Apple Dealt Blow As Top Chip Designer Raja Koduri Leaves For AMD
Raja Koduri has returned to a position with GPU company AMD from a 4-year appointment with Apple.
For the past 4 years Raja Koduri has been working on all things graphics at Apple, but now thanks to a great offer and a fear of getting too comfortable at Apple, he’s back at AMD.
Raja Koduri, 44, will lead engineering efforts in visual computing, reporting to Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster, another former Apple executive, Sunnyvale, California-based AMD said in a statement today.
Mr. Koduri was instrumental in the past, with ATI Technologies winning over the Xbox deal from Nvidia, as well as paving path to future business wins with Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and so on. However, in 2009, Mr. Koduri was disillusioned about the path AMD-ATI was taking, and left the company – taking the role as Chief Technology Officer for Graphics at Apple Inc. That role later moved to Director of Graphics Architecture, Apple.
AMD Chief Executive Officer Rory Read is remaking the company to develop new processor technology, part of an effort to differentiate its products from those of larger rival Intel Corp. and open up new markets outside of PCs. Global PC shipments fell 14 percent in the three months that ended in March, the steepest quarterly drop on record and worse than the 7.7 percent decline forecast by research-firm IDC.
Raja believes there’s likely another 15 years ahead of us of good work in high-end discrete graphics, so we’ll continue to see AMD focus on that part of the market. However, Raja’s efforts will span everything from discrete GPUs to its own APU/SoC strategy.
After the company bled numerous brilliant minds, seeing people like Jim Keller, Roy Taylor, Colette LaForce, John Gustafson and now Raja Koduri all joining AMD – it is clear that the company is rebuilding itself.
[AnandTech]
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