AMD Hires Chip Veterans to "Move Beyond PC"
AMD has hired former Qualcomm and Apple engineers.
AMD has reportedly hired two senior engineers to help the chipmaker expand into new markets beyond the the slowing PC industry. These two new hires include a previous Qualcomm engineer and a previous Apple engineer, both of which have taken high-level positions within America's #2 chip company.
According to unnamed sources, Charles Matar has expertise in low-power and embedded chip design. He previously worked at Qualcomm, and will now serve as AMD's vice president of System-on-Chip Development. Joining him will be former Apple engineer Wayne Meretsky who is now AMD's new vice president of software IP development. He will lead software development for AMD's various chips.
Both Matar and Meretsky reportedly worked at AMD earlier in their careers. Their return follows another return of a former AMD employee, Jim Keller, who joined the company as chief architect in August 2012. Previously he served at Apple as a director in charge of designing mobile processors used in the iPads and iPhones.
AMD is slated to release a new low-power processor, Temash, for tablets and hybrid laptops running Windows 8 Pro during the first half of 2013. The company is also expected to release its Kabini laptop processor, which promises 50-percent better performance than its predecessor, in early 2013. Matar will reportedly focus on designing a post-Temash SoC and beyond.
AMD's need to leap beyond the PC sector isn't unexpected. Even its partners are flocking to mobile form factors as market tastes move from desktop to tablets and hybrids. Market watchers are predicting the start of a post-PC era, and a declining PC market seems to pave the way.
Unfortunately, 80-percent of AMD's revenue is generated from the PC sector. AMD has felt the impact of this declining market, and is now quickly looking to enter different avenues to make a buck. These avenues include communications, microservers, digital signs and stripped down "thin client" computers, Reuters said.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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bustapr this is great for AMD. They got some people who know their shit. this last year may have been a horrid year for them, but it was also a year where they expanded their market incredibly. i hope these guys keep AMD expanding and give a new direction to AMD struggling areas.Reply -
ddpruitt Maybe with mobile (low power, low heat) expertise they can get some performance gains in the desktop sector again.Reply -
A Bad Day What AMD needs is brand recognition. Most of the people I know never heard of AMD's APUs, or are unfamiliar with it.Reply
In fact, my dad firmly believes that Intel's IGP is on par with the APU's GPU.
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pedro_mann I've always been an AMD fan, and am glad to hear the good news. Sadly, though, this is about 5 years too late. Under Ruiz's watch, they ignored mobile, think back to the pentium M days. AMD stubbornly refused to invest in mobile, when they had the chance to lay the foundations for it. Fast forward to today, finally they are getting in the ball game. It is too soon to tell, but we may be able to accredit this success to Reed, depending on timing and execution of courseReply -
pedro_mann A Bad DayWhat AMD needs is brand recognition. Most of the people I know never heard of AMD's APUs, or are unfamiliar with it.In fact, my dad firmly believes that Intel's IGP is on par with the APU's GPU.Really, they just need some good contracts to supply chips. Brand recognition for components is over-rated. Try this, ask a non geek what chips power the Samsung Galaxy III or the Nexus 4?Reply
In order to score lucrative contracts, they need to deliver a competitive product. Example - all of the next gen game consoles. They are rocking the next wave of consoles, they need to repeat that success for mobile. -
m32 ^ Honestly, mobile is really just starting to take off. I'm not talking about laptops, but tablets/or tablet like computers. That is the market I think they're targeting.Reply