http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/bob/richard-huddy-rejoins-amd-as-gaming-scientist/
There are two ways to look at people who have worked for every major company in a given industry. You can take the view that they have never really settled or you can value the additional experience they have gained by seeing how all the main players operate. News in to KitGuru is that Richard Huddy, Godfather of DirectX, has returned to AMD.
Going back one or two generations, working for one company for most of your life was considered the norm.
When you check the sports pages for F1 drivers or international footballers, hardly a day goes buy without someone speculating about a move from one team to another.
While Huddy started life by coming up with the idea of DirectX with a couple of very smart dudes called Doug and Servan at Rendermorphics (subsequently bought by Microsoft), he then spent the best part of the next 20 years with the biggest hardware vendors.
Initially, he was at nVidia, then ATi which became AMD and latterly with Intel.
Our guess is that while Intel puts the CPU at the heart of everything and then rolls in some new additions to graphics every couple of years, a true graphics whiz would feel that the GPU should be closer to the centre and that the pace of change should be much quicker.
As we said back in 2011, Huddys decision to join Intel was a bit of a surprise, because everyone thought he would be back at AMD after a short hiatus. Theres no doubt that Intel is in a much stronger position, graphically, than it was 3 years ago, so maybe some Huddy magic rubbed off.
Given his exclusive interview with KitGuru last year about moving beyond DirectX, we reckon that AMDs Mantle initiative would have been a major factor.
Whatever his reason for parting with Intel, Huddy has now officially joined the office of the CTO at AMD and will be working with his old sparing partner Raja Koduri to help shape tomorrows graphics world.
Lastly, the influence of AMD CSO John Byrne might have been brought to bear, given how strongly he believes that Mantle is part of AMDs leadership in the field of graphics, as he discussed with us last month.
KitGuru says: While Richard says open standards, the move by Microsoft to acknowledge the power of Mantle by stepping up with DirectX 12 is likely to have been a significant factor in Richards final decision. Its nice to be wanted.
The official statement from AMD follows:
There are two ways to look at people who have worked for every major company in a given industry. You can take the view that they have never really settled or you can value the additional experience they have gained by seeing how all the main players operate. News in to KitGuru is that Richard Huddy, Godfather of DirectX, has returned to AMD.
Going back one or two generations, working for one company for most of your life was considered the norm.
When you check the sports pages for F1 drivers or international footballers, hardly a day goes buy without someone speculating about a move from one team to another.
While Huddy started life by coming up with the idea of DirectX with a couple of very smart dudes called Doug and Servan at Rendermorphics (subsequently bought by Microsoft), he then spent the best part of the next 20 years with the biggest hardware vendors.
Initially, he was at nVidia, then ATi which became AMD and latterly with Intel.
Our guess is that while Intel puts the CPU at the heart of everything and then rolls in some new additions to graphics every couple of years, a true graphics whiz would feel that the GPU should be closer to the centre and that the pace of change should be much quicker.
As we said back in 2011, Huddys decision to join Intel was a bit of a surprise, because everyone thought he would be back at AMD after a short hiatus. Theres no doubt that Intel is in a much stronger position, graphically, than it was 3 years ago, so maybe some Huddy magic rubbed off.
Given his exclusive interview with KitGuru last year about moving beyond DirectX, we reckon that AMDs Mantle initiative would have been a major factor.
Whatever his reason for parting with Intel, Huddy has now officially joined the office of the CTO at AMD and will be working with his old sparing partner Raja Koduri to help shape tomorrows graphics world.
Lastly, the influence of AMD CSO John Byrne might have been brought to bear, given how strongly he believes that Mantle is part of AMDs leadership in the field of graphics, as he discussed with us last month.
KitGuru says: While Richard says open standards, the move by Microsoft to acknowledge the power of Mantle by stepping up with DirectX 12 is likely to have been a significant factor in Richards final decision. Its nice to be wanted.
The official statement from AMD follows:
AMD is proud to announce the return of the well-respected authority in gaming, Richard Huddy. After three years away from AMD, Richard returns as AMD's Gaming Scientist in the Office of the CTO - he'll be serving as a senior advisor to key technology executives, like Mark Papermaster, Raja Koduri and Joe Macri. AMD is extremely excited to have such an industry visionary back. Having spent his professional career with companies like NVIDIA, Intel and ATI, and having led the worldwide ISV engineering team for over six years at AMD, Mr. Huddy has a truly unique perspective on the PC and Gaming industries.
Mr. Huddy rejoins AMD after a brief stint at Intel, where he had a major impact on their graphics roadmap. During his career Richard has made enormous contributions to the industry, including the development of DirectX and a wide range of visual effects technologies. Mr. Huddys contributions in gaming have been so significant that he was immortalized as The Scientist in Max Payne (if youre a gamer, youll see the resemblance immediately).
