It's been interesting to see how the industry's giants try and find ways to rejuvenate themselves with blood from other companies - and there's got to be no better feeling than taking someone from under a competitor's mantle. It's the old two kills with one stone adage, really: one reinforces one's position by hampering a competitors'. But until now, it seemed most high-profile movements between AMD and Intel were a game of squash, with Intel claiming AMD's chief graphics division experts such as Raja Koduri and Chris Hook.

Now, AMD has seemingly turned the game into a sort of tennis encounter, having successfully headhunted Intel's Martin Ashton, formerly "Vice President, Core and Visual Computing Group, Chief Engineer, VTT and Director of Hardware and Co-Director of Architecture, VPG at Intel." Martin Ashton, as the extensive position descriptor somewhat cloudily states, was an important piece of Intel's overall graphics strategy - though arguably not as important as the players Intel snagged from AMD. Still, Martin Ashton has long-standing roots on the graphics landscape, particularly at Imagination Technologies; and AMD's David Wang seems to think he's a great fit for the team - and AMD's vision. He's now part of AMD as Corporate Vice President.Martin Ashton, left, and David Wang, right

"We are very happy to bring Martin and his talent to AMD for our graphics roadmap and our business. David Wang is building a great team from both within AMD with key promotions and with key external additions like Martin."

Here's hoping these acquisitions for AMD help them in catching up to NVIDIA in yet another uphill battle for graphics supremacy. For one, AMD seems to be filling its graphics design team with names closely linked with the mobile space - perhaps foreshadowing a development mentality close to NVIDIA's in adapting mobile technologies, particularly their low power chops, and building them up to full-fledged, high-performance solutions? Time will tell.