen. How foolish were we to expect real partners wanting to use akida in an arm chip to have to negotiate sparate license agreements with both arm and BRN simultaneously.

Obviously, it is sad times for Rob and Nandan. It's not even their fault. Rather it is the fault of the over zelous shareholders wanting any link, no matter how implausible, how illogical from a business sense, to a company that is already ubiquitous. If you have posted a link with arm in some iceberg, then shame on you.

So now, with Sean showing that we don't need to have a strike vote to clear the decks and bring in a more hardnosed approach, we have turned this corner and can concentrate our efforts on real partners - those wanting to use akida in their products.

Akida 1 always had an ARM Cortex processor requiring a separate ARM licence.

 

[Iseki]

Akida 1 always had an ARM Cortex processor requiring a separate ARM licence.

And perhaps that's why we didn't make millions of them to sell at $15 each.

So you can see how hard it is to offer a chip that contains multiple party's IP. As you say, Brainchip couldn't even do it without Brainchip resolving the licensing of arm IP. And Arm won't do it. We know this because they haven't licensed akida IP.

So there is an issue that needs to be resolved. By the board.

The solution was that third parties Renesas and MegaChips might do it. We hoped one of these companies would go to the trouble the dual license of both arm and akida IP and manufacture a chip for clients.

When this didn't work, we manufactured some akida1500.

So where to now?

Suppose for a moment you are Samsung, and you'd like to use akida in all of your whitegoods, which can all network together in some way to make your homelife a dream. Who are you going to call? The minute you ask arm for a specialized arm chip, they'll add their NNP to that and give you a price. If they phone us, what can we say? It just blows everything out into the too hard basket. This is most likely the reson we have lost Stevens, Rob and Nandan...

If someone can solve this for BRN we can win the race.

 

[Diogenese]

If history is a guide I guess we can expect an increase leading up to the AGM followed by a deflation after.
Some would describe as a pump and dump.
I am hopeful that there will be "News" of sufficient calibre to sweep away any lingering negativity and rerate us, followed by a pipeline of success.
But, I am also mindful that "If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets."
Coming up to 9 years of waiting now, for me.

Hi Hoppy,

In that 9 years you've seen several changes of business model:

A. Software - Brainchip STUDIO;
B. Software plus hardware - Studio plus Brainchip Accelerator FPGA;
C. Digital SNN SoC - Akida 1 (with IP licence side order for big orders) (software relegated to giveaway tempter);
D. IP licence only;
E. IP licence with a little SoC on the side (Edge Box).
F. E plus Akida Gen 2 IP licence.

Software looks like a good model with zero manufacturing cost, but it is high maintenance and requires continual upgrading. Direct customer sales.

Chips offer a quick entry point, but have significant manufacturing costs. Sales to product manufacturers.

IP licensing is highest return but massive barrier to entry. Sales to chip makers or major retailers.

That's an average of 18 months per business model - difficult to get traction, but it was not because any of the products were duds. The whole area of tech has been in a state of flux, and, even though we have always been leading the field, to the uninformed observer it could give the appearance of chasing our own tail.

While the Edge Box will give customers an opportunity to experience Akida in the wild, with TeNNs we have extended our lead, hopefully sufficiently to allow enough time to finalize some major deals.

 

[HopalongPetrovski]

Hi Hoppy,

In that 9 years you've seen several changes of business model:

A. Software - Brainchip STUDIO;
B. Software plus hardware - Studio plus Brainchip Accelerator FPGA;
C. Digital SNN SoC - Akida 1 (with IP licence side order for big orders) (software relegated to giveaway tempter);
D. IP licence only;
E. IP licence with a little SoC on the side (Edge Box).
F. E plus Akida Gen 2 IP licence.

Software looks like a good model with zero manufacturing cost, but it is high maintenance and requires continual upgrading. Direct customer sales.

Chips offer a quick entry point, but have significant manufacturing costs. Sales to product manufacturers.

IP licensing is highest return but massive barrier to entry. Sales to chip makers or major retailers.

That's an average of 18 months per business model - difficult to get traction, but it was not because any of the products were duds. The whole area of tech has been in a state of flux, and, even though we have always been leading the field, to the uninformed observer, it could give the appearance of chasing our own tail.

While the Edge Box will give customers an opportunity to experience Akida in the wild, with TeNNs we have extended our lead, hopefully sufficiently to allow enough time to finalize some major deals.

Do you think the company is on the right track now Dio?
If you were on the board would you be advising anything different or in addition either technically or commercially?
I know that is not a fair question as you don’t currently have access to all of the information they do, but interested in your thoughts nonetheless, if you’d care to speculate.

 

[Damo4]

And perhaps that's why we didn't make millions of them to sell at $15 each.

So you can see how hard it is to offer a chip that contains multiple party's IP. As you say, Brainchip couldn't even do it without Brainchip resolving the licensing of arm IP. And Arm won't do it. We know this because they haven't licensed akida IP.

So there is an issue that needs to be resolved. By the board.

The solution was that third parties Renesas and MegaChips might do it. We hoped one of these companies would go to the trouble the dual license of both arm and akida IP and manufacture a chip for clients.

When this didn't work, we manufactured some akida1500.

So where to now?

Suppose for a moment you are Samsung, and you'd like to use akida in all of your whitegoods, which can all network together in some way to make your homelife a dream. Who are you going to call? The minute you ask arm for a specialized arm chip, they'll add their NNP to that and give you a price. If they phone us, what can we say? It just blows everything out into the too hard basket. This is most likely the reson we have lost Stevens, Rob and Nandan...

If someone can solve this for BRN we can win the race.

It's June already?

 

[Diogenese]

Do you think the company is on the right track now Dio?
If you were on the board would you be advising anything different or in addition either technically or commercially?
I know that is not a fair question as you don’t currently have access to all of the information they do, but interested in your thoughts nonetheless, if you’d care to speculate.

I've always been a fan of IP licensing, but, given we are trying to get a toehold in a highly competitive field, I felt the move to IP only was premature, given that we had a market-leading digital SNN SoC with on chip learning.

Edge Box does belatedly rectify that to a large extent in that it is plug-and-play, whereas a chip requires a sophisticated PCB assembly plant.

It is priced within the range of the hobbyist and tech savvy home owner and would be an insignificant cost to the proverbial local coffee shop - maybe 1 or 2 hours takings in the morning rush? It could well prove to be more popular than the PCIe board as it is much more powerful.

Given that we dropped manufacturing of Akida 2, there doesn't seem to be any plan to make an Akida 2 Edge Box in the near term, or at least not a public plan.

However, I believe that there is a pressing need to get Akida 2 silicon into the hands of potential customers, not least because of the LLM aspect*, and I'm sure that management understand this as well. So I would really like to know what is going on on that front. We have done the tapeout - I'm sure it's not sitting in Anil's bottom drawer.

*Late edition: ... and of course TeNNs which makes other NNs obsolete - well it does time-dependent data better than anything else.

 

[wilzy123]

It's June already?

Gacy so lazy it can't even hold itself accountable....

 

[Shadow59]

3 minute chart and buy / sell ratio are the best they've looked for a while. Hopefully we're looking at a good week

 

[7für7]

If history is a guide I guess we can expect an increase leading up to the AGM followed by a deflation after.
Some would describe as a pump and dump.
I am hopeful that there will be "News" of sufficient calibre to sweep away any lingering negativity and rerate us, followed by a pipeline of success.
But, I am also mindful that "If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets."
Coming up to 9 years of waiting now, for me.

Same thoughts.

 

[HopalongPetrovski]

I've always been a fan of IP licensing, but, given we are trying to get a toehold in a highly competitive field, I felt the move to IP only was premature, given that we had a market-leading digital SNN SoC with on chip learning.

Edge Box does belatedly rectify that to a large extent in that it is plug-and-play, whereas a chip requires a sophisticated PCB assembly plant.

It is priced within the range of the hobbyist and tech savvy home owner and would be an insignificant cost to the proverbial local coffee shop - maybe 1 or 2 hours takings in the morning rush? It could well prove to be more popular than the PCIe board as it is much more powerful.

Given that we dropped manufacturing of Akida 2, there doesn't seem to be any plan to make an Akida 2 Edge Box in the near term, or at least not a public plan.

However, I believe that there is a pressing need to get Akida 2 silicon into the hands of potential customers, not least because of the LLM aspect, and I'm sure that management understand this as well. So I would really like to know what is going on on that front. We have done the tapeout - I'm sure it's not sitting in Anil's bottom drawer.

Thank you very much for your reply.
Just two further queries if you're up for it.

Assuming we have a solid take-up of the existing Edge boxes would you say they would be the correct format for a generation 2 device or would you prefer another medium such as the previous FPGA boards or Raspberry PI sticks or something else again?

Also would a second generation device have to be factory preset at either the E, S or P setting or could it be left variable so that an end user could tune it as required to suit their application?
Sorry if these are dumb questions.

 

[DingoBorat]

Hi Hoppy,

In that 9 years you've seen several changes of business model:

A. Software - Brainchip STUDIO;
B. Software plus hardware - Studio plus Brainchip Accelerator FPGA;
C. Digital SNN SoC - Akida 1 (with IP licence side order for big orders) (software relegated to giveaway tempter);
D. IP licence only;
E. IP licence with a little SoC on the side (Edge Box).
F. E plus Akida Gen 2 IP licence.

Software looks like a good model with zero manufacturing cost, but it is high maintenance and requires continual upgrading. Direct customer sales.

Chips offer a quick entry point, but have significant manufacturing costs. Sales to product manufacturers.

IP licensing is highest return but massive barrier to entry. Sales to chip makers or major retailers.

That's an average of 18 months per business model - difficult to get traction, but it was not because any of the products were duds. The whole area of tech has been in a state of flux, and, even though we have always been leading the field, to the uninformed observer it could give the appearance of chasing our own tail.

While the Edge Box will give customers an opportunity to experience Akida in the wild, with TeNNs we have extended our lead, hopefully sufficiently to allow enough time to finalize some major deals.

Peter never had any intentions of BrainChip being a software Company.

Hardware neuromorphics, was always the end game.

So I don't think you can say that was ever really a "business model" as it was merely a stepping stone, which was unfortunately misplaced at the time and burnt up much resources and Time.

It really does feel to me though, that everything is happening on this journey, as it should.