from the more-breathing-space-for-AMD-and-ARM? dept.
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
Related Stories
Intel's Senior Vice President Jim Keller (who previously helped to design AMD's K8 and Zen microarchitectures) gave a talk at the Silicon 100 Summit that promised continued pursuit of transistor scaling gains, including a roughly 50x increase in gate density:
Intel's New Chip Wizard Has a Plan to Bring Back the Magic (archive)
In 2016, a biennial report that had long served as an industry-wide pledge to sustain Moore's law gave up and switched to other ways of defining progress. Analysts and media—even some semiconductor CEOs—have written Moore's law's obituary in countless ways. Keller doesn't agree. "The working title for this talk was 'Moore's law is not dead but if you think so you're stupid,'" he said Sunday. He asserted that Intel can keep it going and supply tech companies ever more computing power. His argument rests in part on redefining Moore's law.
[...] Keller also said that Intel would need to try other tactics, such as building vertically, layering transistors or chips on top of each other. He claimed this approach will keep power consumption down by shortening the distance between different parts of a chip. Keller said that using nanowires and stacking his team had mapped a path to packing transistors 50 times more densely than possible with Intel's 10 nanometer generation of technology. "That's basically already working," he said.
The ~50x gate density claim combines ~3x density from additional pitch scaling (from "10nm"), ~2x from nanowires, another ~2x from stacked nanowires, ~2x from wafer-to-wafer stacking, and ~2x from die-to-wafer stacking.
Related: Intel's "Tick-Tock" Strategy Stalls, 10nm Chips Delayed
Intel's "Tick-Tock" is Now More Like "Process-Architecture-Optimization"
Moore's Law: Not Dead? Intel Says its 10nm Chips Will Beat Samsung's
Another Step Toward the End of Moore's Law
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @03:38PM (10 children)
--nomsg
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 12 2020, @03:45PM
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Friday June 12 2020, @03:48PM (7 children)
Imagine a time where employers would be held responsible for hiring somebody who'd previously espoused problematic viewpoints or jokes. "It's a free market! That's not censorship!" When will they stop? Where is the line?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @04:15PM (5 children)
"Problematic"
What exactly does that word mean? Anything the person who throws it against another wants it to mean.
It's the crime with no definition.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Friday June 12 2020, @04:36PM (3 children)
> "Problematic" What exactly does that word mean?
In UK at least, there is a pretty clear definition in law.
There are several "protected characteristics" - race, gender, sexual preference, ?age? (IIRC); it is against the law to discriminate on the grounds of these protected characteristics. So, for example, one cannot advertise a job post and say "white people can't apply". Exceptions can be made in special cases (e.g. gender requirements for some caring roles).
There are other sorts of laws, that one may point to; for example sexual coercion (anti-rape) laws. I'm sure we can all make a list. A "Problematic" person would be one who has either transgressed such laws or supports people who have transgressed such laws.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @01:04AM
or supports people who have transgressed such laws
20 years ago so and so said such and such about XYZ. Here they are on video.
You are expecting people to be robots. That is not what people are. Respect takes time. You can also erase in one instant any respect you ever had.
Not sure what I am talking about? Try this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKM7EciKsyQ [youtube.com]
Watch how Robin Williams very carefully talks about Mel Gibson. Not in a condemning way. But in 'that could have been me' way. The hate crowd would have ended him. He beat them to it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:37AM (1 child)
So that's in UK law somewhere? Or are you conflating a nebulous word with breaking the law?
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Sunday June 14 2020, @07:13PM
Fair point - you are correct that the word "Problematic" is of course more nebulous, and if someone loses at politics then they are out; as has been the case since forever. And, "political correct" is one weapon of many in the arsenal of politics.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 12 2020, @04:55PM
Problem + Automatic ?
Something bad happens automatically. Add it to the cron file.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @04:30PM
Another blackface photo from 23 years ago? But... it was totally OK for MJ to have a whiteface.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @05:30PM
(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 server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(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.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @05:03PM
I don't know what working is like at the stratosphere level these people are at, but my work group is disbanded and "working from home". Not trying to be sarcastic, but a big part of our work was the spontaneous discussions and interactions we had. All that is gone.
I am doing stuff, waiting for the office to be open again, but I have saved enough money that I don't have to work for someone else. And in this situation, I have spent quite a few thoughts on whether I should be.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @01:07AM
We can all speculate what is going on.
In 6 months to 1 year we will know. If he goes to somewhere else we know he was jumping ship. If he stays at home and does very little we also know.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @09:48AM
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