Seven straight quarters in the red finally ended Hector Ruiz's tenure as CEO of chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices in July. Channel troubles, a bug that delayed the volume shipment of its first quad-core processors and more than $1 billion in extra charges associated with AMD's 2006 acquisition of ATI all contributed to the demise of Ruiz, who in 2002 replaced AMD co-founder Jerry Sanders as CEO. Ruiz stayed on board as a director and was replaced by Dirk Meyer, who vaulted from his position as president and COO to become just the third chief executive in AMD's history.

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