Ryzen Architect Jim Keller Joins Intel

[dwade]

They have the fastest CPUs and now they'll only go even faster. AMD just can't reach #1 like their Radeon counterpart.

 

[sergionography]

AFAIK Jim Keller and Micheal Clark were team lead on ZEN from 2012 and Keller bailed around fall (?) 2015.

He left in october 2015 when zen architecture design was complete. An x86 architecture typically takes 3-4 years to design so 2012 to 2015 falls right in line there. Oct2015 until mar2017 was basically the period for tape out and validation and testing etc. Something that normally isn't reserved for senior engineers.

 

[riffraffy]

Maybe I'm wrong but I find it hard to believe individuals can make all that difference in companies that are so large and compartmentalize . It might be simply one team signing an overprice free agent to show there fans they are committed to winning .

 

[LemmingOverlord]

Jim yes, Raja no.

Agreed!

This is good news because it means Intel sees AMD as a threat again. I'm hoping that as a result, we see something surprising from Intel in a few years.

Could be, or simply Intel is adopting the "gun for hire" strategy that's infused in most tech companies today in the US. Instead of developing in-house and building long-lasting engineering teams, Intel is hiring out.

Let's wait and see the details about JK's attachment to Intel. Will it be like his previous work? Will it be a more permanent assignment?

 

[oxidized]

Exactly! Tables are turning now and Intel needs new arch to compete with upcoming Zen 2 on 7nm. We might see then AMD on the top until Jim's core is launched and polished, that means for at least 2-3 years from 2019 and on. And Intel fanboys cannot underestimate Ryzen cpus now, just because of Intel hiring the father of this arch to make a better one for them. That proves that they are a bit behind in ideas atm. Big news imho.

You really know how to work your imagination! Keller is a mercenary, he'll go to whoever offers more and to whoever teases him with interesting projects.

It's funny how like someone is acting all betrayed like the top player in his favorite football team just left to join the opposite part of the same town.

 

[sagatwarrior]

I always wondered , aren't these highly skilled architects that jump from company to company a massive threat to confidential corporate developments ?

I imagine that they have to sign a NDA when they are hired. And I'm certain if AMD smell even a whiff of trade secrets falling into Intel's hands, Intel will have a lawsuit on their hands before the day is over.

 

[sutyi]

On the IGP front Vega does well, I think a Vega 32 would be something plausible. But yes GCN is a general purpose part, it doesn't master anything today other than being a mining die unlike 2013s inception of it.


Jim Keller only stuck around for Ryzen that was a part of his contract so as soon as his contract was up he left. He is going to move around the industry wherever the money is at that point of time so obviously it doesn't matter where he goes

Vega does well on the IGP front because the only "competitors" are from Intel's integrated drawing abacus line up...

I don't want to downplay the graphical performance of Ryzen APUs, because they are great for the money, however there is no real higher performance IGPU alternative.

 

[HD64G]

You really know how to work your imagination! Keller is a mercenary, he'll go to whoever offers more and to whoever teases him with interesting projects.

It's funny how like someone is acting all betrayed like the top player in his favorite football team just left to join the opposite part of the same town.

Who objected to Keller's right to work wherever he feels better for him? And who imagined things?

To make my opinion even more clear on this news, I like competition in markets more than anything else. I dislike monopolies or anticonsumer practices. Keller's work designing Zen core was great and helped AMD regain market share and forced Intel bring higher value cpus in market for less money as a response. If Keller works on a next gen CPU arch, that means that Intel recognised that Zen core has the potential to surpass their arch and need to make something even better. I wonder what is bad in my opinion that forced you to comment aggressively? Fanboy triggered maybe or what?

 

[bug]

Who objected to Keller's right to work wherever he feels better for him? And who imagined things?

To make my opinion even more clear on this news, I like competition in markets more than anything else. I dislike monopolies or anticonsumer practices. Keller's work designing Zen core was great and helped AMD regain market share and forced Intel bring higher value cpus in market for less money as a response. If Keller works on a next gen CPU arch, that means that Intel recognised that Zen core has the potential to surpass their arch and need to make something even better. I wonder what is bad in my opinion that forced you to comment aggressively? Fanboy triggered maybe or what?

Probably your assumption that Intel hiring Jim Keller is a result of Zen.
We don't know that (though AMD fans seem to get off at the thought of Intel seeing AMD as a threat) and it's already been posted here that Jim was most likely hired to resuscitate Intel's SoC line.

 

[Konceptz]

Can't beat em? Buy EM! lol Expect to see intel return to its no competition status in the next few years.

 

[HD64G]

Probably your assumption that Intel hiring Jim Keller is a result of Zen.
We don't know that (though AMD fans seem to get off at the thought of Intel seeing AMD as a threat) and it's already been posted here that Jim was most likely hired to resuscitate Intel's SoC line.

If my assusmption is wrong and Keller is to work only for the SoC line, such will be my conclusion. Future news on this hiring and his work will prove me correct or wrong. Some of the reactions aren't so well thought out for sure though since my opinion cannot be invalidated yet. Opinions are free to be made if they aren't insulting and patience is a virtue after all eh?

 

[bug]

If my assusmption is wrong and Keller is to work only for the SoC line, such will be my conclusion. Future news on this hiring and his work will prove me correct or wrong. Some of the reactions aren't so well thought out for sure though since my opinion cannot be invalidated yet. Opinions are free to be made if they aren't insulting and patience is a virtue after all eh?

Fair enough. But it would be nice if people wouldn't present personal opinions/guesses as facts/reality. I'm probably guilty of that, too, even if I try not to present anything as fact when I don't have at least a source for that.

In the meantime, straight from the source: https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/jim-keller-joins-intel-lead-silicon-engineering/
It starts with SoC, but it goes to mention "the future of CPUs, GPUs, accelerators and other products for the data-centric computing era" further down. So yeah...

 

[oxidized]

Probably your assumption that Intel hiring Jim Keller is a result of Zen.
We don't know that (though AMD fans seem to get off at the thought of Intel seeing AMD as a threat) and it's already been posted here that Jim was most likely hired to resuscitate Intel's SoC line.

This

Fair enough. But it would be nice if people wouldn't present personal opinions/guesses as facts/reality. I'm probably guilty of that, too, even if I try not to present anything as fact when I don't have at least a source for that.

And this.

 

[HD64G]

We have many years ahead to see what Keller will help Intel make, so stay calm for now.

As for the facts that led me to my previous assumption are:

1) Zen core designed by Keller managed to greatly closed the gap to Intel's arch in a single gen.

2) Keller has done the same thing in the past with another AMD arch and helped them to even surpass Intel back then in its finest iteration later.

3) Intel's arch is stagnated for many years now with no signs at all that this is about to change soon enough to make them leapfrog AMD again if Zen 2 surpass them which isn't impossible imho (history to be repeated again maybe?).

The facts mentioned above seem enough for Intel to sign the cpu arch "magician" me thinks.

 

[oxidized]

We have many years ahead to see what Keller will help Intel make, so stay calm for now.

As for the facts that led me to my previous assumption are:

1) Zen core designed by Keller managed to greatly closed the gap to Intel's arch in a single gen.

2) Keller has done the same thing in the past with another AMD arch and helped them to even surpass Intel back then in its finest iteration later.

3) Intel's arch is stagnated for many years now with no signs at all that this is about to change soon enough to make them leapfrog AMD again if Zen 2 surpass them which isn't impossible imho (history to be repeated again maybe?).

The facts mentioned above seem enough for Intel to sign the cpu arch "magician" me thinks.

Hey man it's you who jumped the gun by saying "Intel must catch up with AMD so they hired Keller", i said next to nothing

Intel doesn't need Keller to leapfrog AMD, they just didn't do it in the past years because they didn't feel AMD could even begin to compete, but now it's a different story.
This Keller guy sounds like he'll only join something that thrills him personally and professionally, it happened twice with AMD, it happened with Tesla, and now it's happening with intel.

I wonder what is bad in my opinion that forced you to comment aggressively? Fanboy triggered maybe or what?

What the hell? I just noticed this, that part of the comment wasn't referred to you honestly, why would it? Also i'm no fanboy, never will be.

 

[bug]

We have many years ahead to see what Keller will help Intel make, so stay calm for now.

As for the facts that led me to my previous assumption are:

1) Zen core designed by Keller managed to greatly closed the gap to Intel's arch in a single gen.

2) Keller has done the same thing in the past with another AMD arch and helped them to even surpass Intel back then in its finest iteration later.

3) Intel's arch is stagnated for many years now with no signs at all that this is about to change soon enough to make them leapfrog AMD again if Zen 2 surpass them which isn't impossible imho (history to be repeated again maybe?).

The facts mentioned above seem enough for Intel to sign the cpu arch "magician" me thinks.

Well, adding to the facts list, last time Jim help AMD stick it to Intel, Intel didn't need Jim to keep afloat. They simply sifted through their potfolio and resurrected PIII/Pentium-M (which, in a way, is with us to this day).
SoCs on the other hand, is a growing market Intel has no say in. That's why I'm inclined to believe that will be Jim's task. But as you have pointed out, it will be years till we see how it pans out. And if I may add, even then we won't be sure how much of it was Jim's doing and how much Intel's in-house know-how.

Bottomline, let's wish Jim best of luck (this may be his last deed before retirement) and enjoy new product when they come out.

 

[S@LEM!]

AMD, it was nice to see again. RIP

 

[HD64G]

Hey man it's you who jumped the gun by saying "Intel must catch up with AMD so they hired Keller", i said next to nothing

Read again and don't overreact to logical assumptions without any valid argument at all then.

"Intel needs new arch to compete with upcoming Zen 2 on 7nm "

What the hell? I just noticed this, that part of the comment wasn't referred to you honestly, why would it? Also i'm no fanboy, never will be.

Now that you said that, my comment is invalid also. I wrote that because you quoted my comment and wrote: "It's funny how like someone is acting all betrayed like the top player in his favorite football team just left to join the opposite part of the same town."

Cheers!

 

[oxidized]

Read again and don't overreact to logical assumptions without any valid argument at all then.

"Intel needs new arch to compete with upcoming Zen 2 on 7nm "
Cheers!

That they do, but i'm sure they already have something ready, even if they recently delayed cannonlake. I seriously don't think AMD is capable of doing 7nm and Intel can't even do 10.

 

[HD64G]

Cost of the platform for Intel is much higher as it doesn't support next series of CPUs. AM4 will take any of the future Ryzen cpus until 2020 at least. Cannot compared them from this aspect at all for any cost conscious customer.

As for 7nm for next Ryzen, they will be made from TSMC or GF, not AMD themselves. And Intel is on the 14nm for 3-4 years now and have been out of their schedule for 10nm 3 times already since 2015. And last news are that they will bring to the market the first of their 10nm products (low power ones as usual) in 2019. So, it is possible enough that Ryzen gen 2 on 7nm will come out before Intel 7nm cpus.

 

[trparky]

AM4 will take any of the future Ryzen cpus until 2020 at least.

But the reality is who outside of some real hard-core people who just have to have the best hardware at all times upgrade every year? Not many. Most people buy a system, put it together, and keep it for a long period of time (sometimes as long as five years) and spread the cost to build it over that length of time. Yes, it is admirable the AMD allows you to use the same socket and chipset for multiple generations but I'd love to see the numbers on how many people actually do that; probably not as many as you think.

 

[HD64G]

But the reality is who outside of some real hard-core people who just have to have the best hardware at all times upgrade every year? Not many. Most people buy a system, put it together, and keep it for a long period of time (sometimes as long as five years) and spread the cost to build it over that length of time. Yes, it is admirable the AMD allows you to use the same socket and chipset for multiple generations but I'd love to see the numbers on how many people actually do that; probably not as many as you think.

Point is that anyone who got Ryzen last year or this year can keep their mobo and RAM for up to 8 years with just a CPU chance later down the path. Not all PC owners like being milked by Intel you know...

 

[trparky]

mobo and RAM for up to 8 years

I highly doubt eight years, maybe another three or four (at best). Eight years? No way. If they did that they would be missing out on not only the next generation of PCI Express but DDR5 as well which will help AMD Ryzen in the performance department by a very HUGE way.

 

[HD64G]

I highly doubt eight years, maybe another three or four (at best). Eight years? No way. If they did that they would be missing out on not only the next generation of PCI Express but DDR5 as well which will help AMD Ryzen in the performance department by a very HUGE way.

If someone gets the best CPU available and keeps it for 3-4 years, it is very easy to get and keep the best Ryzen available in 2021 (in 2020 AMD will introduce the last AM4 cpu series probably according to their roadmap, so until 2021-2 there will be no new arch) and keep it until 2025. So, from last year's Ryzen until then we have 8 years.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

just heard that Chris Hook recently joined the Raja team at Intel as well. Mr. Hook was AMD's Senior Marketing Director.