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Apple's CPU architect Jim Keller makes AMD return

Apple's CPU architect Jim Keller makes AMD return

By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 1 August 2012 23:08 IST

AMD Wednesday announced that Jim Keller, a director in the platform architecture group at Apple, has joined the company.

Keller joined Apple in 2008, when the Cupertino-based giant acquired P.A. Semi, a semiconductor design firm specialising in low-power mobile processors. While at Apple, Keller architected several generations of mobile processors, including the A4 and A5 chip families found in millions of Apple iPads, iPhones, iPods and Apple TVs.

Jim Keller's first stint with AMD began in 1998, having joined from DEC where he was working as a Corporate Consulting Engineer. At AMD, Keller co-authored the widely adopted HyperTransport specification, as well as the x86-64 processor instruction set, which is used around the world today in hundreds of millions of desktop, notebook and server systems.

Keller also played an instrumental role on the design team responsible for the AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Optero 64 processors, which featured the world's first native x86-64 bit architecture. Keller left AMD in 1999 to join Sibyte, which was later acquired by Broadcom. In 2004, Jim Keller joined PA Semi as the Vice President of Engineering.

It will be interesting to see if Keller's exit will have any impact on the CPU design process over at Apple. Meanwhile, the folks at AMD are delighted to have him on board. Mark Papermaster, CTO and Senior Vice President of Technology and Engineering at AMD, and also the man Keller will be reporting to in his new role said, "Jim is one of the most widely respected and sought-after innovators in the industry and a very strong addition to our engineering team."

"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."

AMD has been struggling off-late with poor results and loss of key personnel. Keller's arrival should bring some cheer to a place desperately in search of good news.

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