Really, I didn't realize you were a computer scientist and knew the evolutionary development span of new technology...we should've been going to you for information all along.
But seriously Steve, this is something the NO ONE has been able to do before POET...no one has been able to make a chip that worked on GaA's and lased at the same time...so to suggest this is a better mousetrap is rather understating the facts.
What I was suggesting in the last sentence was that the incentive for POET was always to come up with a working prototype of the POET system, which would eventually be commercialized. There is some evidence the POET is flying in space today, although we won't know that for a long time, if ever. The incentive was to have the military prove that it works, and then POET would be allowed to commercialize.
You, and I, and many others here were just too early and have had to wait much longer than we ever imagined, because, computer science is not as easy as it looks....but then again, as a computer scientist you already know that.
:)