Intel Hires Ex-AMD Executive to Lead Discrete GPU SoC Design

Intel has hired Masooma Bhaiwala, a former AMD executive. She will lead Intel’s discrete GPU efforts, the first of which will debut in 2020.

Masooma Bhaiwala confirmed her position to CRN as vice president, discrete GPU SoCs within Intel's Graphics and Throughput Computing Hardware Engineering organization. That organization, in turn, is part of the Intel Architecture, Graphics and Software group led by Raja Koduri, also a former AMD executive. Koduri joined Intel two years ago to lead the company’s discrete graphics ambitious to develop a full stack of discrete GPU hardware across all segments.

The role puts her in charge of the company’s discrete GPUs from client to HPC. Before she assumed her current job at Intel, she was corporate vice president of semi-custom SoCs at AMD. Before that, she was Senior Director of Design Engineering for 14 years at AMD.

Intel’s first discrete graphics chip, DG1, presumably intended for mobile, completed its internal power on and testing in the third quarter and is set to debut in 2020. Raja Koduri also unveiled the 7nm, Foveros-based GP-GPU for high-performance computing in November, codenamed Ponte Vecchio.

The move is Intel’s latest outside hire. From AMD, Intel has hired names such as Mark Hirsch, Joseph Facca, Balaji Kanigicherla and Jim Keller. Other changes include Tom Petersen from Nvidia to Intel, while Chris Hook and Heather Lennon left in November. Some of Intel’s recent outside hires outside of its graphics division include a Volkswagen vice president to Mobileye and, earlier in December, GlobalFoundries CTO Gary Patton.