AMD hires away noted Apple chip designer Jim Keller

Jim Keller, a veteran chip designer who started with Digital Equipment Corporation's <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/263908==http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Alpha" rel='nofollow'>Alpha processor</a> before eventually starting P.A. Semi and subsequently joining Apple, has left the company to join Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Keller will help lead the company in an effort to develop lower-power but more-efficient processors based on the ARM design, similar to the work he did with P.A. Semi and Apple. AMD recently noted it was now licensing ARM's processor designs.<br><br>Keller was the founder of <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/263909==http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/08/04/23/apple.buys.pa.semi/" rel='nofollow'>P.A. Semi</a>, which was purchased by Apple and brought in-house in 2008 for $278 million. Since then, Keller has helped Apple improve battery life on its mobile devices and helped launch Apple's <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/263910==http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/01/27/apple.a4.made.by.pa.semi.integrates.gpu/" rel='nofollow'>own line of processors</a> (also based on ARM Cortex designs). Ironically, Keller will be working under a former Apple colleague at AMD -- Mark Papermaster, lured to Apple from IBM in <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/263911==http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/01/27/papermaster.going.to.apple/" rel='nofollow'>a contentious hire</a> in 2009 but let go a little over <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/263912==http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/08/08/papermaster.said.to.have.lost.jobs.favor/" rel='nofollow'>a year later</a> after he didn't fit in with he executive team there. Papermaster is now AMD's chief technology officer.

AMD has explained the move to licensing Cortex-A5 designs as being necessary to quickly get security and lower-power features into its chips, but hiring Keller suggests that AMD may repeat Apple's success and devote resources to getting back into a serious rivalry with Intel. The latter company took considerable time to get up to speed on low-power chips for desktop and mobile devices but has made great progress in recent years. However, Intel's server lineup is still seen as power-hungry compared to rivals ranging from AMD to Marvel and the company could be vulnerable to a faster-moving rival with the shift to energy-efficient chips across all computing product lines.

Keller has worked for AMD in the past, where he contributed to their initial 64-bit chips such as the Opteron and Athlon. Apple continues to utilize P.A. Semi engineers and its own staff in a chip engineering facility in Texas. Samsung recently opened its own chip factory there, in part to assist Apple with production on its own <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/263913==http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/09/15/pa.semi.preps.iphone.arm/" rel='nofollow'>next-generation silicon</a>.

Don't ignore this stock.... its still pretty low right now, barely over $4 USD... I can't really see this going any lower for long.

I've been on AMD since $6.50. I'm just gonna close my eyes and come back in a year or two.

Very undervalued. I'd buy more but I don't trust the market's constant convulsions.

@blahblahbber

Try $2.00. and yes, it can get lower.

Maybe that is a 2008 figure, AMD still has debt issues, along with the guerrilla tactics of Intel. Those have posed problems for quite some time. I'd say nVidia n AMD will have to team up to outdo Intel once their graphics n CPU packages reach SoC status, comparatively speaking of course. No manufacture likes Intel for a reason, they are dirty industry players. Intels focus is on ARMH for now... And AMD n ARM along with other companies have formed an alliance to battle INTEL. They know whats coming, and will have to be prepared for it. Ironic how INTEL needs AMD, yet I am not certain if AMD needs Intel... in regard to patents; although I am aware of cross-licensing. I've seen AMD since NexGen, P100 introduction, back when co-processor upgrades were off-the-shelf. 100MHz bus was the marketing angle for NexGen... and that is when they had reps in stores. Good ol' days!