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Ivor Catt, 121 Westfields, St. Albans AL3 4JR
23feb94 Kernel
Commitment to a further expenditure of any amount up to about £6,000 is required by 19 March 94 in order to cover the cost of translation of the European patent into various European languages and filing in the various countries. Without this spend, the European patent will only have force in Britain (£65). Each other country; Austria £1,000; France £800; Netherlands £850; Belgium £400; Italy £800; Sweden £1,000; Germany £1200, costs the further amount listed, total £6,000 approx. Whether I can justify this expenditure depends on the evidence of support, so I am sending this report to those closely associated with Kernel over the years. Possible methods of showing support.
My feeling today is that in the absence of support, I am willing to pay the further £1,265 to secure Britain and Germany. At that point the patent cover will be the same as that for Catt Spiral, which later attracted a total financial investment of £16 millions, and led to a product coming to market 17 years after I patented the idea! It is obvious that if that is the past climate of large scale (although late) investment in my ideas, it would be ridiculous if only Britain and Germany were covered in Europe. However, I fear that that is likely to be the case, because of the propensity of money sources to input vast amounts at later stages although incapable of inputting the seedcorn. However, I fervently hope that this time things will be different. (It was particularly ridiculous that Anamartic PLC, set up to develop my old invention Spiral, even while paying me a substantial retainer, spent no money whatsoever on securing or helping to patent my new patent Kernel, which obsoleted Spiral!) Money spent by me so far on patenting Kernel round the world is £10,000. I look forward to your reply. Ivor Catt
An opportunity exists for the formation of an international scientific and commercial computing company based on advanced and highly competitive technology. The business plan calls for a three stage investment of £0.5m, £8m and £12m respectively. Sales and licensing of technology and know-how will reach £240m within 5 years of the commencement of stage two with a pre-tax profit of £42m. Patents for this technology have already been granted in all major countries. Markets The scientific computing market, which is currently some $2.4 billion world-wide, was growing at a rate of 20% up to 1991 and is still growing at 14% per annum. The commercial market for powerful computers with the capability to perform large and complex commercial operations at very fast speeds is approximately $8 billion. The growth rate in this sector is currently 8% per annum. The scientific market has a more stable growth pattern than the commercial market, with less overlap from the wide range of vendors in the types of computers available for sale. The scientific market can be segmented by processing and by application area. There are two fundamentally different methods of computing: large, single processing engines performing single tasks one at a time, and parallel systems where there is an array of smaller engines that perform a series of tasks independently of each other until they are brought together by some management mechanism to give a result. The scientific market's major application areas are: Scientific and Engineering Computing ("SEC"); Signal and Image Processing ("SIP"); and Artificial Intelligence ("AI"). All require highly intensive mathematical processing capability to be useful. In the commercial world there are a number of application areas where the application of very fast numerical processing is extremely useful. These applications are: Relational Database Management Systems ("RDBMS"); and On-Line Information Processing ("OLIP"). Advances in technology have tended to afford opportunities for new companies to emerge as older ones tend to protect their existing investment and are slower to respond to market forces. Digital Equipment lost a great deal of market share to Sun when they introduced their work-station based on SPARC technology. Digital have now responded with their Alpha systems. At the same time, Meiko, a spin-off from INMOS, have made inroads in the scientific market by exploiting their innovative parallel technology computers. As the limits of physical performance are now in sight for semiconductors, the next level of performance will be achieved by applying an array of processors to a particular task. The general concepts to achieve this have been proven by computer architectures like the transputer used by Meiko. However, to achieve even better price/performance ratios the architecture needs to be flexible enough to use any one of a number of computer processor types. Having proven the technology and its ability to be applied to specific operational areas, the company will set to licence the technology within these application areas. The company will also develop intermediate and peripheral products on its route to the major goal, that of a parallel processing super-computer using patented technology. Technology The concept of the Catt Spiral was developed by Ivor Catt, who then took out a series of patents 20 years ago to protect his invention. The original ideas were utilised by Anamartic PLC in their development of a parallel processing computer. Since that time the technology has been enhanced to create the "Kernel" concept, for which patents were granted in 1988. Project Phases Phase 1 will utilise a core team to complete the development of an SIP computer unit. This will prove conclusively how the technology will operate in practice. It will also provide the basic framework for a product saleable both as an "accelerator card" for inexpensive, industry-standard, computers; and a licensable technology for computer manufacturers. Pre-selling and pre-licensing of the products will begin. Phase 2 will involve extending the technology to create larger arrays of processing units. It will also involve the writing and/or transposing of software so that it will operate within target application areas. Delivery of technology, know-how and product will commence during this phase. Phase 3 will be the full production phase requiring the establishment of dedicated facilities and personnel to perform this task. During the first two quarters of this phase construction of the first large scale super-computer will take place. Finance In common with all companies first entering a high technology market this company will make a loss during the initial stages. The various stages of product development will be interposed with the marketing of that development. It is anticipated that this will reduce the negative cash flow impact inherent in an R&D environment. Industry norms have been applied to the cost of sales, marketing and administration expenditures, and to the capital costs. Management The initial technical team will be small in number and focused on a specific implementation of the technology. All have proven track records in the creation and implementation of new technology. Their skills dovetail neatly to cover development and application of the processing concepts within a silicon wafer, the design and development of the supporting architecture, and the writing of the operating software necessary to control the various functions. During Phase 1 the role of Managing Director and Sales & Marketing Director will be undertaken by one person. Overheads will be kept to a minimum by sub-contracting tasks that cannot be undertaken by the team. During Phase 2 the technical and commercial teams will be expanded. Key people possessing the skills and experience required have been identified for this expansion. Written by Ged Pearson, feb94. 56 Halford St., Leicester LE1 1TQ, tel 0533 625062
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