"I just confirmed that Raja Koduri will in fact be going to work at Intel." - Ryan Shrout. Twitter

[PeterScott]

didn't Intel fire a lot of their IGP people like last year?

Not that I can find in a Google search. Intel let go 12000 people last year, that probably touched every group. The only group that seemed decimated was IoT.

 

[coercitiv]

Raja has a big challenge ahead of him, but if he succeeds at this very difficult task, then he will have capped off his career with the knowledge of having literally reshaped the computing landscape.

Last tweet from Raja should raise a few eyebrows. It's funny how people who threw dirt at him will have to admit he currently has a lot of trust from Intel.

It will be a massive understatement to say that I am beyond excited about my new role at Intel. I haven't yet seen anything written that groks the magnitude of what I am pursuing. The scale of it is not even remotely close to what I was doing before. Will say more when ready!

Looks like he won't be touching Intel's IGP, and may actually be working on something that has little or no overlap with AMDs current offering. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if his presence at Intel HQ may improve cooperation between the two companies, not sever it.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Looks like he won't be touching Intel's IGP, and may actually be working on something that has little or no overlap with AMDs current offering. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if his presence at Intel HQ may improve cooperation between the two companies, not sever it.

Billions of users today enjoy computing experiences powered by Intel’s leading cores and visual computing IP. Going forward under Koduri’s leadership, the company will unify and expand differentiated IP across computing, graphics, media, imaging and machine intelligence capabilities for the client and data center segments, artificial intelligence, and emerging opportunities like edge computing.

https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/raja-koduri-joins-intel/

Pay attention to the bits in bold. This is a clear indication that Intel won't be buying RTG GPUs for much longer.

 

[coercitiv]

Pay attention to the bits in bold. This is a clear indication that Intel won't be buying RTG GPUs for much longer.

I beg to differ, my money is Intel will be laser focused on compute going forward and the RTG GPUs will continue to fill a gap in their offering. But this is 100% speculation on my part, not informed guess. Take it as an easy challenge to prove the opposite 🙂

This fusion stuff... amazing how a kids cartoon nailed the metaphor in terms of both exponential power potential and difficulty to achieve.

 

[tamz_msc]

https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/raja-koduri-joins-intel/

Pay attention to the bits in bold. This is a clear indication that Intel won't be buying RTG GPUs for much longer.

For them to develop differentiated IP within a reasonable time frame, they should have done what Apple did to Imagination.

Maybe they're headed hat way and scooping Raja is just the beginning, who knows...but if Intel could lead AMD into a legal standoff on IP reuse, then AMD would have no other option than to jettison RTG and hope that NVIDIA are interested in them.

Vega and it's aftermath is making noise in ways nobody in the industry would have imagined.

 

[FIVR]

It sounds like lawsuits are brewing for Raja and Intel. This move doesn't appear to have been pre approved.

We have a very strong graphics team and will continue our focus on building great products,” a spokesman said. “We also have industry-leading graphics IP and, if necessary, will vigorously defend it.

 

[FIVR]

This pretty much shows those opinions were completely wrong.

Clearly it was him who decided to switch jobs, Intel offering bigger challenge, pay and whatever. AMD would probably have loved to keep him.
And it also likely shows that Intel considers his skills and talent top notch if they decided to poach exactly him, to head such an ambitious play.

How is intel a "bigger challenge" than AMD? I don't think you are correct here. Recent comments by AMD make it sound like Raja thinks he can get revenge for his firing by going to AMD's biggest competitor.

I don't think Raja read the contracts he signed when he took his job at AMD. That, or he somehow believes intel's massive legal team will protect him. He is wrong.

 

[PeterScott]

How is intel a "bigger challenge" than AMD? I don't think you are correct here. Recent comments by AMD make it sound like Raja thinks he can get revenge for his firing by going to AMD's biggest competitor.

I don't think Raja read the contracts he signed when he took his job at AMD. That, or he somehow believes intel's massive legal team will protect him. He is wrong.

Intel is further behind in graphics than AMD, so making them industry competitive should be a bigger challenge.

AMDs comments sound more like a warning that they don't want to see GCN designs show up at Intel. But other than having done something as stupid as carrying some actual documented designs, from AMD over to Intel, Raja and Intel have nothing to fear.

Look at recent cases like this Waymo vs Uber, and Zenimax vs Occulus/Carmak. This involve people shady/dumb enough to carry document/SW troves over to the new company.

I doubt we will see a lawsuit here.

 

[FIVR]

Intel is further behind in graphics than AMD, so making them industry competitive should be a bigger challenge.

AMDs comments sound more like a warning that they don't want to see GCN designs show up at Intel. But other than having done something as stupid as carrying some actual documented designs, from AMD over to Intel, Raja and Intel have nothing to fear.

Look at recent cases like this Waymo vs Uber, and Zenimax vs Occulus/Carmak. This involve people shady/dumb enough to carry document/SW troves over to the new company.

I doubt we will see a lawsuit here.

I don't think the lawsuits will be directed at intel, much more likely they will be directed a Raja. The position he held almost certainly had non-compete clauses which he would've had to sign upon his hiring. It would be trivially simple for AMD's legal team to file a lawsuit and they would likely win easily if this move wasn't pre-approved by the board (which their comments seem to indicate it was not).

I expect to see lawsuits filed against Raja soon, and rightfully so. This sounds exactly like that engineer who left TSMC and suddenly appeared in south Korea... then a few months later Samsung displayed IP that almost directly copied TSMC's designs. There are reasons for non-compete clauses with highly valued employees working on extremely valuable IP.

 

[jpiniero]

Non Competes are unenforceable in California.

 

[maddie]

Intel is further behind in graphics than AMD, so making them industry competitive should be a bigger challenge.

AMDs comments sound more like a warning that they don't want to see GCN designs show up at Intel. But other than having done something as stupid as carrying some actual documented designs, from AMD over to Intel, Raja and Intel have nothing to fear.

Look at recent cases like this Waymo vs Uber, and Zenimax vs Occulus/Carmak. This involve people shady/dumb enough to carry document/SW troves over to the new company.

I doubt we will see a lawsuit here.

You actually believe its as simple as you state here. No documented designs, no documents, no software and presto, no problems.

That was a statement not a debate opening.

 

[Dygaza]

Even if Intel would end up bringing up great GPU's for market, and even in gaming, they will have to fight the driver battle. AMD has been fighting for a long time to clear their name with having bad drivers, and still their past haunts them even today. Intel's drivers have even worse reputation than AMD's ever had.

 

[PeterScott]

Non Competes are unenforceable in California.

Non Competes make no sense, and should be unenforceable everywhere. That is like signing up (being coerced) to say you can't work after you are let go.

I can't remember any kind of recent non-compete being enforced, the cases with issues all resolve around outright theft of documents/SW.

 

[LTC8K6]

Intel has a pretty darn good graphics market share for a company that is supposedly the farthest behind.

It seems like Intel is actually interested in this market.

I can recall many posts along the lines of Intel abandoning it's IGP.

Perhaps Intel knows what it's doing after all?

 

[Glo.]

I think people are forgetting that AMD sales market share for two last quarters outsold Intel. What will happen if AMD brings higher performance in APUs, than Intel? What will happen when AMD will bring HBM2 APUs to market?

Hiring Raja is answer to this. Intel has highest installed base of GPUs, that are extremely weak, all things considered. AMD has higher performance here, and this is really important selling point in the long run. Do not forget about this.

Did AMD lost talent? Yes, they did. Was Raja fulfilled by working at AMD? To some degree - maybe. If he would be fulfilled in 100% he would stay at AMD.

With this departure whole industry can gain. But claiming that some companies are doomed is just BS.

 

[maddie]

Intel has a pretty darn good graphics market share for a company that is supposedly the farthest behind.

It seems like Intel is actually interested in this market.

I can recall many posts along the lines of Intel abandoning it's IGP.

Perhaps Intel knows what it's doing after all?

The graphics market share is quite misleading as you well know. A by product of superior CPU tech. Use that argument on dumber people than populate this forum.
They are, at present, the furthest behind, barring some hidden tech soon to be revealed.
The IGP might well be dead, at least as we know it. Intel appears to believe that EMIB is the future. If true, integration will be redefined. No more big SOCs.

 

[FIVR]

Non Competes are unenforceable in California.

Too bad intel is incorporated in Oregon. Sucks for Raja.

 

[LTC8K6]

The graphics market share is quite misleading as you well know. A by product of superior CPU tech. Use that argument on dumber people than populate this forum.
They are, at present, the furthest behind, barring some hidden tech soon to be revealed.
The IGP might well be dead, at least as we know it. Intel appears to believe that EMIB is the future. If true, integration will be redefined. No more big SOCs.

No, Intel rules the low end as far as I know.

 

[maddie]

I think people are forgetting that AMD sales market share for two last quarters outsold Intel. What will happen if AMD brings higher performance in APUs, than Intel? What will happen when AMD will bring HBM2 APUs to market?

Hiring Raja is answer to this. Intel has highest installed base of GPUs, that are extremely weak, all things considered. AMD has higher performance here, and this is really important selling point in the long run. Do not forget about this.

Did AMD lost talent? Yes, they did. Was Raja fulfilled by working at AMD? To some degree - maybe. If he would be fulfilled in 100% he would stay at AMD.

With this departure whole industry can gain. But claiming that some companies are doomed is just BS.

Do you think this is a sudden [2Q] move. For Intel to be creating a new section and redefining their GPU future should have taken much longer and not a reaction to ZEN. Feelers would have been extended to prospective hires around the same time planning started.

This situation, to me, seems as if Raja knew for quite some time where he was heading. Opens up many new questions, some not nice.

 

[mxnerd]

It's absolutely a big loss and bad news for AMD. Stock share price has dropped more than 7%

 

[PingSpike]

Intel has a pretty darn good graphics market share for a company that is supposedly the farthest behind.

I bet that sandpaper toilet paper they put in every public bathroom in the planet has excellent marketshare as well.

 

[zinfamous]

If you can't beat them, hire them away?? Seems a strange hire though, considering how poorly AMDs gpu division has been performing and Intel's failure at building discrete gpus before. Ultimately I assume they want to get into the lucrative compute business. If successful, it could help keep margins high now that they have more competition in cpus and servers. Really seems like they are late to the party though.

I recall the primary argument about AMD's lackluster performance/failures since RTG have been about resources. That isn't going to be an issue at Intel.

 

[Atari2600]

Non Competes make no sense, and should be unenforceable everywhere. That is like signing up (being coerced) to say you can't work after you are let go.

Did he (officially) walk or was he (officially) pushed.

If he (officially) walked, then non-compete are enforceable I believe. Certainly they are within the world of F1.

 

[Atari2600]

I recall the primary argument about AMD's lackluster performance/failures since RTG have been about resources. That isn't going to be an issue at Intel.

Is vega not worse per mm2 than polaris?

That is not due to a lack of resources.

 

[theeedude]

AMD is worth a lot more as CPU and GPU parts, than a standalone company at $11b current market cap. Intel spent $16b on Altera and $15b on MobilEye, trying to catch up up to GPUs. RTG with actual GPUs is worth at least $10b to them. CPU team is probably worth ay least $10b standalone, given duopoly pricing power and increased competitiveness.