Jim Keller leaves AMD

[dark zero]

I am truly astonished that Keller's departure is being spun as positive by some. Mind. Blown.

Yeah, is good to see Keller leaving AMD since it means that AMD is dead and is not worthy their salvation. So, we must live without them now and start to save money again like old times while seeing the i7's going up to 500 dollar tier and the i5 to 300 dollar tier.

 

[Azix]

Keller's previous stint at AMD was even shorter (1998-1999), and as we all know K8 turned out to be a huge failure, oh wait...

Seriously now, it's very likely that Zen won't be enough to save AMD, but I don't see this departure as any proof of Zen's failure.

It will depend on the consumers. Intel likely still has the OEMs in their pocket. Some won't want to switch and take the risks. AMD needs to have strong products in important markets and then get the OEMs to use its products.

Seems they could have something with Apple using their products. Expand on that next year to make their products look better.

AMDs problem will be mostly convincing people. Even when they are the better choice in most GPU segments they could not. We could see similar next year if Zen is actually faster though I think it's less likely. A CPU does not carry the same issues GPUs do (PCB build quality, AIB partners, designs etc)

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Is this really a shock? Honestly....

Jim Keller worked for DEC in 1998. Then he hopped over to AMD and only worked there for a year. He then quit at AMD to work for SiByte. SiByte was purchased by Broadcom, so he moved over to Broadcom until 2004. He quit Broadcom in 2004 to work for P.A. Semi. P.A. Semi got bought by Apple -- so he moved over to Apple. He then quit Apple in 2012 and moved back to AMD.

So yeah.... Totally shocked / (sarcasm off) / That he's gone job hopping again. Because his resume totally looks so stable.

 

[IEC]

Is this really a shock? Honestly....

Jim Keller worked for DEC in 1998. Then he hopped over to AMD and only worked there for a year. He then quit at AMD to work for SiByte. SiByte was purchased by Broadcom, so he moved over to Broadcom until 2004. He quit Broadcom in 2004 to work for P.A. Semi. P.A. Semi got bought by Apple -- so he moved over to Apple. He then quit Apple in 2012 and moved back to AMD.

So yeah.... Totally shocked / (sarcasm off) / That he's gone job hopping again. Because his resume totally looks so stable.

It's obvious he enjoys taking on a challenge and then moving on to the next challenge.

Whether Zen will bring parity in performance or not is questionable, but if it has compelling performance (and more cores) I would be very interested.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Yea, they hired this magical CPU designer to reverse engineer Intel's CPUs. That really makes a lot of sense. It is the antithesis of everything Keller is supposed to do.

They can make similar changes but using somewhat different solutions where appropriate. The changes Intel has made 3-6 years ago are well known. So now that AMD has the opportunity of a completely new uArch with Zen, they can pick and choose the best from Intel, and AMD's previous small and big cores.

It's obvious you copy ("get heavily inspired by" ) competitors if they've done something good. It's standard practise in the tech industry. That does not mean you have to copy everything.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Either Zen is a dud and Keller was let go, or AMD wasn't offering him enough compensation/future prospects to keep him on board.

I suspect compensation was an issue. They don't have a lot of money to throw around right now, and they won't for the foreseeable future.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

I suspect compensation was an issue. They don't have a lot of money to throw around right now, and they won't for the foreseeable future.

I think money was the major issue IMO. Keller is a specialist.... Regular engineers can handle revisions and optimizations (for the next-gen Zen+), but they definitely needed someone like Keller to design the brand new architecture.

You can see what "regular" engineers managed to design with the clean sheet Bulldozer. Considering Keller stayed 3 years versus the 1 year he worked for AMD previously, I'd imagine he left on good terms.

Zen is taping out now -- so the architecture is done. It would have been awesome if he stayed on for Zen+, but it's probably not interesting to him.... He likes clean sheet approaches versus revised products.

 

[erunion]

Interesting that K12 hasn't been brought up as a reason for him to stay at AMD.

 

[Fjodor2001]

I suspect compensation was an issue. They don't have a lot of money to throw around right now, and they won't for the foreseeable future.

Can he really earn that much that it would have an impact on AMD's total R&D budget? Are we talking tens of millions per year!?

 

[CHADBOGA]

Interesting that K12 hasn't been brought up as a reason for him to stay at AMD.

If ever a product/project was to never see the light of day, it was K12.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Can he really earn that much that it would have an impact on AMD's total R&D budget? Are we talking tens of millions per year!?

As a Corporate VP? Not a chance. He probably cost the company no more than $1 mil/year including benefits, and I think this is a pretty generous upper bound.

 

[Fjodor2001]

As a Corporate VP? Not a chance. He probably cost the company no more than $1 mil/year including benefits, and I think this is a pretty generous upper bound.

Ok. Then the reason he left could not be that he had a too high salary so that AMD could not afford to keep him.

 

[Dresdenboy]

Zen is taping out now -- so the architecture is done. It would have been awesome if he stayed on for Zen+, but it's probably not interesting to him.... He likes clean sheet approaches versus revised products.

He should already have learned about the performance of items of the Zen families feature roadmap by seeing cycle exact uarch simulation results (error is <5% usually). So if he was in charge of making decisions or give a vote at specific levels, he'd done that already. But as it sounded, he's important to build the team to bring the new uarch to life. Often it just needs the right spirit and motivation among the team members, not just money or interesting but difficult tasks.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Ok. Then the reason he left could not be that he had a too high salary so that AMD could not afford to keep him.

That would be my opinion, too, yes.

 

[ThatBuzzkiller]

Nothing to really worry about ...

Going by some of the former technical staffs thoughts, the job culture is hardly ever an issue so I doubt he quit because of the working environment ...

The management maybe dodgy at times but I highly doubt they would fire him out of the blue with his track record ...

It sounded like he was on a contract rather than holding an indefinite position going by his history ...

 

[Zor Prime]

I would imagine Keller completed what he was paid to do and is off to other things.

If AMD thinks they need his help with another architecture, they might just give him another ring down the road.

 

[Rvenger]

I am truly astonished that Keller's departure is being spun as positive by some. Mind. Blown.

Do you really think that in the three years he has worked there he has kept to himself on all the projects? I assure you he melded at least two of those junior engineers to being successful in the future. That's how it works, Jim will retire and his skills passed on to another successor.

If Zen is a failure, we will know soon enough.

 

[hungtran]

He's "looking for other opportunities", so I don't think retirement is in the cards.

 

[Arachnotronic]

He's "looking for other opportunities", so I don't think retirement is in the cards.

Yeah. So he's not retired and probably not poached. The IDC/Phynaz hypothesis that he was told to hit the bricks is looking more plausible by the minute.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Can he really earn that much that it would have an impact on AMD's total R&D budget? Are we talking tens of millions per year!?

In a company that has negative cash flow, any salary is too high. Why else do you think they cut so many people at the end of last year?

He, and the rest of AMD's engineers, are looking at a 0-raise situation. There is no future prospect for higher pay until AMD rights the ship.

 

[hungtran]

I think he just quit to be in a better situation. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/20/jim_keller_quits_amd/

 

[mrmt]

In a company that has negative cash flow, any salary is too high. Why else do you think they cut so many people at the end of last year?

He, and the rest of AMD's engineers, are looking at a 0-raise situation. There is no future prospect for higher pay until AMD rights the ship.

That dire situation didn't prevent AMD BoD to give heavy pay rises for themselves. AMD BoD received 75% of the money Intel BoD gets in annual compensation, but they are not even close to give 75% of what Intel BoD gives to their shareholders.

 

[Rvenger]

He's "looking for other opportunities", so I don't think retirement is in the cards.

I really wasn't implying he retired. He will retire sooner or later but I was trying to say that he probably had a strong influence on the other engineers that are much younger than he is.

 

[Tsavo]

Rumor has it that he left to go to a company with a much brighter future and has more R&D money than AMD.

The question is, how well will he do at VIA?

 

[eton975]

Rumor has it that he left to go to a company with a much brighter future and has more R&D money than AMD.

The question is, how well will he do at VIA?

Fell off my chair laughing. Brilliant, +1.