back to article Intel outside: Chip king Keller quits x86 giant immediately 'for personal reasons'

Jim Keller, Intel's senior veep of silicon engineering, has quit the microprocessor maker effective immediately. Keller, not so much an industry veteran but semiconductor royalty, left due to "personal reasons," Chipzilla confirmed in an announcement today. He will stay on hand as a consultant for the next six months, we note …

  1. guyr

    Smart but restless

    Jim Keller is without doubt a very smart man, given his stints at every major CPU manufacturer. But he doesn't appear to like to stay in one place for very long. Given how complex the task is, I'm a little surprised the big names - Intel, AMD - are willing to make the investment. Keller joined Intel in April 2018, meaning he's been there a little over 2 years. How quickly can anyone absorb an architecture with billions of transistors to start making significant contributions? I worked in software development, not hardware, and we would allow new people a couple months to get familiar with the architecture of any project before we expected major independent work.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Smart but restless

      Some people have a feel for the thing as a hole. I doubt that anyone who has a comprehensive understanding of one CPU architecture would have much difficulty getting their head round another. There isn't a lot new in the last few decades despite what marketing would like you to believe.

    2. DS999 Silver badge

      Re: Smart but restless

      He would be in a lead designer type of position. He doesn't need to understand what every transistor is doing, he'd be doing high level design. Does the lead architect on a skyscraper need to care about details like how the plumbing pipes are routed behind the walls of the women's bathroom on the 34th floor, or what material and diameter of ductwork is needed for the cabling used by the TV antennas on the roof?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Smart but restless

        " Does the lead architect on a skyscraper need to care about details [...]"

        Big building projects often have overruns because the architect didn't think about some interior details - and work-rounds have to be improvised. A TV programme a while back followed the construction of a skyscraper - and there were several cases of sudden stops as people scratched their heads about an incompatibility.

  2. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Non-compete?

    So will they be suing him for non-compete? Oh wait, California is smart enough to outlaw that shit. That's why they have Silicon Valley and no-one else does.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Non-compete?

      Ironically this is one case where a non-compete would be reasonable.

      Say Intel intend to launch a multi $bn new chip line it would make sense for a competitor to pay their chief chip designer $10M/year to come and work for you - even if they did nothing.

      Imagine if Nokia had hired away Mr Ives a year before the iPhone launch

  3. RAMstein

    Back to Apple?

    Any chance of him showing up at Apple again to make ARM chips for Macs?

    1. Bronek Kozicki

      Re: Back to Apple?

      .... or perhaps NUVIA, Inc. ?

    2. DS999 Silver badge

      Re: Back to Apple?

      The chips for the Mac have already been designed - if they announce next week at WWDC that means they will be supplying ARM Macs to developers pretty soon so the wafers containing the chips that will go in them have probably already come off the line at TSMC or soon will.

      Nuvia is a real possibility, they seem to have attracted other former Apple talent. It will be interesting to see what they come up with, whether or not Keller ends up involved.

  4. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    "Effective immediately"

    So no notice period.

    Just going.

    Now.

    Whyever would they want to sever all ties with him so quickly?

    Me, I'm out the door. Because I can.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A feature of any industry is the way that some senior people seem to move in a charmed circle from one company to the next.

    For example (as seen several times in the last 50 years). A new senior person is recruited from a competitor. They then throw away the company's current mildly successful strategy - and promote their own pet one as executed in the last company. They also bring in their old lieutenants - who gradually bring in their old underlings. The recursion goes down the chain - stopping short of the actual staff at the coalface.

    After a couple of years the new strategy isn't working - which apparently it didn't in the previous companies either. As the board don't want to admit their mistake in public - a golden handshake - and after a suitable period of gardening leave a move to another company touting the same pet strategy. Eventually the lieutenants will follow - while the company recruits another person from the charmed circle who has a pet strategy.

    1. Timbo

      "After a couple of years the new strategy isn't working - which apparently it didn't in the previous companies either. As the board don't want to admit their mistake in public - a golden handshake - and after a suitable period of gardening leave a move to another company touting the same pet strategy. Eventually the lieutenants will follow - while the company recruits another person from the charmed circle who has a pet strategy."

      This sort of employment strategy is also prevalent in other areas - such as (Association) Football. There are countless Premier (and other league) managers who are on a constant merry-go-round with their own set of coaching staff and "back-room physios" being appointed to certain clubs and within months/a couple of years they move on...due to their apparent failure to win enough games.

      And I've even seen this in another industry, where a success-proven "sales rep" would be enticed to switch firms - and they would then recruit some of their former colleagues to the new company...they would stay a few years and then one of them would be enticed somewhere else...and so it goes on.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aaaaaand... 2 months later... the investors con-call turned into a disaster movie

    https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/27/intel_engineering_boss_out/ (and others related)

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