AMD loses its high profile CPU architect Jim Keller

It was only last week that AMD effectively spun off its GPU division into Radeon Technology Group, and now the chipmaker is in the headlines again as it has lost another high-profile employee in the form of its Chief Architect of Microprocessor Cores, Jim Keller. Keller is leaving AMD to pursue other opportunities.

Keller is known for his work with AMD in their early days of CPU dominance, as he was a key player in the creation of the original Athlon architecture, the K7. After that, he was the lead architect on the K8 architecture, and played a large role in developing the world's first native x86-64 bit architecture. Keller left AMD for Apple to help make its A4 and A5 processors, joining AMD once again in 2012 to lead the development of the Zen architecture.

An AMD spokesperson talked with HEXUS, where they said: "Jim was responsible for overseeing the teams defining the roadmaps for AMD's CPU cores, systems IP, and server and client SoCs". Obviously some people might be worried about AMD losing a key player of theirs, so the spokesperson added: "Jim helped establish a strong leadership team that is well positioned for success as we enter the completion phase of the "Zen" core and associated system IP and SoCs. Jim's departure is not expected to impact our public product or technology roadmaps, and we remain on track for "Zen" sampling in 2016 with first full year of revenue in 2017".