Dadi Perlmutter to Leave Intel in Early 2014

Intel announced in a regulatory filing made public on Wednesday that Dadi "David" Perlmutter will be leaving the company in February 2014 after serving Intel for 34 years. Perlmutter currently heads Intel's Architecture Group, the company's arm that designs and produces the chips that go into desktops, laptops, servers and other devices.

"On October 18, 2013, David Perlmutter, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Intel Architecture Group, notified Intel Corporation (“Intel”) of his intention to leave Intel effective February 20, 2014, the 34th anniversary of his start of employment at Intel, to pursue other opportunities in his life and professional career," reads the filing. "Throughout his career at Intel, Mr. Perlmutter led many of the product, technology and business transformations at Intel."

"Until his departure in February 2014, Mr. Perlmutter will provide transition assistance to Intel’s Platform Engineering Group and on other matters as requested by management and will continue to participate in all applicable Intel compensation and benefit plans and arrangements," the letter continues. "Mr. Perlmutter will receive post-employment benefits as described in the “Executive Compensation” section of Intel’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 3, 2013, including acceleration of the vesting of certain equity awards pursuant to company policy for employees age 60 or over and relocation assistance under the terms of Mr. Perlmutter’s relocation agreement."

AllThingsD reports that within days of Krzanich taking over as CEO, he had moved to take direct control over Intel's Architecture Group, and assigned Perlmutter to a vaguely described transitional role – a role Intel reportedly never made official. Perlmutter made around $15.7 million in total compensation from Intel last year, and as of February 2013, owned 1,968,599 shares of Intel.

"He's looking forward to pursuing other opportunities. We're happy for him personally," said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman in a statement to the IDG News Service. He added that Perlmutter could have continued with the company, and had "some other options to contribute". He also credited Perlmutter for the company's success in the PC and server processor markets.

"Intel's success in those markets was because of the work that Dadi did as a manager of those groups," Mulloy said.

The first big success stemming from Perlmutter was reportedly the Centrino line that launched in 2003, a series of mobile processors that eventually dominated the notebook market. Later on he was responsible for the Core line of processors that replaced the long-running Pentium line of processors.

IDG News Service claims that he was seen as the "last odd man out" once some of his duties were distributed during multiple management shakeups over the last several years. However earlier this year Perlmutter was one of the leading candidates to take Paul Otellini's place as company CEO.

Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.