AMD's Meyer Promoted To President

Meyer was previously president and chief operating officer of AMD's Microprocessor Solutions Section business. He now is responsible for leadership and management of the entire company with AMD's chief executive Hector Ruiz. Ruiz, who relinquishes the president tile, is now chairman and CEO.

"Dirk has played an essential role in AMD's rise to the position of technology and innovation leader in the microprocessor industry," said Ruiz in a statement. "His leadership, operational skills and business acumen have positioned the company for long-term, sustainable growth, and I'm very pleased that AMD now will benefit from those skills on an even grander scale."

Meyer, 44, joined AMD in 1995 and in 1996 was promoted to director of engineering for the AMD Athlon processor development program in Austin, Texas. He later ran the chip maker's Computation Products Group, which produced the Opteron CPU that has helped AMD gain mind share in the corporate market. Then last year, he was appointed president and chief operating officer of AMD's Microprocessor Solutions Sector.

Before joining AMD, Meyer worked at Digital Equipment Corp. for nearly a decade and was co-architect of the Alpha 21064 and 21264 microprocessors. He also has worked at Intel.

Meyer has received the Association for Computing Machinery Maurice Wilkes Award for his significant architectural contributions to the Alpha and x86 microprocessor designs.

He graduated from the University of Illinois, where he received a bachelor's degree in computer engineering. He also received a master's degree in business administration from Boston University.