AMD Snags Former Apple Chip Design Lead

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Apple has been doing a lot of really interesting things in the system on a chip world. They purchased P.A. Semi, and they started releasing their own branded chip starting with the A4, and continuing with the A5 and A5X. Today, AMD has snagged a very important person from Apple’s chip initiatives.

Arik Hesseldahl, AllThingsD:

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices just announced that it has poached the head of Apple’s chip design operations to run its chief microprocessor architect. Jim Keller joined Apple by way of its 2008 acquisition of the start-up PA Semi[…] Keller was the original architectect of AMD’s Athlon line of processors, which for a time — in 2005 and 2006 — put a bit of a scare into Intel.

While one person leaving Apple doesn’t really mean a lot, there has been quite a few important people leaving Apple in the past few years. That doesn’t spell doom in any substantial way, but it does mean that the company will evolve down a different path. New and different people coming into leadership roles in Apple might actually be a very good thing. The last thing anyone wants is for Apple to stagnate. The Apple of today is pretty different from the Apple of five years ago. That Apple is even more different from the Apple from 10 years ago. Clearly, Apple’s biggest strength is its ability to innovate and move into new fields, so the people selling doom and gloom for Apple are either missing the point or actively trolling for page views. I’m betting on the latter.

Source: AllThingsD

Grant is a writer from Delaware. In his spare time, Grant maintains a personal blog, hosts The Weekly Roar, hosts Quadcast, and writes for video games.