Raja Koduri Heads up Graphics division again

[Elixer]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9612/...ion-radeon-whole-once-more-led-by-raja-koduri

As for the Radeon Technologies Group’s immediate future, it will be interesting to see how long it takes the reorganization and Raja’s promotion to have a visible impact. When Raja first came back to AMD it was to take on hardware and software, the technical aspects of the graphics business where development is measured in years. However the rest of the graphics business that now falls under Raja’s control – the PR, the marketing, etc – operates on much smaller time scales and should be easier to change. What those changes are remains to be seen, but I’m hopeful that we’re going to see the first fruits of this change in time for the expected 2016 launch of AMD’s next-generation FinFET-based GPUs. The hardware will have been locked in for some time now, but Raja will have ample leverage to now change how AMD handles the launch of the hardware.

 

[Yuriman]

"Let's move graphics back together, so it's easier to sell or break off from the CPU division."

 

[.vodka]

If they were to eventually spin off the GPU division, would the ATi brand be resurrected?

 

[n0x1ous]

Looks like Matt Skynner wont survive this reorganization. He's been with them forever way back into the ATI days....too bad.

 

[Skurge]

Maybe he can fix the terrible PR department. The engineering talent is there at AMD. They just need to be directed better.

 

[3DVagabond]

Maybe he can fix the terrible PR department. The engineering talent is there at AMD. They just need to be directed better.

He's got more important things to do than to deal with PR, the Richard Huddy's of the company. There just doesn't seem to be a concrete direction with their PR to get the message out. What they did with Mantle was well organized. The world got the msg. There's always a few thick ones or people with agendas, but you can't control that.

 

[senseamp]

I think this is a good move for them to eventually spin off ATI. This is a case of the sum of the pieces being bigger than the whole, because the whole is a lot to chew on for many potential suitors who may be interested in the parts. There really aren't as many synergies from the merger as they thought there would be. The APUs would suck just as much with Power VR GPU cores or with licensed ATI GPU cores. And discrete GPUs aren't really benefiting from having a CPU team in house.

 

[3DVagabond]

I think this is a good move for them to eventually spin off ATI. This is a case of the sum of the pieces being bigger than the whole, because the whole is a lot to chew on for many potential suitors who may be interested in the parts. There really aren't as many synergies from the merger as they thought there would be. The APUs would suck just as much with Power VR GPU cores or with licensed ATI GPU cores. And discrete GPUs aren't really benefiting from having a CPU team in house.

AMD still has product in the pipeline that uses GPU's.

 

[AtenRa]

Selling the Graphics part of AMD will hurt both the CPU and GPU divisions.

Today that Fusion HAS become the future, more than 60-70% of AMDs products are APUs. I dont believe anyone at AMD even thinking of selling the GPU division.

 

[raghu78]

Selling the Graphics part of AMD will hurt both the CPU and GPU divisions.

Today that Fusion HAS become the future, more than 60-70% of AMDs products are APUs. I dont believe anyone at AMD even thinking of selling the GPU division.

exactly. AMD's primary revenue/profit generating business today is the console APUs and they need both CPU and GPU IP. So its ridiculous to think AMD will sell the GPU division. Whoever buys AMD will buy them as a whole after negotiating a broad x86 / x86-64 cross licensing agreement where both sides don't pay each other anything. The company which buys AMD will definitely use FTC and US government to get Intel to play nice.

 

[jpiniero]

Selling the Graphics part of AMD will hurt both the CPU and GPU divisions.

The CPU business is worthless. They are selling Radeon is so they can keep the company going for a couple extra months. There are several ways AMD could have played it, but it appears that they are doing whatever they can to keep it from the inevitable bankrupcy even it kills any possibility of a post-bankruptcy future. Why? Because the AMD Execs like getting paid.

 

[senseamp]

They can spin off the GPU division and license the GPU core from it for AMD's APUs. Or they can license a PowerVR or ARM Mali core if those are better for the application. Whoever gives them the best part on best terms. And they can pay per unit sold, not a huge fixed cost of keeping a graphics division in house, so even if their CPU sales are crappy, they could be profitable at a lower volume.
But also from a company sale point of view, it's easier to sell peanut butter and jelly separately than premixed "Fusion" PB&J.

 

[thilanliyan]

Man I really hope ATI goes independent again. We really need at least 2 strong players in the GPU business and being tied financially to the AMD CPU business doesn't help IMO.

 

[pablo87]

AMD put all their effort on APUs which has the lowest average sell price. Plus vast majority of those customers /channel don't care if its better, they either buy on price or FUD. Not having a good foundation - x86 core + GPU architecture - exacerbated this. In hindsight, a terrible strategy for them.

Separating x86 and GPU makes complete sense.

 

[krumme]

AMD put all their effort on APUs which has the lowest average sell price. Plus vast majority of those customers /channel don't care if its better, they either buy on price or FUD. Not having a good foundation - x86 core + GPU architecture - exacerbated this. In hindsight, a terrible strategy for them.

Separating x86 and GPU makes complete sense.

Yeaa. You were right predicting this like what 3 years ago ? thumbs up !!

 

[bononos]

The CPU business is worthless. They are selling Radeon is so they can keep the company going for a couple extra months. There are several ways AMD could have played it, but it appears that they are doing whatever they can to keep it from the inevitable bankrupcy even it kills any possibility of a post-bankruptcy future. Why? Because the AMD Execs like getting paid.

Are there any numbers available on how well Radeon was treated as an AMD subsidiary. Was there a net transfer of funds from Radeon->AMD which hurt Radeon's ability to come up with newer gen cards sooner.