AMD Further Integrates ATI, Top Exec Walks
"We are tightening our focus on delivering the winning products and platforms our customers want based on AMD's industry-leading microprocessor and graphics technologies," said AMD CEO Dirk Meyer in a statement released after the close of markets. "The next generation of innovation in the computing industry will be grounded in the fusion of microprocessor and graphics technologies. With these changes, we are putting the right organization in place to help enable the future of computing."
Since the ATI acquisition, AMD has maintained a Graphics Product Group, now headed by Rick Bergman, and a separate Computing Solutions Group, led by Randy Allen. Bergman has been tapped to lead the new, as yet unnamed, products group, which will consolidate AMD's x86 processor and graphics technologies "to drive product and platforms that leverage our position as the only company in the industry with high-performance CPUs and GPUs," according to the company.
Allen, a key engineer on AMD's first Opteron product development cycles and the lead in developing the K9 architecture, is leaving the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company.
"Randy has been an important engineering and business leader who has played a key role in many of AMD's most significant achievements in recent years," Meyer said in Wednesday's statement. "We wish him well in his future endeavors."
Allen was promoted to lead the Computing Solutions Group as part of AMD's last major executive reshuffle roughly a year ago.
"Randy was, and is, a beloved person at AMD. I don't think there's anybody at AMD that doesn't like that guy," said analyst Jon Peddie, a close follower of AMD and the graphics market in particular. "The folks that I spoke with at AMD are sad and they're going to miss him, but he apparently felt that his options were limited under the new arrangement. He's not going to have a really tough time looking for a job, let's put it that way."
Peddie, president of Tiburon, Calif.-based Jon Peddie Research, said "it's about time" that AMD fully consolidated its ATI products with its x86 lineup.
"They should have done this from day one [of the ATI acquisition]. I believe it was always their intention to do it, but they had other issues to deal with. They had ATI product issues to deal with and AMD product issues to deal with, and financial issues on top of all that. Sometimes it's hard to remember you're there to drain the lake when you discover that you're up to your a** in alligators," the analyst said.
Bringing the GPU and CPU groups together will further AMD's total platform agenda, while also simplifying AMD's partner relationships, Peddie said.
Meyer said in the statement Wednesday that AMD would now be comprised of four "operating teams," including Bergman's products group, which also has Jeff VerHeul as head of processor solutions engineering. The other three are the Advanced Technology Group, an R&D unit led by Chekib Akrout; the marketing unit run by Nigel Dessau and the sales organization led by Emilio Ghilardi.
Last October, AMD announced the spin-off of its manufacturing assets to form a separate company called Globalfoundries.