AMD shakes things up, again

Posted at: 11:04am 14th May 2008 by James Morris

Trio of seasoned CPU veterans set to lead new AMD division – but will it mean a return to great things?

AMD may not have the upper hand in the processor business, but it’s shaping up to be the king of ‘organisational and executive changes’. After denying it was laying off 5 per cent of its workforce in March, the company went on to make double that number redundant. Now, as part of ‘ongoing efforts to re-architect its business for sustained profitability’, AMD has created a Central Engineering section.

Most tellingly, one of the executives put in charge of the new division is Randy Allen, who oversaw the original introduction of the Opteron and Athlon 64. So perhaps AMD is hoping to regain its former glory days, when the first version of its AMD64 architecture humbled Intel’s competing Netburst designs. Allen will be joined by Chekib Akrout, formerly of Freescale and IBM, where he was responsible for the Cell microprocessor found in the Playstation 3, and the Xenon found in the Xbox 360. Another AMD employee, Jeff VerHeul, will make up the final third of the trio of heavy-hitters. VerHeul is also a former IBM employee, where he was head of engineering and technical services at the end of a 25-year career. He came over to AMD in 2005.

However, behind many a ‘restructure’ lies a darker story. Mario Rivas, formerly executive vice president, Computing Solutions Group and Michel Cadieux, formerly senior vice president and Chief Talent Officer, have ‘left AMD to pursue new opportunities’. We wonder if those new opportunities involve greater time for gardening.

AMD has certainly gathered together some talented individuals for its new Central Engineering division. The question remains whether they have what it takes to turn things around, and make the Phenom’s successors competitive again – particularly with Intel’s forthcoming Nehalem architecture looming. But they certainly have the right track records.

Related: official AMD announcement about the creation of the Central Engineering division.