Intel Scores Another Top AMD Exec - Chris Hook Confirmed to Join Company

[btarunr]

Chris Hook, the head of marketing at AMD Radeon Technologies Group (RTG), who resigned from AMD a few weeks ago, joined Intel. Hook will hold the position of head of discrete graphics marketing, confirming rumors of Intel making heavy investments into the development of a discrete GPU that can double up as a super-scalar processor, enabling the company to compete with NVIDIA and AMD for slices of the AI and blockchain computing gold-rush, with PC gaming as a fallback market. Jim Keller, Raja Koduri, and Chris Hook make up key names from AMD to have joined Intel in recent times. Keller was the lead architect of AMD "Zen," who after a brief stint at Tesla, joined Intel earlier this month.



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[Liviu Cojocaru]

Is this a trend...everybody leaving AMD for Intel?! I think things are better at Intel, at least the money

 

[dj-electric]

What a slow and interesting swallow of forces by Intel.

That's a lesson on how to keep duopoly while maintaining the bigger forces.

 

[INSTG8R]

Obviously AMD was doing something right if Intel keeps scooping up their former employees.

 

[LiveOrDie]

I looked at the photo and thought he had a bad wig on lol.

 

[dj-electric]

Obviously AMD was doing something right if Intel keeps scooping up their former employees.

Something tells me the leave from AMD came after Intel's interest. Also, it seems like forces within Intel may have an impact.
I won't be surprised if Raja wanted this.

 

[renosablast]

Didn't any of these people have "non-compete" clauses in their employment agreements with AMD?

 

[dj-electric]

First thing in this guy's twitter bio:
"Intel discrete graphics guy "

C'mon. At least keep it more subtle. lol.

 

[TristanX]

Lisa Su already quietly negotiating with Intel job agents

 

[Shamalamadingdong]

Didn't any of these people have "non-compete" clauses in their employment agreements with AMD?

Those aren't legally valid.

 

[RejZoR]

Those aren't legally valid.

If they aren't, why they have to sign them? If they had merit, anyone could say fuck that the moment someone hands them over. But we know that ain't that simple.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Lisa Su already quietly negotiating with Intel job agents

I heard winnie the pooh was on board too.

Those aren't legally valid.

source?

 

[MAXLD]

Is this a trend...everybody leaving AMD for Intel?! I think things are better at Intel, at least the money

Can't blame them... working at a company strangled with a budget allocation to both paychecks and (specially) R&D, limiting your work limits, and then not resulting in stellar products... makes them hope for something better for their careers. Giant Intel wanting people with already some expertise to attack specific sub-market sections (new for Intel), then this is like hitting the jackpot for those ex-AMD dudes. (*Cue the Unnlimited Powweeeerr" Palpatine meme) Not many hesitations there, unfortunately.
While one can argue that working at AMD with such budget limits is a much bigger challenge, let's not kid ourselves, a bigger paycheck, a bigger company/budget, a bigger step in their careers is obviously what top-exec workers aim for.
(Not counting Keller in this, since he's been a tech wanderer for a long time, so for him this is just another bus stop on his "challenge my mind" odyssey.)

The only way AMD can compete against this kind of $tuff is a, good old rumour, merge with another giant company (like Samsung or whatnot). Until then, they'll have to heroically keep fighting the eternal uneven war (against two giants at the same time (Intel and nVidia)). Considering what they can achieve occasionally (like Athlon, and some GPUs series), it's a massive luck that we still can sometimes make a good case of choosing AMD (hope we can do it even more often on years to come)... plus all the new tech standards and advancements they're always contributing to (multi-core cpus, 64bit, low level API, etc...).

 

[john_]

Intel should create a new department and name it "AMD Inside".

 

[Dave65]

This is getting crazy, they must be offering some grand style BIG BUCKS to leave AMD.

 

[ssdpro]

This is getting crazy, they must be offering some grand style BIG BUCKS to leave AMD.

Or they offer job security and endless resources for development.

 

[wiyosaya]

Those aren't legally valid.

Even if they are not legally valid, it does not give free-reign to a former employee to bring the former company's IP to their current position in another company.

Something tells me the leave from AMD came after Intel's interest. Also, it seems like forces within Intel may have an impact.
I won't be surprised if Raja wanted this.

And AMD could have chosen, or perhaps did choose, to counter-offer in all three cases. I suspect there is more going on behind the scenes that we do not see. Perhaps they were on Su's list for one reason or another. Su is technically astute - so maybe there was some friction that these three felt they could not tolerate.

 

[Countryside]

The beauty in the release of the ryzen cpus wich changed the market totally and made Intel to get off their arse while producing same cpus

with different numbers out of it game the coffe lakes that are freaking great cpus.

Change is good i wish them good luck at Intel and for AMD who has to bring new people abord i hope that it will bring more innovation.

 

[Supercrit]

Intel's next CPU will probably be something more than the usual 3% better in here and 4% better in there.

 

[Countryside]

Intel's next CPU will probably be something more than the usual 3% better in here and 4% better in there.

I believe the new performance will be as beautiful as Kevin Durnats 3 pointers.

 

[kastriot]

Who cares really, it's all about profit, loyality is just a word in human vocabulary representing something even more sparse than "empty space" in atoms.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

Head of AMD marketing. lol That should be a red flag to Intel not a green one.

 

[HD64G]

Most possibly a Raja proposal. Imho not a very succesful guy for AMD's marketing at least for the last few years. Childish campaigns more than not.

 

[lolsop]

Guys you are missing the bigger picture.
Intel is serious about discrete graphics and hiring talented people.
NV shits their pants already and comes up with GPP to make sure Intel graphics don't get any traction.

 

[R-T-B]

Didn't any of these people have "non-compete" clauses in their employment agreements with AMD?

Not legal in California.

If they aren't, why they have to sign them? If they had merit, anyone could say fuck that the moment someone hands them over. But we know that ain't that simple.

Because they ARE valid outside California.