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Jim Keller Resigns from Intel, Effective Immediately
Intel has just published a news release on its website stating that Jim Keller has resigned from the company, effective immediately, due to personal reasons. Jim Keller was hired by Intel two years ago to the role as Senior Vice President of Intel's Silicon Engineering Group, after a string of successes at Tesla, AMD, Apple, AMD (again), and PA Semiconductor. As far as we understand, Jim's goal inside Intel was to streamline a lot of the product development process on the silicon side, as well as providing strategic platforms though which future products can be developed and optimized to market. We also believe that Jim Keller has had a hand in looking at Intel's manufacturing processes, as well as a number of future products.
Intel's press release today states that Jim Keller is leaving the position on June 11th due to personal reasons. However, he will remain with the company as a consultant for six months in order to assist with the transition.
[...] Jim Keller's history in the industry has been well documented – his work has had a significant effect in a number of areas that have propelled the industry forward. This includes work on Apple's A4 and A5 processors, AMD's K8 and Zen high-level designs, as well as Tesla's custom silicon for self driving which analysts have Tesla's competitors have said put the company up to seven years ahead.
Also at Reuters, Phoronix, Bloomberg, and Business Insider.
See also: Why Intel is betting its chips on microprocessor mastermind Jim Keller
Exclusive: Internal Memo Shows Murthy’s Remarks Over Jim Keller’s Departure, Details About New Structuring, Raja Koduri To Head Architectural Roadmap
Related: Intel's Jim Keller Promises That "Moore's Law" is Not Dead, Outlines 50x Improvement Plan
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday June 12 2020, @04:53PM (4 children)
If he really resigned, and really for personal reasons, could he have seen bigger problems within Intel that he doesn't believe he can fix, or maybe that simply cannot be fixed.
Is it a good idea for Intel to have its design and fab so tightly integrated? A delay in the fab technology can hold up the release of a design. And you cannot outsource the fab because of the tight integration. Similarly, you cannot make money fabbing chips for other companies.
Is Intel the only one who does this? Who fabs AMD chips, ARM chips, etc. (TSMC, Samsung, joe's bakery and silly con fab, etc)
What about ongoing security problems due to the optimizations Intel has done in the past leaking critical timing information?
The management engine?
A fantastically gigantical
deinstruction set. So many modes. So much complexity. So much ancient baggage.The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday June 12 2020, @06:01PM
There have been persistent rumors that Intel will contract with TSMC to produce some products, such as high-end (enterprise/supercomputer) GPUs.
Rumor | Intel's upcoming 6nm and 3nm Xe GPUs to be built by TSMC following the 10nm debacle [notebookcheck.net]
You know what problem Intel's fabs don't have? Making money.
Intel Reports Q1 2020 Earnings: Another Strong Quarter For Both Client and Datacenter [anandtech.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday June 12 2020, @11:48PM (1 child)
Considering what a microprocessor hotshot he is, if you take it at face value that he's leaving *immediately* for personal reasons and no other details, I hope it's not an issue with his (physical) health.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 12 2020, @11:58PM
He's not leaving immediately.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 13 2020, @06:04PM
What would be the point of loosening that integration? The key business for the fab is production of the design and there's not much out there that can produce the Intel CPUs. No matter how loose the integration, a delay in one will cause a delay in the other.