Tuesday, March 21st 2023
Raja Koduri, Executive Vice President & Chief Architect, Leaves Intel
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has issued the news, via a tweet, of Raja Koduri's departure from the silicon giant. Koduri, who currently sits as Executive Vice President and Chief Architect, will be leaving the company at the end of this month. This ends a five year long tenure at Intel, where he started as Chief Architect back in 2017. He intends to form a brand new startup operation that will focus on AI-generative software for computer games. His tweeted reply to Gelsinger reads: "Thank you Pat and Intel for many cherished memories and incredible learning over the past 5 years. Will be embarking on a new chapter in my life, doing a software startup as noted below. Will have more to share in coming weeks."
Intel has been undergoing numerous internal restructures, and Koduri's AXG Graphics Unit was dissolved late last year. He was the general manager of the graphic chips division prior to its split, and returned to his previous role as Chief Architect at Intel. The company stated at the time that Koduri's new focus would be on: "growing efforts across CPU, GPU and AI, and accelerating high-priority technical programmes."
Raja Koduri oversaw the development and release of Intel's Arc Alchemist GPU series - its own answer to rivals Nvidia and AMD in the much contested discrete graphic card market. The two companies have faced little competition outside of their own long running duel, only to have Intel pitch in at the 25-year mark with its A380, A750 and A770 models. The Arc project has gone through many technical setbacks and delays, and the resultant products launched to a mixed reception in October 2022. The company has been battling to boost the reputation of its Alchemist GPUs, in the face of rumors about a total cancellation of the undertaking. Numerous firmware and software fixes have been issued since Arc's debut, and aggressive price cuts have been deployed in recent weeks.
Koduri served stints at Apple and AMD prior to taking on executive positions at Intel. He was at the forefront of transforming AMD's Radeon Technology Group, with the development of its Polaris, Vega and Navi architectures. These core graphics technologies would boost AMD's fortunes, as their hardware was implemented into a wider range of PCs, Apple Macs and multiple generations of home gaming consoles.
Source:
Raja Koduri Tweet
Intel has been undergoing numerous internal restructures, and Koduri's AXG Graphics Unit was dissolved late last year. He was the general manager of the graphic chips division prior to its split, and returned to his previous role as Chief Architect at Intel. The company stated at the time that Koduri's new focus would be on: "growing efforts across CPU, GPU and AI, and accelerating high-priority technical programmes."
65 Comments on Raja Koduri, Executive Vice President & Chief Architect, Leaves Intel
1- Delay products by three years
2- Release with buggy software drivers
3- Discontinue development department and move head person to another department
4- Delay next version and replace with a + refresh
5- Head person leaves company
Success!!!
Using the, want to be closer to family again :laugh:
No point taking it to the realms of "ARC is doomed" or "Intel is on bankrupt course" kind of shenanigans.
He done his part, now moving to the next interesting thing. That's about it.
He's been counting down the days to this moment for the past five years. That's really all.
Hopefully the money saved on his payroll can be used for driver development. I'm still waiting for my Xe to not crash building basic SPIR-V shaders.
With ARC, I dismissed it at first until I recently started paying close attention to it in reviews, and its actually quite impressive for what it is. The ray tracing implementation is solid. It beats out a 6700xt for much less. This is only a solid foundation for Intel to continue. If they stop now it would be very shortsighted of them. Anyways, thats what Raja (and other other architects) do in general. They join, lead a project or program up to a run and maintain/growth phase, and then move on to kick start something new. Jim Keller did that with Zen, and Raja did the same with Navi at AMD.
Similarly this could mean that Arc is on track and Raja's involvement is not pivotal to the existing road map, so he's leaving before the next major architecture begins to take form. He's likely had direct input on what we will only know about in 4 years time.