AMD Shuffles Cards In Bid To Get Back In Black

Advanced Micro Devices has been a busy chip maker in recent weeks, announcing a major update to its roadmap and a shakeup of top executives to go along with the creation of a new engineering division. Oh, and AMD also managed to roll out its first-ever commercial client platform, new low-power quad-core Opteron processors and the initial batch of triple-core Phenom chips for OEMs and system builders.

Randy Allen, AMD's then-server/workstation chief, introduced a roadmap update last week that included plans for a six-core processor codenamed Istanbul by the second half of 2009 and a 12-core chip called Magny-Cours set for release in the first half of the following year. Allen also said AMD is on track for its transition to the 45nm fabrication process, achieved by rival Intel last fall, by the second half of this year.

A few days later, Allen had been promoted to head AMD's computing solutions group, replacing the outgoing Mario Rivas, who the chip maker described as having left "to pursue new opportunities." Also departing Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD was Michel Cadieux, head of human resources. Rivas and Cadieux join former CTO Phil Hester, who left last month, and ex-sales chief Henri Richard and Visual Media Business chief Dave Orton, both of whom departed late last summer.

The executive shakeup was accompanied by the creation of a new Central Engineering organization at AMD. The new unit will be led by newcomer Chekib Akrout, formerly a VP of design technology at Freescale Semiconductor, and internal selection Jeff VerHeul, a VP of design engineering at AMD. Both will report directly to AMD president and COO Dirk Meyer.

AMD has suffered losses in six straight quarters and in April announced layoffs of about 1,600 workers from 16,800 worldwide, to be completed by the end of the third quarter of this year. It was not clear whether Rivas' and Cadieux's departures would count towards the downsizing total. AMD has stated that Hester's exit was not part of the layoffs.

The headcount reduction has not impacted the chip maker's channel team, an AMD source told ChannelWeb, adding that downsizing at AMD's Sunnyvale, Calif. and Austin, Tex. headquarters was "pretty much finished" as of early May.

AMD's strategy of trimming its way out of its struggles is well-known, but the chip maker has also released a flurry of new products to kick off the year while finally rolling out its long-delayed quad-core Opteron parts in volume to OEMs and the channel.

Allen's roadmap update also included a brief on AMD's ramp of its quad-core server chips. The Opteron chips formerly codenamed Barcelona have successfully undergone the B3 revision that addressed the silicon glitch which delayed volume shipments of AMD's first quad-core product late last year, he said. AMD had more than enough supplies to meet demand from top OEM partners and its system builder channel, Allen added.

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