As I was putting together the OFC Report, I saw a story full of intrigue unfolding and thought it was important to address that separatly, before the full report on the OFC Show at large  Intrigue in the full report as well, but it won't be ready for a few days because of travel and my schedule.  Most of you know the parts to this story already, but some may not have put them together yet

First of all, I, like our friend oz4, I see now Rockley Photonics as a competitor of POET's.  The two Chinese powerhouse Optical Communications Companies, Accelink, and Hengtong, are both trying to capture market share by partnering with a smaller more nimble firm with the optoelectronic technology they think will propell them, ie, POET, the former, and Rockley Photonics, the latter.  Hengtong has a market cap of 52.46 Billion (CNY), and Accelink has a market cap of 17.77 Billion (CNY).   Although a larger firm, Hengtong has the majority of it's business in the manufacturing of Fiberoptics cable, they do manufacture some opto-electronics too. They have allocated approx. 45 million (CNY) (1st round) to Rockley Photonics to research and develop transceivers, their answer to the data flow bottleneck in data centers.(I think funding for Rockley has increased to about 100 million now)  

Accelink, short for Acceleration, and from their website:  "is mainly engaged in the development and manufacture of optoelectronic devices in the field of optical communications . It is a company capable of systematically and strategically researching and developing optoelectronic devices. high-tech enterprises, but also one with enterprise optoelectronic device chip key technologies and mass production capability." 

The Rockley deal:  http://www.gazettabyte.com/home/2018/2/24/rockley-photonics-eyes-multiple-markets.html gives the 45+ million to Rockely Photonics, to R&D (figure-out how to make) the transceivers Hengtong wants, and when they do, Rockley gives the design to Hengtong.  I interpret design to mean the IP. 

In POET's MOU with Accelink, POET co-develops a family of transceivers for Accelink, but is to retain the IP regarding the transceivers.  POET is to manufacture transceivers and sell them to Accelink under whatever exclusivity agreement the MOU and further negotiations provide for.

It seems very interesting to me.  The datacenters who need these products have billions of dollars invested in having the data flow smoothly and swiftly.  But data volumes are growing exponentially.  In their current state, they can't keep up at the speeds required and need an answer.  One or both of these smaller companies can be the answer.  If both, one will be better.  The best will go on to reap substantial financial gain and reduce energy costs on an order of magnitude.

We haven't heard specifics (at least I haven't) regarding Rockley's approach to its transceivers.  We do know Hengtong will assist in the R&D as it is needed to make their transceivier operational.  POET has announced its waveguides at a 10x performance improvement in the optical loss than those publically disclosed at PIC, and the waveguide stack optical transmission virtually loss-less.  The POET interposer has been described by Dr Ben Chen (Accelink) a step-change advancement for gaining lower cost of integration and offering a superior method of scale-up to the higher data rates demanded by customers.  Based upon the information above, to this writer, POET seems to have the inside track.  From the informtion I was able to gather, Rockley's product needs to be developed before it is testable.  POET has a sample(s) or prototype(s) with stellar test results. Like I always say, First to Market combined with Stellar Test Results increase odds for success in Market.  Opinions expressed above are just that, my opinions, based on Company issued information, in this case both companies' issued information, and there is no other information that I know of to base any other conclusions. If I have any inaccuracies above please point them out to me so I can correct them.  I do want to be accurate.  In the mean time, the OFC Report will be forthcoming.  Cheers & GLTL   Bt  :)