Apple CPU architect for iPhone, iPad departs for AMD

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
AMD announced on Wednesday that it has hired Jim Keller, who was previously a director in Apple's mobile platform architecture group where he worked on Apple's custom chips for devices like the iPhone and iPad.

Keller, 53, joins AMD as corporate vice president and chief architect of its microprocessor cores. he will report to chief technology officer and senior vice president of technology and engineering Mark Papermaster, who is also an ex-Apple employee.

Papermaster left Apple in 2010 after he reportedly had a falling out with the company's then-chief-executive, Steve Jobs. Citing anonymous sources, The Wall Street Journal said Papermaster's exit was chiefly a result of "cultural incompatibility."

As for AMD's latest hire, Keller, he will lead AMD's microprocessor core design efforts, focused on developing high-performance and low-power processor cores that the company said will be the foundation of its future projects. Keller came to Apple in 2008, when his previous company P.A. Semi was acquired by the iPhone maker.

Keller was responsible for building Apple's custom System on a Chip designs that power the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV. Apple's custom CPUs include the A4 processor found in the first-generation iPad and iPhone 4, the A5 found in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, and the A5X that powers the third-generation iPad with Retina display.

Keller
Jim Keller, via PC Watch.


"Jim is one of the most widely respected and sought-after innovators in the industry and a very strong addition to our engineering team," Papermaster said. "He has contributed to processing innovations that have delivered tremendous compute advances for millions of people all over the world, and we expect that his innovative spirit, low-power design expertise, creativity and drive for success will help us shape our future and fuel our growth."

Before working with Apple and P.A. Semi, Keller was with SiByte and Broadcom as chief architect for a line of scalable, MIPS-based network processors that supported 1Gig networking interfaces, PCI and other control functions. Before Broadcom, he spent several years at AMD as part of the design team responsible for the AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron 64 processors, which featured the world's first native x86-64-bit architecture.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    haarhaar Posts: 563member
    finally, an end to the "Bulldozer" debacle... (for the desktop)
  • Reply 2 of 29
    sevenfeetsevenfeet Posts: 465member


    I'm sure the Apple gig was great but Papermaster upgraded him from a director level position to Group VP (essentially a two level upgrade) with a lot more control of what he does.  Of course, he has to work for AMD, which is a problem.  They need all the help they can get right now.

  • Reply 3 of 29
    Impossible. Apple has no engineers - only marketers. How can you hire away something that doesn't exist? /S

    On a serious note, this seems like it could be a loss for Apple. Or maybe Apple's hiring of a former AMD engineer for GPU's was to help fill in the gap.
  • Reply 4 of 29


    How important is AMD to Apple? Apple can buy AMD with only one month of profit (2.5B) and it doesn't. 

  • Reply 5 of 29
    So Apple hires an AMD architect and AMD hires an Apple architect, I see, is this a conspiracy in the making!
  • Reply 6 of 29
    ochymingochyming Posts: 474member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Richard Torcato View Post


    How important is AMD to Apple? Apple can buy AMD with only one month of profit (2.5B) and it doesn't. 



     


     


    Does it matter. Corporates do not wash their clothes for ?us? to see.

  • Reply 7 of 29
    ochymingochyming Posts: 474member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by festerfeet View Post



    So Apple hires an AMD architect and AMD hires an Apple architect, I see, is this a conspiracy in the making!


     


     


    Indeed!

  • Reply 8 of 29
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    Jim sure changes places of employment a lot.
  • Reply 9 of 29
    rbrrbr Posts: 631member


    I would guess that the conversation went something like this:


     


    Papermaster: So, Jim, when do your Apple shares vest?


     


    Keller: They just vested, so I'm good.


     


    Papermaster: How'd you like to come work at a place where you aren't treated like dirt? I've enjoyed life a lot more since I left.


     


    Keller: That might be interesting. What have you got in mind?


     


    Papermaster: I'll put you in charge of our mobile development and a few other things where we need to improve our thermal envelope. You know data centers are even conscious of power consumption these days. Besides, we need a fresh look at our architectures in general.


     


    Keller: OK, if I did come on board, just how much freedom of action will I have?


     


    Papermaster: We are a team, but you will be one of the leaders. You won't have someone micromanaging your every thought either. You know what I mean.


     


    Keller: When do you want me?


     


    :-)

  • Reply 10 of 29


    He's a traitor.  Good Riddance.

  • Reply 11 of 29


    AMD could offer him something Apple couldn't or wouldn't. Right or wrong its good for people to move on. Not for the company that employs them, but for them personally. His CV has a lot of moves in it already.

  • Reply 12 of 29
    ssquirrelssquirrel Posts: 1,196member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post



    On a serious note, this seems like it could be a loss for Apple. Or maybe Apple's hiring of a former AMD engineer for GPU's was to help fill in the gap.


     


    Considering he left Apple in 2010, doesn't seem like its been too much of a loss.  He has a strong history tho and it looks like he is returning home to AMD, so good for him. 


     


    To the talk of Apple buying AMD, that wouldn't be a good fit at all.  Imagine if Apple bought AMD and then only used them for making Apple specific processors and video cards.  All of a sudden, you would have one less competitor for Intel (and the only one that has amounted to much serious competition in the x86 world) and NVIDIA would lose the only competitor it has.  That would be bad all the way around, especially for consumers.


     


    EDIT: I read that wrong.  Corrected by igxqrrl

  • Reply 13 of 29
    igxqrrligxqrrl Posts: 105member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SSquirrel View Post


     


    Considering he left Apple in 2010, doesn't seem like its been too much of a loss.  He has a strong history tho and it looks like he is returning home to AMD, so good for him. 


     



    He's leaving Apple now, not in 2010. Papermaster left in 2010.

  • Reply 14 of 29
    emacs72emacs72 Posts: 356member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JerrySwitched26 View Post


    He's a traitor.  Good Riddance.



     


    what is / was about Keller that made you state such a thing?  i'm not familiar with his conduct.

  • Reply 15 of 29

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by emacs72 View Post


     


    what is / was about Keller that made you state such a thing?  i'm not familiar with his conduct.



     


     


    He's working for a company that wants to kill Apple's suppliers.  He quit Apple.  

  • Reply 16 of 29
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    festerfeet wrote: »
    So Apple hires an AMD architect and AMD hires an Apple architect, I see, is this a conspiracy in the making!

    Not that I'd ever get into conspiracy theories. Perhaps these moves are swaps in advance of the take over of AMD by Apple ... Oh, oops ...
  • Reply 17 of 29


    He's going back home to AMD. If you read the whole piece, this is where he spent the most time.


     


    Culture is usually underrated by people, but it's huge. If you are in a company and not comfortable with the culture, you want out. And you should get out if you can. It's best for everybody, including the company you are leaving.

     

  • Reply 18 of 29
    ssquirrelssquirrel Posts: 1,196member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JerrySwitched26 View Post


     


     


    He's working for a company that wants to kill Apple's suppliers.  He quit Apple.  



     


    AMD wants to kill Apple's suppliers?  If you are referring to Intel that's laughable.  a)AMD is nowhere near challenging Intel and b)w/all the cross licensing they have, if Intel went away and they lost access to all that cross licensing, it would hurt AMD significantly.

  • Reply 19 of 29
    emacs72emacs72 Posts: 356member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JerrySwitched26 View Post


     


     


    He's working for a company that wants to kill Apple's suppliers.  He quit Apple.  



     


     


    i'm keen to see whatever citations you have to support your opinion(s).


     


    side note: Keller was employed at AMD before he joined Apple.  Keller helped develop the first iterations of the Athlon and Opteron line of CPUs at AMD.

  • Reply 20 of 29

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SSquirrel View Post


     


    AMD wants to kill Apple's suppliers?  If you are referring to Intel that's laughable.  a)AMD is nowhere near challenging Intel and b)w/all the cross licensing they have, if Intel went away and they lost access to all that cross licensing, it would hurt AMD significantly.



     


     


    I'm sorry if I was confusing you with AppleSpeak terminology. 


     


    "Kill" means "compete with".  As is "Google wants to kill the iPhone".  As in "The next 'iPhone killer'".  


     


    All actions are extreme black or white in AppleSpeak.   I thought that it would be understood.

Sign In or Register to comment.