The tech/blog site published an article last year where it complied a series of posts by former AMD Carrell Killebrew where he criticized the current state of AMD's Graphics Division. Mr. Killebrew was let go in late 2011 during a series of job cuts after then CEO Rory Read was hired. After that, subsequently a number of AMD Graphics Guys left AMD. If you remember last year AMD lost significant amount of market share. As Mr. Killebrew stated:
"AMD is losing a lot of the best people. That has to be laid at the feet of its current leadership, which includes the Board of Directors and the Chairman Bruce Claflin, not just (former CEO) Rory Read. "
Mr. Killebrew even uses Star Wars to reference this:
"To try and stem that tide through fear, whether it has some foundation in fact or not, reminds me of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars, "The more you tighten your grip Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." Positive leadership attracts people. Repelling people, the best people, is commentary enough on AMD's leadership."
"AMD is losing a lot of the best people. That has to be laid at the feet of its current leadership, which includes the Board of Directors and the Chairman Bruce Claflin, not just (former CEO) Rory Read. "
Mr. Killebrew on AMD losing talent:
"Many people at AMD are looking to leave. They talk to their friends, especially those who have told people privately, "I'm' leaving", or friends who have just left. They ask, "hey, is there any room for me where you are going?"
"AMD's losses of top-rate graphics talent is appalling. In order of losses, AMD lost Rick Bergman, me, Eric Demers, Clay Taylor, Bob Feldstein, Mark Leather, Fritz Kruger, and too many others to name. They've lost a substantial part of the Orlando design team to Apple (about a dozen people I hear). In our business we all know the difference between success and failure is a few percent. Lose key leadership and you've probably lost the critical few percent. Make a graphics chip a bit too power hungry, a bit too expensive, a couple of features substandard, and even more importantly miss market cycles and you start the downward spiral."
"It's a real shame. ATI in its latter days and as part of AMD through 2011 was contending against nVidia head-to-head. It is very hard to see how that will happen in the future, and even worse to see the destruction and disintegration of a a world class team such as that."
It's hard to argue against what he is saying. AMD had up to 38% market share only a year and a half ago. Then Maxwell hit and it went downhill from there. Granted this article was published before Radeon Technologies Group was formed to make AMD's Graphics Division more "agile" as AMD's CEO Lisa Su put it.
What do you guys think? Is his argument valid? I think certainly loss of talent played a part in AMD losing nearly half their market share in a year and a half. Had the old ATI guys been around I don't think this would have happened.
This is not to bash AMD, I have a Fury X and I got it cheaper than the 980 Ti and I get similar level of performance, that's why I brought it. I just think it was priced incorrectly and it could have shipped with more mature drivers with better performance boost (like it is currently now with the newer drivers) when it launched. Also, the R9 300 series was late to market to counter Maxwell.
Source:
TechAvenue
Hopefully AMD will have a great 2016 with Polaris.
"AMD is losing a lot of the best people. That has to be laid at the feet of its current leadership, which includes the Board of Directors and the Chairman Bruce Claflin, not just (former CEO) Rory Read. "
Mr. Killebrew even uses Star Wars to reference this:
"To try and stem that tide through fear, whether it has some foundation in fact or not, reminds me of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars, "The more you tighten your grip Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." Positive leadership attracts people. Repelling people, the best people, is commentary enough on AMD's leadership."
"AMD is losing a lot of the best people. That has to be laid at the feet of its current leadership, which includes the Board of Directors and the Chairman Bruce Claflin, not just (former CEO) Rory Read. "
Mr. Killebrew on AMD losing talent:
"Many people at AMD are looking to leave. They talk to their friends, especially those who have told people privately, "I'm' leaving", or friends who have just left. They ask, "hey, is there any room for me where you are going?"
"AMD's losses of top-rate graphics talent is appalling. In order of losses, AMD lost Rick Bergman, me, Eric Demers, Clay Taylor, Bob Feldstein, Mark Leather, Fritz Kruger, and too many others to name. They've lost a substantial part of the Orlando design team to Apple (about a dozen people I hear). In our business we all know the difference between success and failure is a few percent. Lose key leadership and you've probably lost the critical few percent. Make a graphics chip a bit too power hungry, a bit too expensive, a couple of features substandard, and even more importantly miss market cycles and you start the downward spiral."
"It's a real shame. ATI in its latter days and as part of AMD through 2011 was contending against nVidia head-to-head. It is very hard to see how that will happen in the future, and even worse to see the destruction and disintegration of a a world class team such as that."
It's hard to argue against what he is saying. AMD had up to 38% market share only a year and a half ago. Then Maxwell hit and it went downhill from there. Granted this article was published before Radeon Technologies Group was formed to make AMD's Graphics Division more "agile" as AMD's CEO Lisa Su put it.
What do you guys think? Is his argument valid? I think certainly loss of talent played a part in AMD losing nearly half their market share in a year and a half. Had the old ATI guys been around I don't think this would have happened.
This is not to bash AMD, I have a Fury X and I got it cheaper than the 980 Ti and I get similar level of performance, that's why I brought it. I just think it was priced incorrectly and it could have shipped with more mature drivers with better performance boost (like it is currently now with the newer drivers) when it launched. Also, the R9 300 series was late to market to counter Maxwell.
Source:
TechAvenue
Hopefully AMD will have a great 2016 with Polaris.
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