Jim Keller leaves AMD

[mnewsham]

http://hexus.net/tech/news/cpu/86585-legendary-cpu-architect-jim-keller-leaves-amd/


waiting for more sources to confirm, but if true that's a pretty big blow to AMD.

Bloomberg seeming to confirm

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...t-keller-leaves-to-pursue-other-opportunities


Anandtech
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9643/jim-keller-leaves-amd

 

[ShintaiDK]

The god himself who was to singlehandedly to save AMD with Zen and K12?

Says a lot about those products.

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah... when your PR guy has to make a statement saying that the leaving of one engineer isn't going to impact the release of a product line, you KNOW that he was important.

 

[Zodiark1593]

He did come back from Apple. It's quite likely this was just a temporary contract, IE AMD knew they would lose him at a predetermined date or upon completion of certain project(s).

 

[Sweepr]

Comparing this thread's posts to the one after his return to AMD back will be fun.

 

[Edgemeal]

My guess is he had a 3 year contract (he was hired around Sept 2012), AMD got all they needed from him and/or couldn't afford to keep him on.

Wouldn't the Zen arch be done by now anyhow?

 

[Arachnotronic]

LOL! This guy was telling people at AMD's "Core Innovation Day" that people who want to work on cutting edge CPUs should work at AMD.

Guess he's not really interested in eating his own dogfood.

 

[AtenRa]

Lets see who's next

 

[Arachnotronic]

Lets see who's next

Well the dude next to Keller is ARM's CEO, so it's really a question of Papermaster or Su.

I think that Papermaster will be the next to leave; Su will probably go down with the ship.

 

[Mondozei]

Well the dude next to Keller is ARM's CEO, so it's really a question of Papermaster or Su.

I think that Papermaster will be the next to leave; Su will probably go down with the ship.

I'm betting on the opposite. Papermaster isn't a company hopper. He was with IBM for 26 years and is already racking up 8 with AMD. Lisa Su's been with AMD just three short years.

I'm guessing she's pushing for a successful exit right now(however you want to define that), gets a golden parachute and off she goes.

 

[dark zero]

RIP AMD, now the rumors says that Su is about to leave AMD for real...
I am starting to doubt that AMD will survive past Zen and Artic Islands...

And without AMD is likely to see another notable increase from Intel processors (Celeron at i3 prices, yeah!) since VIA chips are crappy expensive too and ARM are hella weak or hella expensive too.

 

[Elixer]

My guess is he had a 3 year contract (he was hired around Sept 2012), AMD got all they needed from him and/or couldn't afford to keep him on.

Wouldn't the Zen arch be done by now anyhow?

I tend to think this as well...or he got mad at the direction the company was headed.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Keller is not somebody who is there because he "needs the money." He seems to be somebody who genuinely enjoys what he does.

His departure signals that he no longer enjoyed his work at AMD.

I expect to see him pop up at Intel, Qualcomm, or Apple.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Welcome to Bulldozer 2.0

 

[ShintaiDK]

My guess is Lisa Su next with the golden parachute. And I guess it will happen shortly after or before a quarter result.

 

[shady28]

I'm betting on the opposite. Papermaster isn't a company hopper. He was with IBM for 26 years and is already racking up 8 with AMD. Lisa Su's been with AMD just three short years.

I'm guessing she's pushing for a successful exit right now(however you want to define that), gets a golden parachute and off she goes.

Papermaster has only been with AMD since 2011. He spent 2 years at Apple, and 1 year at Cisco before joining AMD (before that he was with IBM).

There might be a connection between Keller and Papermaster given they were both at Apple. Various news outlets are stating Papermaster is stepping into Keller's shoes....

 

[dark zero]

Keller is not somebody who is there because he "needs the money." He seems to be somebody who genuinely enjoys what he does.

His departure signals that he no longer enjoyed his work at AMD.

I expect to see him pop up at Intel, Qualcomm, or Apple.

Expect Apple. They want hardly AMD GPU so hard... If that happens, expect Intel buying NVIDIA for good.

 

[VR Enthusiast]

Keller is one of those guys who never stays anywhere for long. This has nothing to do with Zen - he was brought in to do a job and he completed that job. AMD doesn't have Zen silicon in their hands yet so claims of another bulldozer disaster is just FUD.

It's probable that he cost AMD a lot of money on the wage bill so a mutual agreement was reached to let him go and do something new.

 

[desprado]

It is now the time to say that RIP AMD CPU division.Even AMD knows they can never win or even compete with Intel ever again.

 

[BigDaveX]

Are AMD even likely to be far along enough in Zen's production that they'd be able to tell whether or not it's gonna be a flop? IIRC, most of the high-profile departures related to Bulldozer and the original Phenom happened fairly close to the launch of those chips.

 

[tential]

LOL! This guy was telling people at AMD's "Core Innovation Day" that people who want to work on cutting edge CPUs should work at AMD.

Guess he's not really interested in eating his own dogfood.

I mean, I was willing to work for them, when I was desperate for work lol. Now I wouldn't at all. I hate companies that lose consistently when they don't actually have to.

 

[Despoiler]

You guys are all ridiculous. Jim Keller is an engineer that likes challenges. He was brought in to design a CPU. He did that. He leaves. That's what he does. By the doom and gloom logic being put out, Apple's SoCs should no longer be competitive because he left.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Are AMD even likely to be far along enough in Zen's production that they'd be able to tell whether or not it's gonna be a flop? IIRC, most of the high-profile departures related to Bulldozer and the original Phenom happened fairly close to the launch of those chips.

Its around this period. When they got the first real silicon back.

 

[hungtran]

What's your argument? That he was let go because his silicon came back and it was disappointing? Wouldn't that be more reason to keep him to correct the issues? If on the other hand, you're arguing he left because the performance was disappointing, then wouldn't it be all the more reason for him to stay to fix the issues since he is the lead on the design and the design is his legacy? More likely AMD is deciding to get out of the PC business, whether that's their choice or those of a potential acquirer, we don't know.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yea, I dont think anybody outside of Keller himself and AMD really knows what this means. Why he is leaving is critical.

Perhaps he was just hired on a short term basis or Zen is completed and going well and he wants to move on to other challenges.

OTOH, it could mean exactly the opposite: Zen is not going well, not enough resources are available, or he clashed with top management. I think only Keller and AMD insiders know the whole story.