7. Research & Development
We had tried several different really intricate and speculative designs for 2014, based on the assumption being competitive in a fully saturated market (average return rate getting close to normal business' single digits per year). but originally with a limited channel/staff, it can be very difficult to fully explore them. So, we conducted interviews, and recently identified several exceptional people.

We will be spreading design risk by working on several designs simultaneously and having all other designs' info/simulation results fed back to the main design process. Our designs changed aggressively and the expected successful rate (on a working mask) drops compared to the standard flow so it has to be fully (wave-level) simulated before fabrication.

8. Financial Report
The next official ASICMINER Financial Report is scheduled to be released on October 20s. We had been in the process of accumulating reserves for a two-year-based small lab (all salaries) and a full mask cost for 40nm for one month. Additional income may be reserved for other chip advancements.