AMD's gaming executive leaves, joins NVIDIA

jaydip · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:04 am

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/24973/amd ... index.html
"All three next-gen consoles: Nintendo's Wii U, Microsoft's Xbox Next/720 (or whatever they end up calling it) and Sony's PlayStation 4 will all sport AMD GPUs, CPUs or APUs, or a mixture. This is thanks to Bob Feldstein, who up until just recently worked for AMD."

One thing surprises me for sure,most of the time executives are barred from joining their competitors for at least six months.What happened in this case?

apoppin · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:15 am

i love the way the Wall Street Journal puts it

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 15177.html

Quote:

he executive overseeing Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s (AMD) relationship with videogame-console makers has left the company to join rival Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), taking with him years of experience in the competitive field.

Bob Feldstein, who joined AMD when the company acquired graphics-chip maker ATI in 2006, has taken on the role of vice president of technology licensing at Nvidia. He most recently served as AMD's corporate vice president of business development and also led the company's Boston Design Center, which focuses on design engineering for AMD's various chips.

Mr. Feldstein's departure is the latest loss for AMD, which has replaced much of its top management in recent months. The company named Rory Read, former president at PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd. (LNVGY, 0992.HK), as its CEO about a year ago, tasking him with helping lead a turnaround at the struggling chip maker.

Since that time, Mr. Read has been building out AMD's leadership with executives such Lisa Su, who previously worked at Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. (FSL) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), and Mark Papermaster, who served as an executive at companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and Apple Inc. (AAPL).

Mr. Feldstein has been considered instrumental in helping AMD expand into new markets and cultivating AMD's relationship with game console makers such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). AMD has been successful in winning designs away from Nvidia, including the next-generation Sony Corp. (SNE) PlayStation, according to people familiar with the matter.

. . .

Mr. Feldstein, reached via email, said he started at Nvidia on July 16. AMD said his last day at the company was July 13 and that Mr. Feldstein left the company on "amicable terms."

"During his time with AMD, Bob built a model that positioned our graphics [intellectual property] and [chip] capabilities in new market segments," AMD spokesman Andrew Fox said, adding it was Mr. Feldstein's decision to leave the company.

Arun Iyengar will now oversee the game console business along with his other duties, Mr. Fox said, and will work to expand AMD's chips into broader markets. Mr. Iyengar last month was named corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's newly-created embedded business unit.

Meanwhile, the Boston Design Center is now being led by Jim Farrell, an AMD senior design fellow. Mr. Farrell is an AMD veteran who is also responsible for setting the technical direction for AMD's silicon technology, the company said.

grstanford · **Joined:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:19 am **Posts:** 5007

This may cause a rethink at Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

Do they really want to be stuck using chips from a GPU maker who no longer employees the engineers that designed them? What happens if there is an issue with the chips?

The nextgen consoles may not be an AMD cleansweep afterall (and for anyone who wants to argue design lead times, I have just one thing to say to you: "Playstation 3 RSX").

SickBeast · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:57 pm **Posts:** 4001

Wow, that's a huge loss for AMD. That said, it's not for another 6+ years that we'll see a newer batch of consoles that AMD is not a part of.

apoppin · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:28 am

SickBeast wrote:

it's not for another 6+ years that we'll see a newer batch of consoles that AMD is not a part of.

That is exactly what i am thinking and why AMD did not mind seeing him leave. They may be able to train his successor to completely replace him for much less money in that timeframe. And Nvidia is cash rich and forward-looking as usual.
(hamster)

grstanford · **Joined:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:19 am **Posts:** 5007

You never know, there is still time enough for nvidia to sneak into the up-coming gen. I reckon a GTX640 or a GTX 560 stripped of unnecessary compute capability (and able to be made in large quantities on 40 nm) would work very nicely indeed in the next consoles.

And nvidia being nvidia, you just know they will try this if they possibly can. They are not one to pass up any decent opportunity that comes knocking.

apoppin · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:55 am

i thought all of the leaked information pointing to AMD being in all of the next gen consoles
- isn't it all but confirmed that the HD 7770 will be used to power the NextBox?
:scratch:

grstanford · **Joined:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:19 am **Posts:** 5007

Yes, that is true, but, plans can change.

SickBeast · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:57 pm **Posts:** 4001

grstanford wrote:

Yes, that is true, but, plans can change.

It's kind of late in the game for them to change that now. There are already developers working on games for the new consoles. They would have a fit if Sony/MS changed the GPU at this point.

grstanford · **Joined:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:19 am **Posts:** 5007

Playstation 3. nvidia RSX. Added last minute. PS3 wasn't even going to have a GPU as we understand them, rather a customized second Cell CPU to do graphics on, hard to get a larger upheaval than that one, yet they managed just fine.
nintendo would probably be the least likely to change. For Microsoft and Sony I doubt it would complicate things much given one uses a customized DirectX and the other OpenGL to control the GPU's.

AMD's gaming executive leaves, joins NVIDIA

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