amd Chris Hook leaves AMD

[NumLock21]

AMD senior director of Global Product Marketing of Radeon Technology Group, Chris Hook has left the company after working there for 17 years, when the company was called ATi, before it got purchased by AMD. He didn't say where he's going next, but speculation suggest, he might be heading for the Blue team. AMD has already announced his replacement.

Quote

 

Hook is responsible for global marketing of a wide range of AMD's products, including Ryzen, Radeon, and Radeon Pro.

Hook made the announcement via his Facebook account and is headed to a new unspecified role that begins at the end of April, but he didn't specify the nature of his new role. Raja Koduri recently left AMD for Intel, and given the long working relationship between the two, speculation will run rampant that Hook will head to Intel to help Koduri with Intel's discrete GPU initiative.

 

Quote

 

Hi Everyone,

As some of you know, I made the decision recently to leave AMD to pursue a new role outside the company (which I start at the end of April).

AMD has been a great company to work for, and I owe a tremendous amount to them both professionally and personally. Changing jobs was an incredibly hard decision to make since I’ve been with AMD/ATI since I was still in my late 20s, which is so long ago that ATI still had a smoking room, there was only one TV in the office (a small 14” black and white version we crowded into a room to watch 9/11 on), transistor size was still measured in microns, and 320x240 was considered ‘high res’.

The most rewarding experience I had at AMD was reigniting Radeon over the past couple of years with Radeon Technologies Group, growing its market share from high teens to low thirties, and achieving a record revenue quarter late last year. It was a ton of work, but I’ve never had so much fun, visited so many great places, or worked with such amazing people.

I’m also incredibly grateful to the tech press, who have been my second family for the past couple of decades, and I’ll always remember our adventures in places like Tunis, Iceland, Macau, Ibiza and the USS Hornet, to name a few. I hope there will be more of that one day.

I’ll fill you all in on my new opportunity in the coming days and weeks. In the mean time, I’m going to enjoy a few days of vacation where I don’t have to be constantly checking a work smart phone to see what’s going on back in the office (that hasn’t happened since I got my first Blackberry in 2002). 
Cheers,
Chris

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-technologies-chris-hook-departure,36867.html

[Starelementpoke]

Man... 

[hobobobo]

12 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

when AMD was still called ATi.

wat?

[captain_to_fire]

15 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

AMD was still called ATi.

Isn’t AMD already existed with ATI back in the day and it wasn’t until AMD acquired ATI it just becomes Radeon technologies? 

Edited April 12, 2018 by hey_yo_

[NumLock21]

12 minutes ago, hobobobo said:

wat?

AMD acquired ATi.

 

10 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Isn’t AMD already existed with ATI back in the day and it wasn’t until AMD acquired ATI?

Yes both AMD and ATi existed back then. So "back when AMD was ATi", meant was when ATi was still called ATi, not AMD.

[Trixanity]

AMD's marketing has generally been pretty terrible so I hope they get someone that can really achieve something but there's a good chance we'll get more of the same or worse.

[WMGroomAK]

12 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

AMD's marketing has generally been pretty terrible so I hope they get someone that can really achieve something but there's a good chance we'll get more of the same or worse.

Sasa Marinkovic is supposed to be taking over.  Depending on the lea way he is given to talk and direct, it might prove to be interesting since he helped with overhauling the AMD graphic driver software.  He has also been with the company for 20+ years.

 

https://www.fudzilla.com/news/46035-amd-hands-product-marketing-reins-to-sasa-marinkovic

 

Quote

Back in 2014, Sasa Marinkovic switched to become head of VR and Software Marketing which later, in 2015, became part of the Radeon Technologies Group, led by another now ex AMD chap, Raja Koduri.

 

Sasa was one of the key people, along with some other big names in the software part of AMD - like Terry Makedon - who pretty much overhauled the entire AMD graphics driver software. It all started back with the big Catalyst Omega update, over to Radeon Software Crimson, Crimson ReLive, to the latest, and we must say most impressive update, Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition.

 

Since last year, Sasa Marinkovic was Director of Software Marketing at AMD and he will now take over as Director of Product Marketing. We wish him all the best, and you can check out AMD's official statement below.

 

"Sasa Marinkovic Director, Radeon Software Marketing will be taking leadership of AMD Product and Content Marketing. Over his twenty years career at AMD, Sasa has successfully launched several generations of disruptive AMD products and will be responsible for the introduction of the next generation of AMD’s Ryzen and Radeon products. In addition, Chris Hook has left AMD to pursue other opportunities. We thank Chris for his many contributions and wish him well in the next stage of his career."

 

[iamdarkyoshi]

SAD!

 

Seriously I do hope the best for AMD, they've been struggling ...

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

31 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

AMD acquired ATi.

 

Yes both AMD and ATi existed back then. So "back when AMD was ATi", meant was when ATi was still called ATi, not AMD.

So he was originally part of ATI before the acquisition right? 

[NumLock21]

2 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

So he was originally part of ATI before the acquisition right? 

Yes

[leadeater]

54 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

AMD senior director of Global Product Marketing Chris Hook has left AMD after working with the company for over 17 years when AMD was still called ATi

I don't think that's worded very well lol.

[hobobobo]

57 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

AMD acquired ATi.

 

Yes both AMD and ATi existed back then. So "back when AMD was ATi", meant was when ATi was still called ATi, not AMD.

Well, i know that, just "when amd was ati" sounds like ati did a rebrand

 

On the other hand, if he is the guy who was responisble for "poor volta" then this is a welcome change, perhaps rtg marketing will stop being a fuming dump now

[Razor01]

2 minutes ago, hobobobo said:

Well, i know that, just "when amd was ati" sounds like ati did a rebrand

 

On the other hand, if he is the guy who was responsible for "poor volta" then this is a welcome change, perhaps rtg marketing will stop being a fuming dump now

 

 

Ya know that had to be Roy Taylor, there was no one else with AMD that was ever that tongue and cheek

[NumLock21]

38 minutes ago, leadeater said:

I don't think that's worded very well lol.

I think I fixed it. If not, that picture I updated, probably makes better sense than my extremely poor wording.

[sazrocks]

Kinda ironic how he's holding up a product that ended up not really existing...

[RagnarokDel]

4 hours ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

SAD!

 

Seriously I do hope the best for AMD, they've been struggling ...

wut? you realize they're in a better position then they've been in the last decade right now, right?

[dizmo]

Probably left because he's so embarrassed they never released that fucking VEGA NANO. 

[Drak3]

Inb4 he and Raja got canned for being washed up at this point.

[Razor01]

8 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Inb4 he and Raja got canned for being washed up at this point.

 

 

Keep this in mind Raja designed GCN 1.0, the same architecture that gave AMD the lead 3 gens ago then when he left and came back AMD didn't have funds nor time to make a new architecture from the ground up.  Same shit rehashed.  He also designed AMD's last great chip too the 9700.  The r600 was a misstep, but missteps happen.

 

Yes Lisa Su was the one that cut R&D for the RTG.  Prior to that RTG was the only profitable group in the bunch it kept AMD afloat.

 

Now if you want to say HD4xxx was a great chip, yes it was, I will say it was only great for graphics though its VLIW architecture gave it that advantage.  But the graphics industry was shifting way from purely graphics, going to a compute nature, this is where nV went to first, but with Tesla they kept it around for too long.  And with the Fermi mishaps, AMD was able to still use VLIW architectures to keep up with nV in gaming, but in compute they just got creamed, and as time went out, nV got better at it, till what we see now.  The advantages they have are because of experience and the money to drive to learn the different approaches in GPGPU designs.

 

When you don't have money you can't make good things happen.   If you look at the difference in graphics patents from AMD vs nV prior to the R&D being cut they were going pretty much toe to toe.  After that though.  nV filed many more patents than AMD, almost double per year.

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, Razor01 said:

the same architecture that gave AMD the lead 3 gens ago then when he left and came back AMD didn't have funds nor time to make a new architecture from the ground up.  Same shit rehashed.

This is irrelevant to Raja (and Chris) potentially being washed up.

 

1 minute ago, Razor01 said:

Keep this in mind Raja made GCN 1.0

And it was good, for its time. Doesn't mean Raja isn't past his prime.

 

3 minutes ago, Razor01 said:

Lisa Su was the one that cut R&D for the RTG.  Prior to that RTG was the only profitable group in the bunch it kept AMD afloat.

RTG, which has been going downhill fairly fast for a while. Now, AMD doesn't need to rely soly on RTG, which is great because VEGA was a commercial failure on every front so far. Cutting R&D to RTG in favor of making the Zen arch family better has been the smart move so far.

[Razor01]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

This is irrelevant to Raja (and Chris) potentially being washed up.

 

And it was good, for its time. Doesn't mean Raja isn't past his prime.

 

RTG, which has been going downhill fairly fast for a while. Now, AMD doesn't need to rely soly on RTG, which is great because VEGA was a commercial failure on every front so far. Cutting R&D to RTG in favor of making the Zen arch family better has been the smart move so far.

 

The mind doesn't go to waste in 5 years unless he has dementia or something

 

Yes it does, to make a new design takes hundreds of millions of dollars, just to tape out a chip the actually finalization of design costs 10 million bucks man, that is just the final stage before going into mass production.  You don't think the course of 3 years to design a GPU it wouldn't cost much more than that?  We are talking the same budget as make a good CPU.

 

So you think the r2xx series was a failure too?  They failed I agree but not because of the technology, it was because they couldn't deliver the chip to market properly.

[Drak3]

Just now, Razor01 said:

The mind doesn't go to waste in 5 years unless he has dementia or something

That's not what being washed up means.

[Razor01]

7 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

That's not what being washed up means.

In the terms of a person that is capable, yeah it is.

 

You mean things like burnt out maybe but I doubt that too, people that get to that level, upper levels of management, are a special breed.  What drives them is totally different than the average work force.

[Bananasplit_00]

ok but can we have the new Vega nano or whatever that he is holding in the pic soon?

[Trixanity]

6 hours ago, Razor01 said:

In the terms of a person that is capable, yeah it is.

 

You mean things like burnt out maybe but I doubt that too, people that get to that level, upper levels of management, are a special breed.  What drives them is totally different than the average work force.

You see it all the time. People stop growing or run out of new ideas. So he very well could be washed up (which really does not in any form mean dementia). Maybe he has just hit a slump. Maybe he just needs more freedom (or less). Maybe he needs more resources.

 

We'll see what happens at Intel.