Raja Koduri Leaves AMD.

[EXCellR8]

Raja working for Intel and NVIDIA releasing a Star Wars themed graphics card... wth just happened?

 

[beginner99]

Intel developing GPUs headed by the former graphics guru at AMD has legal minefield written all over it.

Yeah but they also know AMD isn't swimming in money and any legal fees in case this ends up in a legal battle will mean less R&D money for AMD and for intel it won't matter much. It's ingenious actually.

 

[tamz_msc]

If he can actually deliver at Intel and their GPUs turn out to be competitive by the time they come out, which I believe won't be until after 2020, then AMD would be better off exiting the GPU business altogether. There's no way they can compete against both Intel and NVIDIA.

 

[tamz_msc]

Or it could turn out that he became way too indulgent at AMD and he really isn't anything special as far as engineering good GPU architectures is concerned. Guess it's make or break for him now given that Intel has a lot more money to throw at him.

 

[Cloudfire777]

Everyone saying raja is doing terrible...

Raja did so terrible he got a better job at Intel.
How many of you have had your worst work get you a better job? Ya....
Raja is loving life

Oh please, Intel is so far behind in graphics that even the assistants that make coffee for the AMD engineers could have a chance at becoming chief architect for graphics at Intel

On the plus side Raja could work on a product for Intel for 2-3 years and mess up royally there too. Should help AMD tremendously.
Maybe he secretly is working as a saboteur for AMD

 

[biostud]

maybe pro cards with lots of 3dxpoint cache, like the ssd on the amd pro cards?

 

[neblogai]

Not sure what else he will be doing at Intel- but at the very least he should be the man to pick semi-custom designs from whatever AMD agrees to give. Right now this seems to be Polaris tech, which might limit Intel's choices. Still- Intel using semi-custom discreet from AMD is beneficial for both, and can be used to hurt nVidia, leaving them only in the high-end.

 

[showb1z]

I don't understand. Industry specialists on this very forum told me this guy is terrible at his job and should've been fired ages ago.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I don't think it is as simple as saying he is terrible at his job, I think he had very few resources to work with. AMD put everything into Zen.

However, I think Raja has screwed AMD. This deal he just signed means that Intel has good GPUs in laptops for the next 1-2 years, and after that, they will have their own GPUs.

Plus, I can guarantee that Raja has handed a list of names of senior engineers (both software and hardware) to Intel's headhunters, and these guys will shortly be getting offers of a minimum of a 40% increase in salary. AMD can't compete with that.

So not only does AMD lose the head of its GPU division, it is going to lose some very senior engineers too, and Intel is going to benefit from them.

This does mean that in 3 years time, the GPU market could be completely different. Nvidia's dominant streak might end. We might get price cuts. AMD might exit the business altogether (don't expect price cuts if that happens!)

 

[Tup3x]

If he can actually deliver at Intel and their GPUs turn out to be competitive by the time they come out, which I believe won't be until after 2020, then AMD would be better off exiting the GPU business altogether. There's no way they can compete against both Intel and NVIDIA.

Nvidia should buy AMD and make sure that they can keep x86 license.

 

[tamz_msc]

Nvidia should buy AMD and make sure that they can keep x86 license.

Intel would have a few things to say about that...

 

[Atari2600]

I don't understand. Industry specialists on this very forum told me this guy is terrible at his job and should've been fired ages ago.

That can and does happen.

The person who appears from the outside to be all knowledge can in fact be known as a total bull-merchant by insiders.

 

[sandorski]

At this point I'm more concerned with whom AMD has to replace him. These types of people with these particular talents/abilities don't grow on trees.

 

[moinmoin]

AMD/RTG/ATI's biggest problem with graphics always has been their traditional (to a fault) forward looking hardware that requires software support (as in drivers, frameworks, games) to shine and a lack of resources to ensure just that software support timely (if ever) exists. When RTG was formed around Koduri two years ago not enough about this changed, but the public demeanor became cocky, completely unlike the way Ryzen was unrolled. So while Ryzen often exceeded expectations, Vega kept disappointing due to too much hyping.

In this regard I agree with this previously posted article https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a...rs-the-way-for-a-course-correction-2017-11-08 that Koduri leaving is likely a course correction for RTG, toward properly setting expectations and making better and more efficient use of current use cases.

 

[SpaceBeer]

Few tweets about new challenges
https://twitter.com/Rajaontheedge

I haven't yet seen anything written that groks the magnitude of what I am pursuing. The scale of it is not even remotely close to what I was doing before. Will say more when ready!

 

[beginner99]

Plus, I can guarantee that Raja has handed a list of names of senior engineers (both software and hardware) to Intel's headhunters, and these guys will shortly be getting offers of a minimum of a 40% increase in salary. AMD can't compete with that.

So not only does AMD lose the head of its GPU division, it is going to lose some very senior engineers too, and Intel is going to benefit from them.

Agree. But given the output from RTG in recetn years (or lack thereof) mabye cleaning house eg. getting rid of "old", "sat-in" established personnel might actually be a good thing.

As moinmoin said, AMD always put too much focus on the future and software support. They need to compete now not in 5 years. Also betting on software support without having a majority market share will never fly. And yet AMD kept doing it.

 

[Despoiler]

AMD has always been the future GPU firm, but that in and of itself isn't the issue. The future thinking is fine if you can take care of the present. Take the primitive shader direction change for example. Keep in mind that everything I've read about them is exactly where graphics needs to get to. It's something devs enthusiastically want. Initially Raja publicly stated that developers would have to enable the feature. Standard AMD stance. They make it and you build it. Something like 3 months later he 180s and now AMD would enable it through drivers and they are unsure about the timeline for exposure to the devs. This was really telling to me. Automatic via drivers with a commitment to dev support is the correct choice. It takes care of the present and sets in motion a future change to the landscape. My gut is telling me that Raja got checked by Su when default performance of Vega came up equal to Pascal. If there is performance there it needs to be leveraged. Something to that effect.

As far as Intel hiring Raja.....good luck. Like I said before, dreamers need big budgets and Raja definitely found his whale in Intel. I hope they have a good group of handlers to keep him focused and on track. Intel is more or less starting from scratch as it only has some recent acquisitions.

 

[IRobot23]

Raja working for Intel and NVIDIA releasing a Star Wars themed graphics card... wth just happened?

Sooo weird, right?

 

[crisium]

Well, we get to see how Raja does with, presumably, a larger budget. I don't expect a V100 competitor, but I wonder what their discrete cards will be.

 

[tamz_msc]

Okay so the knives are probably out, and Kaby Lake-G will be releasing in turbulent times:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/09/amd-nvidia-shares-drop-after-intel-hires-amds-ex-graphics-head.html
"AMD sent the following statement when asked for comment on Intel's new hire:"

We have a very strong graphics team and will continue our focus on building great products. We also have industry-leading graphics IP and, if necessary, will vigorously defend it.

 

[Malogeek]

Wow, that really tells volumes about this separation.

 

[traderjay]

All this pales compared to the sudden departure of Dirk Meyers a few years ago...

 

[Phynaz]

All this pales compared to the sudden departure of Dirk Meyers a few years ago...

Dirk Meyers was fired for not having a mobile strategy. I don't understand why you are comparing them.

 

[crisium]

AMD subreddit is not pleased.

 

[moinmoin]

Koduri is an easy public target now. AMD is better off focusing on itself though, and right now RTG can learn a lot from the way the CPU group handled setting expectations and over-delivering. If Koduri leaving helps RTG getting there as well the whole storm in a teapot was worth it.