News [intel] Jim Keller resigns from Intel

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Det0x

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Sep 11, 2014
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Changes in Intel’s Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group
Jim Keller to Depart Intel; New Leaders Named

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 11, 2020 – Today, Intel announced that Jim Keller has resigned effective June 11, 2020, due to personal reasons. Intel appreciates Mr. Keller’s work over the past two years helping them continue advancing Intel’s product leadership and they wish him and his family all the best for the future. Intel is pleased to announce, however, that Mr. Keller has agreed to serve as a consultant for six months to assist with the transition.
Intel has a vastly experienced team of technical leaders within its Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG) under the leadership of Dr. Venkata (Murthy) Renduchintala, group president of TSCG and chief engineering officer. As part of this transition, the following leadership changes will be made, effective immediately:
  • Sundari Mitra, the former CEO and founder of NetSpeed Systems and the current leader of Intel’s Configurable Intellectual Property and Chassis Group, will lead a newly created IP Engineering Group focused on developing best-in-class IP.
  • Gene Scuteri, an accomplished engineering leader in the semiconductor industry, will head the Xeon and Networking Engineering Group.
  • Daaman Hejmadi will return to leading the Client Engineering Group focused on system-on-chip (SoC) execution and designing next-generation client, device and chipset products. Hejmadi has over two decades of experience leading teams delivering advanced SoCs both inside and outside of Intel.
  • Navid Shahriari, an experienced Intel leader, will continue to lead the Manufacturing and Product Engineering Group, which is focused on delivering comprehensive pre-production test suites and component debug capabilities to enable high-quality, high-volume manufacturing.
Intel congratulates Sundari, Gene, Daaman and Navid as we begin the next phase of our world-class engineering organization and look forward to executing on our exciting roadmap of products.

link
 

moinmoin

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Jun 1, 2017
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They used Jim Keller as conduit for communicating future Zen performance (AMD Core Innovation Summit May 2014). They used his reputation to lend credence to their future performance claims. In hindsight what they were doing was even more obvious as Mark Papermaster behaved like a talk-show host, not the CTO of AMD. That should have been a dialogue between two senior AMD officials, not a simulated interview.

The information provided to us in that recording was instrumental in discussing future AMD processor performance. I'm surprised you don't remember it, since parts of the interview were very important in proving that AMD was actually developing a high performance core with Zen. There were a number of voices on the forum suggesting Zen had more in common with Bobcat cores, that AMD simply did not have the resources to design and produce a competitive high performance product.

So do yourself a favor and remove that strike-through in my quote, AMD started what Intel continued.

[Later Edit] Here's the entire presentation. AMD delivering their initial promise on x86 Zen performance kinda' made us forget they were actually promising a lot more with developing a high performance ARM product as well.
Such a legendary event. In hindsight it feels more like a startup presentation, a group of people presenting everything that could possibly be of value but without a real focus. The streamlining and professionalization introduced after Dr. Lisa Su took over as CEO later that year made a big difference there.
 

RetroZombie

Senior member
Nov 5, 2019
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[Later Edit] Here's the entire presentation. AMD delivering their initial promise on x86 Zen performance kinda' made us forget they were actually promising a lot more with developing a high performance ARM product as well.
Yes but that is a corporate video, there are more people in that video besides him, not even comparable with this:

An AnandTech Exclusive: The Jim Keller Interview - 07/16/2018

On the verge of a silicone revolution: An interview with Jim Keller - 04/02/2019

Interview with 2019 Person to Watch Jim Keller - 03/21/2019

Jim Keller: Moore’s Law is Not Dead - 09/18/2019

Hot Wings at Hot Chips Event Recap | Intel Software - 09/19/2019

Jim Keller: Moore's Law, Microprocessors, Abstractions, and First Principles | AI Podcast - 02/05/2020

I have seen more but can't find those now.
 
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coercitiv

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Jan 24, 2014
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Yes but that is a corporate video, there are more people in that video besides him, not even comparable with this:
And yet that was a crucial moment for AMD in terms of investor and client confidence, and they chose Keller to deliver the message and vouch for the company.

I should also remind you that Keller left AMD in 2015, before AMD had the chance to make performance demos with working Zen silicon (in 2016 IRC).
 

RetroZombie

Senior member
Nov 5, 2019
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I should also remind you that Keller left AMD in 2015, before AMD had the chance to make performance demos with working Zen silicon (in 2016 IRC).
It's all alright, intel's (Jim Kellers version) will see the day light until 2023, from one of the links:
«External experts believe that the radical new architecture that Jim Keller and his team will be able to create will not arrive until before 2023, in fact, five years after Jim joined Intel.»
 

jpiniero

Lifer
Oct 1, 2010
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He didn't quit, he resigned his current position and took a different role. Probably after six months he will have a better feel for whatever is going on at this time with possible family health issues, if that's the case.

Charlie D on Twitter just said that Keller has a new gig lined up already. Like I said, him quitting had nothing to do with the family issues.
 

clemsyn

Senior member
Aug 21, 2005
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Charlie D on Twitter just said that Keller has a new gig lined up already. Like I said, him quitting had nothing to do with the family issues.
Dang it, hoping he will go back to Intel because Murthy is gone. We need competition in the CPU market. If Intel burns then there will be less competition and innovation drops.
 

DiogoDX

Senior member
Oct 11, 2012
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Yes he is gone. After initially announcing that 7nm is on schedule then recently revealing issues.. shareholders are not happy. Possible lawsuits next from shareholders?
 

Zucker2k

Golden Member
Feb 15, 2006
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Reading a few scattered comments here and there, I have a feeling the pro-AMD crowd are going to be cheering on Intel process development before all this is over. That's the only way to avoid a Pyrrhic victory scenario here. It turns out, Intel's successes in process development at this time is good for all, after all. The irony.

And if you're AMD, do you gently carve out your 30% out of that lucrative server market that Intel is possessive about, or do you risk having Intel abandon Plan A and rush over to TSMC due to your successes, which an aggressive release schedule is bound to trigger? Interesting times ahead
 

turtile

Senior member
Aug 19, 2014
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Reading a few scattered comments here and there, I have a feeling the pro-AMD crowd are going to be cheering on Intel process development before all this is over. That's the only way to avoid a Pyrrhic victory scenario here. It turns out, Intel's successes in process development at this time is good for all, after all. The irony.

And if you're AMD, do you gently carve out your 30% out of that lucrative server market that Intel is possessive about, or do you risk having Intel abandon Plan A and rush over to TSMC due to your successes, which an aggressive release schedule is bound to trigger? Interesting times ahead

Intel can't use TSMC as an option besides a few special projects. Intel is a manufacturing company first and a design company second. They've been buying out a lot of chip companies to add more products for them to manufacture. The financial future of Intel will be in jeopardy if their fabs fall apart. They also lose the edge that they've historically had.
 

rbk123

Senior member
Aug 22, 2006
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Reading a few scattered comments here and there, I have a feeling the pro-AMD crowd are going to be cheering on Intel process development before all this is over. That's the only way to avoid a Pyrrhic victory scenario here. It turns out, Intel's successes in process development at this time is good for all, after all. The irony.
A pro-Intel diehard giving his guesses on the pro-AMD'ers mindset. Oh joy.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,620
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Intel can't use TSMC as an option besides a few special projects. Intel is a manufacturing company first and a design company second. They've been buying out a lot of chip companies to add more products for them to manufacture. The financial future of Intel will be in jeopardy if their fabs fall apart. They also lose the edge that they've historically had.

The open question is, what do the fabs do now? 10nm is stuck in a rut, and though Intel has (apparently) decided to split Ponte Vecchio between TSMC N5 and Intel 7nm, I severely doubt Intel 7nm Ponte Vecchio will really see the light of day. Anything they have to actually deliver to a customer and make work will come from TSMC wafers.

Intel has to update their entire 14nm product lineup. 10nm is not yet equal to the task, and may not ever be ready. That leaves them in a pickle. TSMC isn't going to prioritize delivery of wafers to a foundry competitor either, not over reliable customers like Apple and AMD (and even nVidia if JHH stops dragging his feet on node updates). Qualcomm and until recently Huawei would be earlier in line as well. TSMC is not stupid enough to screw over existing customers. They may raise prices based on apparent demand, of course . . .
 

chrisjames61

Senior member
Dec 31, 2013
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Intel can't use TSMC as an option besides a few special projects. Intel is a manufacturing company first and a design company second. They've been buying out a lot of chip companies to add more products for them to manufacture. The financial future of Intel will be in jeopardy if their fabs fall apart. They also lose the edge that they've historically had.

They lost the edge quite a while back dude. The fabs wheels came off a while ago.