Jim Keller leaves AMD - AMD claims Zen "on track"

[CommandMan7]

Yes, I know, this was posted by someone else about 30 minutes ago, but that got locked due to not following the posting guidelines.

 

Jim Keller has left his position as chief architect of AMD, after joining just over 3 years ago. In case you haven't heard of him, Jim Keller is responsible for, among other things, pioneering the X86-64 specification and playing a key part in the creation and success of AMD's K7 and K8 and Apple's A4 and A5 architectures. According to AMD, "Jim’s departure is not expected to impact our public product or technology roadmaps, and we remain on track for “Zen” sampling in 2016 with first full year of revenue in 2017." 

 

I personally don't see this as a huge problem, due to the fact that AMD would not let talent like this leave unless zen was already mostly finished. 

 

 

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

[VagabondWraith]

RIP AMD.

[PlayStation 2]

He did the Apple A4 and A5?

Well that guarantees that Zen won't be bad.

[CommandMan7]

RIP AMD.

 

Really? This is just an engineer leaving, I'm sure by this point AMD is in the testing & manufacturing phase of development.

 

I didn't really expect Zen to be that good anyway, but we need to stop with the RIP AMD in every single news thread.

[Kherm]

He did the Apple A4 and A5?

Well that guarantees that Zen won't be bad.

Not just that, he also developed the first x86-64 chip and AMD's wildly popular K7 & K8 designs. 

[Guest]

 

Jim Keller, former Chief Architect of Microprocessor Cores, will leave the company today to pursue other opportunities.

 

Attempting to allay any fears over the impact of Keller's departure, the company adds that "Jim helped establish a strong leadership team that is well positioned for success as we enter the completion phase of the “Zen” core and associated system IP and SoCs."

 

Sounds to me like he just bailed a sinking ship. Guess only time will tell. 

[themaniac]

now lets just sit back and watch how everything plays out

[VagabondWraith]

Will be interesting to sew where Keller winds up. That's a blow to AMD no matter which way you slice it.

[themaniac]

Will be interesting to sew where Keller winds up. That's a blow to AMD no matter which way you slice it.

it would be funny to see intel hire him

[Notional]

They just got him back? That's a huge surprise!

 

I wonder that AMD will do know and also why he left.

[Tataffe]

Damn. I had plans to post this as an april fools joke next year to scare the shit out of AMD fans. :angry:

[Master Disaster]

Rats off a sinking ship. Either that or theres some dealing going on behind the scenes and he doesn't want to be known as Microsofts lead engineer or Samsung's lead engineer.

[alpenwasser]

Sounds to me like he just bailed a sinking ship. Guess only time will tell.

 

 

They just got him back? That's a huge surprise!

 

I wonder that AMD will do know and also why he left.

Rats off a sinking ship. Either that or theres some dealing going on behind the scenes and he doesn't want to be known as Microsofts lead engineer or Samsung's lead engineer.

Going by his employment history (well, at least the part I'm aware of), I just get the

impression that this is what he does. Work on a major project or two, then leave to do

something else, maybe come back later.

Zen is probably mostly done by now. I doubt it'll be good enough to get back to the glory

days of the K7/K8, but if it's decent and they don't fuck up their PR (i.e. if they manage

to get expectations in line with what they deliver and provide decent performance per

dollar and per watt) it could get AMD back on a somewhat sustainable path of doing business.

But getting AMD back into good shape instead of just survival mode is going to be a long-term

thing, and it probably won't hinge on a single engineer (although a single person in the right place

at the right time can make a considerable difference).

As a side note: AMD going under and being taken over (or just being taken over) would be a

pretty complicated thing, especially the CPU side, due to various patent licensing issues,

as far as I'm aware.

[Sakkura]

Not just that, he also developed the first x86-64 chip and AMD's wildly popular K7 & K8 designs. 

 

He was one cog in the machinery that developed those architectures. One man doesn't make or break their CPU design.

 

In any case, the design work on Zen would be mostly done by now, if it's still on schedule for the launch next year.

[Guest]

he doesn't want to be known as Microsofts lead engineer or Samsung's lead engineer.

 

Don't see how either of those would be a bad thing.

Especially in the case of Samsung with their great fabs.

[Guest]

 

 

Going by his employment history (well, at least the part I'm aware of), I just get the

impression that this is what he does. Work on a major project or two, then leave to do

something else, maybe come back later.

Zen is probably mostly done by now. I doubt it'll be good enough to get back to the glory

days of the K7/K8, but if it's decent and they don't fuck up their PR (i.e. if they manage

to get expectations in line with what they deliver and provide decent performance per

dollar and per watt) it could get AMD back on a somewhat sustainable path of doing business.

But getting AMD back into good shape instead of just survival mode is going to be a long-term

thing, and it probably won't hinge on a single engineer (although a single person in the right place

at the right time can make a considerable difference).

As a side note: AMD going under and being taken over (or just being taken over) would be a

pretty complicated thing, especially the CPU side, due to various patent licensing issues,

as far as I'm aware.

 

Hmmm, though, surely if Zen is going to be good enough to pull AMD back into the game he would have stayed to see it through to completion (granted, he's not solely responsible for its success)? Albeit, I don't know much about his history, so as you say it might just be what he does - being a part of one thing, doing his thing then going off to do it with another. 

 

Just to be cheeky and ask, how come you and airdeano don't fill a full line in a post?

[Lazmarr]

Sounds to me like he just bailed a sinking ship. Guess only time will tell. 

Or perhaps more likely his contract with AMD has ended?

[Manny Calavera]

First gen bulldozer was pretty bad, do you think first gen zen will also be meh? Like, they are probably already working on improving it

[alpenwasser]

Hmmm, though, surely if Zen is going to be good enough to pull AMD back into the game he would have stayed to see it through to completion (granted, he's not solely responsible for its success)? Albeit, I don't know much about his history, so as you say it might just be what he does - being a part of one thing, doing his thing then going off to do it with another.

Of course I won't claim to know what's really going on either, my guess is just based

on his previous behavioral patterns. Maybe something is indeed smelling funny, but merely

him leaving doesn't ring all my alarms on full tilt, so to speak.

Just to be cheeky and ask, how come you and airdeano don't fill a full line in a post?

I can only speak for myself, not for him, and for me it's just a habit I've carried

over from coding (where I try to stick to 80 chars per line, although I'm not as strict

with the number of chars on forum posts because there's no char counter per line).

[Scionyde]

 

I personally don't see this as a huge problem, due to the fact that AMD would not let talent like this leave unless zen was already mostly finished. 

 

 

 

What, would they lock him in his office or something if he tried to leave the building?

[Shoob]

I hope that doesn't impact Zen. If Zen is a failure like Bulldozer, Intel will continue releasing new generations with minor performance improvements and the desktop CPU market will remain uninteresting.

[deviant88]

This is the clear signal there will be no more amd by 2017, someone has to buy them, if the top cpu arhitect left amd and the gpu business separated, the AMD that produces CPU dekstop/server and APU's for laptops and consoles is going to be sold.

The problem is whoever is going to buy them its probably not going to invest in desktop CPU's that much or at all, maybe in the server market.

The future looks sad for desktop with intel being a loner playing with x86 market cpu's.

[Mikjul]

Just hope ZEN makes AMD come back up from it's slump, i really do not give a toss who they lose in the process.

 

People here have no idea if he was one of the people who made the crappy design choices from Bulldozer.

[bogus]

This is the clear signal there will be no more amd by 2017, someone has to buy them, if the top cpu arhitect left amd and the gpu business separated, the AMD that produces CPU dekstop/server and APU's for laptops and consoles is going to be sold.

The problem is whoever is going to buy them its probably not going to invest in desktop CPU's that much or at all, maybe in the server market.

The future looks sad for desktop with intel being a loner playing with x86 market cpu's.

 

Lol that logic is priceless.

Back in 2012 AMD was still in trouble and they didn't have Keller... sooo shouldn't they have been sold before he was even hired?

[Sakkura]

Just hope ZEN makes AMD come back up from it's slump, i really do not give a toss who they lose in the process.

 

People here have no idea if he was one of the people who made the crappy design choices from Bulldozer.

 

Jim Keller was not at AMD when Bulldozer was designed, so we know for a fact that he was not one of the people who made the crappy design choices from Bulldozer.