Yesterday Crocus has announced a new CEO (Dr. Bertrand F. Cambou) and an 8 million euro investment. Last year we spoke with their previous CEO (Jean-Pierre Braun), and now Dr. Bertrand was kind enough to answer a few questions we had.
Q: The original plan was to release products towards the end of 2009. What's the new target date?
End of 2010 for sampling, mid 2011 for revenue.
Q: Can you tell us a bit more about these products?
At first it will be NV-SRAM 1Mbit. Then we will expand to a family 256Kb-4Mb. We will price it at market price.
Q: When we talked to Jean-Pierre, he estimated the applying the technology for STT-RAM (in 45-60nm) will take at least 4-5 years. What's your view on that?
In my view point the current technology has leg, and will be integrated into CMOS logic all the way to 45nm. STT-TAS will take the relay at 32nm and under within 4-5 years.
Q: Where does he see Crocus' products used in the first few years?
Beside NV-SRAM, Crocus technology should be integrated into logic for embedding memory (replacing SRAM & Flash) into MCU. There is also the opportunity to replace the fuse on SRAM based FPGA to offer re-programable FPGA.
Q: Will Crocus require another round of finance, or do you hope that you can break-even soon?
We will look at strategic corporate partners interested by Crocus technology: NRE/ advance payment on Royalties/ low dilution.....
Dr. Bertrand - thanks again for answering our questions... good luck to both you and Crocus!