Legendary CPU architect Jim Keller leaves AMD

Nelly · 18 Sep 2015 at 16:49

Hexus | Posted: 18th September 2015 said:
AMD has experienced its fair share of high-profile departures this year, but today's exit is arguably the one that will resonate with the enthusiast community and AMD's most fervent fans.

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

Well known for his work during AMD's heyday, Keller (pictured) was involved in the creation of the original Athlon architecture, K7, and then served as a lead architect on K8. After playing an instrumental role in developing the world's first native x86-64 bit architecture, Keller later joined Apple and helped develop the company's A4 and A5 SoCs before rejoining AMD in 2012 to spearhead the firm's upcoming Zen architecture.

Speaking to HEXUS, an AMD spokesperson has stated that "Jim was responsible for overseeing the teams defining the roadmaps for AMD’s CPU cores, systems IP, and server and client SoCs. "

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."

"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."

Looking ahead, Mark Papermaster, AMD's Chief Technology Officer, will step in as acting leader for Keller's team and will now help oversee one of the most important products in the company's history.

Source

humbug · 18 Sep 2015 at 17:01

This is a disaster of epic proportions !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finners · 18 Sep 2015 at 17:27

Jumping ship before his name is tarnished by Zen prehaps? I hope not as we all need AMD on their game in the next generation of CPU's

Boomstick777 · 18 Sep 2015 at 17:34

Maybe he has done his job, laid the groundwork for a better CPU generation and now will move on to something else. All AMD have to do is launch the new product.

Doesn't reflect anything on Zen etc, but no doubt the AMD haters will swarm on this thread like every other one

Martini1991 · 18 Sep 2015 at 17:35

Oh AMD.

FoxEye · 18 Sep 2015 at 17:42

Finners said:
Jumping ship before his name is tarnished by Zen prehaps? I hope not as we all need AMD on their game in the next generation of CPU's

My thoughts too.

If Zen was amazing, he'd want to see it through at least until it launches. "He's done all he can" doesn't sound convincing at all.

Why can't AMD keep hold of their best people?

Boomstick777 · 18 Sep 2015 at 17:49

AMD brought in Jim Keller to design Zen, Zen is no doubt finalized at this stage and in prep for launch etc next year. Maybe Jim Keller can now pursue other opportunity's and AMD can launch said product. Does it have to all be doom and gloom? Just a thought..

FoxEye · 18 Sep 2015 at 17:57

Boomstick777 said:
Does it have to all be doom and gloom? Just a thought..

Ever since Bulldozer... yes, yes it does.

Scurburg · 18 Sep 2015 at 18:07

Maybe you are right Boomstick, but its going to make the already poor pr much worse and make it next to impossible for Zen to succeed in the way AMD needs it to. It will literally need to blow everything else out the water which we already know it wont as it is not designed to compete like that.

We also have to take into consideration that the idiot at the top doesn't want AMD to be the value for money option, so will likely be stupidly priced when it hits too. (Just look at the Nano as an example of this stupidity)

AthlonXP1800 · 18 Sep 2015 at 20:04

Oh dear what a disaster!

AMD PR in damage control.

Deja Vu feelings all over again.

Ex CEO Dirk Meyer left AMD in 2011 after saw Bulldozer prototype first test tapeout was a disaster.

Ex CEO Rory Read left AMD in 2014 after saw Fuji tapeout with HBM prototype first test struggled to made many chips and it was as fast as GTX 980, it was very expensive disaster.

Jim Keller left today behind uncompleted Zen core design, he probably not happy with Zen first test run after tapeout. Now Mark Papermaster step in to help complete fixing Zen core design to get it ready for engineering samples in around 6 months time.

RavenXXX2 · 18 Sep 2015 at 20:11

ukxenon · 18 Sep 2015 at 20:14

well lets hope it will not be bad for amd thats all we can do

Geeman1979 · 18 Sep 2015 at 20:38

Dooooooomed!

Orangey · 18 Sep 2015 at 20:45

You all know that Zen taped out weeks ago right?

They can't afford to keep him any longer than necessary. Not atm anyway.

Adored · 18 Sep 2015 at 21:10

FoxEye said:
My thoughts too.

If Zen was amazing, he'd want to see it through at least until it launches. "He's done all he can" doesn't sound convincing at all.

He didn't bother hanging around to see K8, his Magnum Opus, in silicon.

Why can't AMD keep hold of their best people?

I don't believe Jim Keller has spent more than 4 years at any company.

Orangey · 18 Sep 2015 at 21:25

People like Keller are all about the work. He goes where he can do good work. It would cost an inordinate amount of money to have him on retainer.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 18 Sep 2015 at 22:02

LMAO,people can look at his work history:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Keller_(engineer)

He spent only 1 year at AMD before he left and that was years before the Athlon 64 was released,around the time the original Athlon was out.

His second stint at AMD was three times longer.

It only took a few seconds on Google to find it out.

setter · 19 Sep 2015 at 03:12

Orangey said:
People like Keller are all about the work. He goes where he can do good work. It would cost an inordinate amount of money to have him on retainer.

Im sure like any form of work, he will go where the money is. It's human nature. Im a painter and decorator, and pretty good at it. When a better paying opportunity comes up, better working conditions etc. You take it. Same in any industry. Good luck to the guy. Obviously he has seen a nice new opening somewhere else. He's no different from any other worker.

humbug · 19 Sep 2015 at 03:29

I hope he did leave with Zen half finished.

setter · 19 Sep 2015 at 03:42

humbug said:
I hope he did leave with Zen half finished.

I hope zen does well humbug, my introduction to pc gaming was on s939 A64. 4000 kab1e san diego chip, didnt know how to overclock back then. But it was a very fast chip at stock. Ive actually kept it, hadnt got the heart to sell it as it was my first ever self bought cpu. Unfortunately intel brought out the c2d range, then the quads of which i owned several. And tbh ive owned every intel quad chip since, ivy i5 and i7, haswellm devils canyon and not to mention several bloomfield i7 900 series. Now on an X99 5820k setup, mostly out of boredom with cpu's. I fancied something different. But i would love to see amd offer a good alternative to intel.