Era nell'aria da qualche tempo ed è stato finalmente confermato da AMD, l'ex capo del Radeon Technology Group, Raja Koduri, ha definitivamente abbandonato la sua carica con un caloroso memorandum, riportato in esclusiva da Hexus.net.
Questa decisione arriva dopo un periodo di aspettativa, preso poco dopo il lancio delle GPU Vega, che aveva già al tempo sollevato alcune perplessità circa lo stato reale dei rapporti tra il chipmaker di Sunnyvale ed il suo Chief Architect.
La lettera pubblicata è ovviamente molto elegante e professionale, lasciando ben poco a noi per ricostruire i veri motivi della rottura, ma è certo che in tutto questo abbiano giocato un ruolo fondamentale la brutta performance di Vega ed i vari problemi derivati, peraltro piuttosto inattesi considerando la particolare esperienza di Koduri.
"To my AMD family,
Forty is a significant number in history. It is a number representing transition, testing and change. I have just spent forty days away from the office going through such a transition. It was an important time with my family, and it also offered me a rare space for reflection. During this time I have come to the extremely difficult conclusion that it is time for me to leave RTG and AMD.
I have no question in my mind that RTG, and AMD, are marching firmly in the right direction as high-performance computing becomes ever-more-important in every aspect of our lives. I believe wholeheartedly in what we are doing with Vega, Navi and beyond, and I am incredibly proud of how far we have come and where we are going. The whole industry has stood up and taken notice of what we are doing. As I think about how computing will evolve, I feel more and more that I want to pursue my passion beyond hardware and explore driving broader solutions.
I want to thank Lisa and the AET for enabling me to pursue my passion during the last four years at AMD, and especially the last two years with RTG. Lisa has my utmost respect for exhibiting the courage to enable me with RTG, for believing in me and for going out of her way to support me. I would also like to call out Mark Papermaster who brought me into AMD, for his huge passion for technology and for his relentless support through many difficult phases. And of course, I want to thank each and every one of my direct staff and my indirect staff who have worked so hard with me to build what we have now got. I am very proud of the strong leaders we have and I'm fully confident that they can execute on the compelling roadmap ahead.Â
I will continue to be an ardent fan and user of AMD technologies for both personal and professional use.
As I mentioned, leaving AMD and RTG has been an extremely difficult decision for me. But I felt it is the right one for me personally at this point. Time will tell. I will be following with great interest the progress you will make over the next several years.
On a final note, I have asked a lot of you in the last two years. You've always delivered. You've made me successful both personally and professionally, for which I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I have these final requests from you as I leave:
. Stay focused on the roadmap!
. Deliver on your commitments!
. Continue the culture of Passion, Persistence and Play!
. Make AMD proud!
. Make me proud!
Yours,
Raja"
A questo punto, però, si aprono interessanti spiragli sul futuro di Raja il quale sarebbe, secondo i più maliziosi, in rotta con AMD per fare il suo ingresso nelle file dell'eterno avversario Intel che se la ride perché ha un forte bisogno di migliorare la propria posizione nel settore grafico per sostenere il proprio market share.
Addirittura, la notizia dell'addio arriva in contemporanea con le prime informazioni sul Core-H, ovvero la soluzione ibrida Intel Core - AMD Vega sulla quale si rumoreggia da un po', frutto di un accordo tra i due competitor che potrebbe rendere particolarmente preziosa l'esperienza di Koduri per Santa Clara
Nel frattempo, Lisa Su, CEO di AMD, ha avocato a sé la carica ad interim di responsabile RTG nella speranza di trovare a breve un degno successore ...
