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Technology Stocks : VALENCE TECHNOLOGY (VLNC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: P. Ramamoorthy who wrote (19803)	5/18/2000 1:07:00 AM
From: P. Ramamoorthy	Respond to of 27311

Error: Re.: "...They are looking into pacemakers or watches, for now...." should read They are not looking into pacemakers or watches, for now. Ram

To: P. Ramamoorthy who wrote (19803)	5/18/2000 2:07:00 AM
From: Rich Wolf	Respond to of 27311

Ram, great notes, they match mine. One minor correction regarding the run rates you quoted, and the 'usual' confusion regarding bicells/cells/batteries: <Laptop PC battery size cells, 4x4x1 mm or 4X5x1 mm, at 24 cells/min on Klockner or 8 meter/min. It takes 6 cells per laptop battery - a production rate of 4 laptop batteries/min on Klockner. On Fable line - the new machine - can run a minimum of 160 cells/min of 4x4mmx1mm size. It will make any size from 4 mm x 8 mm or any combination.> The 'correction' is that the fundamental 'cell' is perhaps more clearly referred to as a 'bicell.' There are a variable number of 'bicells' stacked up and packaged together, electrically connected in parallel, to form a single cell. E.g., the 'standard' 4"x4"x4mm 'cell' is a stack of 4 of the bicells. Also, the 'cell' is the entity that Valence sells to the customer. A 'cell' can be referred to as a 'battery,' and for this chemistry has a fundamental voltage of 3.8volts. Some applications may require different voltages, hence a different number of 'cells' electrically connected in series; e.g., some cellphones only need 3.8v, some need 7.6v... some were designed in between (based on other battery voltages, initially)... but voltage regulators can cut that down. OT, this is not necessarily 'efficient,' as passive regulators waste the excess power; active regulators can do a better job but are more complicated. Laptops may require 3 or 4 of the Valence cells be connected in series, and it is usually the size and power requirements of the display that determine this. E.g., the big power hogs are the 15" active matrix displays that need over 14 volts... Hence would require 4 valence cells in series, e.g. The end customer would package 3, 4, or 6 Valence cells together in one unit and refer to that assembly as a 'battery' for their product. Now, the 24 bicells/minute rate of the Klockner would yield 6 of the 4"x4"x4mm (= stack of 4 bicells packaged together) cells, per minute... and a customer might use 4 or 6 of these to comprise the battery assembly for a single computer. 6 of the current 4"x4"x4mm cells would provide close to 90 watt-hours of capacity, for a single laptop. For reference, the high-end Dell Inspiron 7500 has space for two 79 watt-hour bricks with 130 wh/kg density specs (Valence quotes about 150 wh/kg for current gen 2, according to the conf call), when the cd-rom is replaced by the second brick battery. Runs about 8 hours on this 158 watt-hour combo, in high-consumption mode, according to PC week tests. Could probably run 8 or more hours on only one of the 79 watt-hour batteries, if one is just doing word processing. By extension, would run in the 8-10 hour range on the Valence 6-cell (24 bicell) 'battery' arrangement. The difference is, if the laptop were designed around the Valence batteries, it could be designed to be as little as 5/8" thick, and still have this run time. Conversely, the lithium-ion brick batteries themselves are thicker than this... hence the Dell Inspiron is almost 2" thick. Make liquid-electrolyte lithium-ion cells as thin as 4mm and the energy density goes to hell, you're lucky to get over 100 wh/kg. Also, Valence cells need no safety systems... But I digress... the point was that the Klockner can make 24 bicells/min... but that is just 6 cells/min if they are the standard 4mm thick cells... and this is really equal to ONE 90 watt-hour LAPTOP BATTERY per minute. Now, at 3 dollars per watt-hour pricing, that adds up quickly... Thanks again for the time you spent constructing your post. All the best, Rich

To: P. Ramamoorthy who wrote (19803)	5/18/2000 3:08:00 AM
From: Tickertype	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27311

Good summary, Ram. Incidentally, the cc is still available for replay on VCall. It sounds like things are moving quite rapidly now on the licensing front. Among other things, Lev said they're getting ready to license their powders to competitors, and will be making film available to the general polymer battery industry at prices below what anyone else's cost would be. I was also intrigued by the comment that some re-packagers such as Micro Power out of Portland, OR, are receiving cells and making batteries, including 4 X 4's, with control electronics, which they supply to all comers. Apparently these serve some fringe applications which Valence does not want to deal with directly at this point, but could amount to fairly good volume in Lev's view. Maybe these are some of the backlog orders that haven't been announced due to uncertainties regarding their eventual size, etc. - T -

To: P. Ramamoorthy who wrote (19803)	5/18/2000 8:19:00 AM
From: John Curtis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27311

Ram: Great notes!! If I can add one elaboration, and it's about the VLNC imposed failure recharge rate of 80%. If my rock-n-roll ears heard him correctly, that 80% recharge rate was a line in the sand drawn by VLNC which they use to say..."Okay..the battery's only holding 80% of charge...we consider it to have failed..." The key here was this 80% of recharge failure was only being hit AFTER THE BATTERY HAD BEEN CYCLED 1000 TIMES!! So....if I heard this correctly, using a very conservative figure of 1 cycle per day this battery could last for over 3 years before it's ability to only hold an 80% recharge rate was hit! I'd say, based on personal experiences with rechargeables...that this is a significant thing, eh? Now let's see how VLNC, and the market, does today. John~