How does a newly listed junior technology company based in Perth Western Australia attract the former global Vice President and Chief Product Officer of the giant Intel Corporation to Chair its board ?
Whilst the answer might become obvious with the passage of time, that is exactly what ASX listed Weebit-Nano have managed to do.
Former executive Vice President and Chief Product officer of Intel, David Perlmutter will make a whirlwind visit to Australia next week in his capacity as Chairman of Weebit to talk up the company’s prospects in a series of investor meetings across the country.
The company said on Tuesday that Perlmutter, who had a 34-year tenure at Intel and was directly responsible for developing several of its major technology products, would touch down on November 28th on a four day visit, with stops in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. He is also scheduled to present at the company’s annual general meeting, management said.
Perlmutter spearheaded many breakthroughs during his time at Intel, which is recognised as the leading provider of semiconductor chips and platforms for the global digital economy. During his tenure, Perlmutter saw Intel's business grow from $US35 billion in 2008 to more than $US50 billion.
His visit down under comes after he joined the Weebit board as a non-executive director in April and was named Chairman in May. He is currently a managing general partner at Eucalyptus Growth Capital, a firm that focuses on investment in late stage Israeli tech firms.
Perlmutter’s visit comes at an exciting time for Weebit after the company earlier this month announced significant progress on its potentially game-changing memory storage technology known as “ReRAM”.
The company said it had successfully transferred its technology from Rice University in the US to its French commercialization partner, leading microelectronics research institute, Leti.
Leti said it had managed to re-produce Weebit’s silicone oxide based, amazingly fast computer memory in its commercial facility in France, representing a major leap forward for the technology that had previously only been produced in a laboratory environment.
Weebit, who completed a reverse takeover of Perth-based explorer Radar Iron earlier in 2016 to list on the ASX, says ReRAM is about 1000 times faster and 1000 times more energy efficient than traditional forms of “flash” memory that is typically found in lap-tops, USB’s, mobile phones and data centres.
The company says a major plus of its ReRAM memory storage is that it can be made using silicon-oxide, a material already commonly used by semi-conductor manufacturers which means they will not have to re-tool their production lines to make the switch to Weebit’s technology.
Intel is credited with creating the world’s first computer microprocessor chip in 1971and they really hit their straps in the 1990’s when it seemed that nobody would buy a computer unless it carried an Intel chip.
Perlmutter’s involvement with Weebit is curious and augers well for the junior tech company whos shares are currently trading at just a little over 3c each.
By Matt Birney
